Install Officecli

Install OfficeCLI

Installs the OfficeCLI single binary (Apache-2.0, pure-format, no Microsoft Office required, cross-platform) and registers it as a Goose MCP server. After this, the agent can create/read/edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files — with real formula evaluation, template merge, a validation linter, and PNG/HTML rendering.

Safety rule (do not skip): never curl | bash a release blindly. Download the pinned release binary, verify it against the published SHA256SUMS, and only then run it. The checksum step is the point of this skill.

Steps

Pinned version (bump deliberately; always re-verify the checksum):

VER="v1.0.104"
REPO="iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI"

# 1. Detect platform → release asset name
os=$(uname -s); arch=$(uname -m)
case "$os/$arch" in
  Darwin/arm64) asset="officecli-mac-arm64" ;;
  Darwin/x86_64) asset="officecli-mac-x64" ;;
  Linux/x86_64|Linux/amd64) asset="officecli-linux-x64" ;;
  Linux/aarch64|Linux/arm64) asset="officecli-linux-arm64" ;;
  *) echo "Unsupported platform $os/$arch — see $REPO/releases"; exit 1 ;;
esac

# 2. Download the binary + the checksums file
dir=$(mktemp -d); cd "$dir"
base="https://github.com/$REPO/releases/download/$VER"
curl -fsSL -o officecli "$base/$asset"
curl -fsSL -o SHA256SUMS "$base/SHA256SUMS"

# 3. VERIFY checksum — abort if it doesn't match
want=$(grep " $asset\$" SHA256SUMS | awk '{print $1}')
got=$(shasum -a 256 officecli | awk '{print $1}')
[ -n "$want" ] && [ "$want" = "$got" ] || { echo "CHECKSUM MISMATCH — aborting (want=$want got=$got)"; exit 1; }
echo "checksum ok: $got"

# 4. Install onto PATH
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
mv officecli "$HOME/.local/bin/officecli"
chmod +x "$HOME/.local/bin/officecli"
[ "$os" = "Darwin" ] && xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$HOME/.local/bin/officecli" 2>/dev/null || true

# 5. Verify it runs
"$HOME/.local/bin/officecli" --version

If ~/.local/bin is not on PATH, add it (e.g. append export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" to the shell profile) so Goose's spawned MCP process can find it.

Register as a Goose MCP server

OfficeCLI ships an MCP stdio server (officecli mcp). Goose has no mcp add for it, so add the extension to ~/.config/goose/config.yaml under extensions: (mirror how the other stdio extensions there are written — do not duplicate an existing entry):

  office-docs:
    enabled: true
    type: stdio
    cmd: officecli          # or the absolute ~/.local/bin/officecli if not on PATH
    args: ["mcp"]
    timeout: 60
    name: office-docs

Restart Goose (or reload extensions) so it picks up the new server. The tool appears as a single officecli gateway tool with a command enum (create/view/get/set/add/validate/batch/merge/ load_skill/…) — call officecli with command: help, format: xlsx to see the element schema.

Verify end-to-end

t=$(mktemp -d)
officecli create "$t/x.xlsx" --force
printf 'Item,Amount\nA,100\nB,250\n' > "$t/d.csv"
officecli import "$t/x.xlsx" /Sheet1 "$t/d.csv" --header
officecli set "$t/x.xlsx" /Sheet1/B4 --prop formula="SUM(B2:B3)"
officecli view "$t/x.xlsx" text   # B4 should show 350 — formula evaluated, no Excel needed

If that prints 350, OfficeCLI is working. For nicer output, the agent can call officecli command: load_skill (excel / word / pptx / financial-model / pitch-deck) to pull in OfficeCLI's own quality guidance before generating a document.

Notes

• Pure-format via bundled libraries — works on a headless machine with no Office installed.
• The binary is ~32 MB; install once per machine.
• To update: bump VER, re-run (the checksum step re-verifies the new release).
• Uninstall: rm ~/.local/bin/officecli and remove the office-docs block from config.yaml.