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Excel Processor

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excel-processor

Excel Processor is an Agent Skill for documents published in the AIDotNet/OpenCowork repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.

Read, write, analyze, and format Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx). Use when the user needs to create Excel files, extract data from spreadsheets, apply formulas, format cells, or generate Excel reports from data. Supports multiple sheets, charts, and conditional formatting.

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How to use this skill

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  2. Copy and paste the prompt below.
  3. Review files and risks before approving any action.
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Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/AIDotNet/OpenCowork/blob/HEAD/resources/skills/excel-processor/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/excel-processor, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.

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Excel Processor

Read, write, analyze, and format Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx) using Python.

When to use this skill

  • User asks to create an Excel spreadsheet
  • User wants to read or extract data from an .xlsx file
  • User needs to add formulas, formatting, or charts to a spreadsheet
  • User wants to convert CSV/JSON data into a formatted Excel file
  • User needs Excel report generation with multiple sheets

Scripts overview

ScriptPurposeDependencies
excel_tool.pyRead, write, format, and analyze Excel filesopenpyxl

Steps

1. Install dependencies (first time only)

pip install openpyxl

CRITICAL — Dependency Error Recovery: If the script fails with an ImportError, install the missing dependency using the command above, then re-run the EXACT SAME script command that failed.

2. Read an Excel file

python scripts/excel_tool.py read "INPUT.xlsx"

Options:

  • --sheet SHEET_NAME — Read a specific sheet (default: active sheet)
  • --format json — Output as JSON instead of table
  • --format csv — Output as CSV
  • --save OUTPUT_PATH — Save output to file

3. Create a new Excel file from CSV

python scripts/excel_tool.py create "OUTPUT.xlsx" --from-csv "DATA.csv"

Options:

  • --from-csv PATH — Import data from CSV file
  • --from-json PATH — Import data from JSON file
  • --sheet SHEET_NAME — Set the sheet name (default: Sheet1)
  • --title TITLE — Add a title row with merged cells
  • --auto-width — Auto-adjust column widths to fit content
  • --header-style — Apply bold + colored header row

4. Add a sheet to existing workbook

python scripts/excel_tool.py add-sheet "EXISTING.xlsx" --sheet "NewSheet" --from-csv "DATA.csv"

5. Apply formatting

python scripts/excel_tool.py format "FILE.xlsx" --auto-width --header-style --freeze-header

Options:

  • --auto-width — Auto-fit column widths
  • --header-style — Bold white text on blue background for header
  • --freeze-header — Freeze the first row
  • --number-format COLS FORMAT — Apply number format (e.g., --number-format "C,D" "#,##0.00")

6. Analyze / summarize

python scripts/excel_tool.py analyze "FILE.xlsx"

Shows: sheet names, row/column counts, column types, basic stats for numeric columns.

7. Add formulas

python scripts/excel_tool.py formula "FILE.xlsx" --cell "E2" --formula "=SUM(B2:D2)"
python scripts/excel_tool.py formula "FILE.xlsx" --column "E" --formula "=SUM(B{row}:D{row})" --start-row 2 --end-row 100

Common workflows

CSV to formatted Excel report

  1. excel_tool.py create "report.xlsx" --from-csv "data.csv" --title "Monthly Report" --auto-width --header-style --freeze-header

Multi-sheet workbook

  1. excel_tool.py create "workbook.xlsx" --from-csv "sales.csv" --sheet "Sales"
  2. excel_tool.py add-sheet "workbook.xlsx" --sheet "Expenses" --from-csv "expenses.csv"

Quick data inspection

  1. excel_tool.py analyze "data.xlsx" — overview
  2. excel_tool.py read "data.xlsx" --sheet "Sheet1" — view contents

Edge cases

  • Large files (100MB+): openpyxl loads into memory. Use --read-only mode for very large files.
  • Formulas: When reading, formulas show the formula text, not computed values (unless cached).
  • Macros (.xlsm): Not supported. Use .xlsx format only.
  • Password-protected files: Not supported by openpyxl.
  • Date formats: Dates are auto-detected. Use explicit format if ambiguous.

Scripts