Officecli XLSX

OfficeCLI XLSX Skill

BEFORE YOU START (CRITICAL)

If officecli is not installed:

macOS / Linux

if ! command -v officecli >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.sh | bash
fi

Windows (PowerShell)

if (-not (Get-Command officecli -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
    irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.ps1 | iex
}

Verify: officecli --version

If officecli is still not found after first install, open a new terminal and run the verify command again.

Quick Reference

Execution Model

Run commands one at a time. Do not write all commands into a shell script and execute it as a single block.

OfficeCLI is incremental: every add, set, and remove immediately modifies the file and returns output. Use this to catch errors early:

1. One command at a time, then read the output. Check the exit code before proceeding.
2. Non-zero exit = stop and fix immediately. Do not continue building on a broken state.
3. Verify after structural operations. After adding a sheet, chart, pivot table, or named range, run get or validate before building on top of it.

Running a 50-command script all at once means the first error cascades silently through every subsequent command. Running incrementally means the failure context is immediate and local — fix it and move on.

Reading & Analyzing

Text Extraction

officecli view data.xlsx text
officecli view data.xlsx text --start 1 --end 50 --cols A,B,C

Plain text dump, tab-separated per row, with [/Sheet1/row[N]] prefixes. Flags: --mode, --start N, --end N, --max-lines N, --cols A,B,C.

Structure Overview

officecli view data.xlsx outline

Sheets with row/column counts and formula counts per sheet.

Detailed Inspection

officecli view data.xlsx annotated

Cell values with type/formula annotations, warnings for errors and empty cells.

Statistics

officecli view data.xlsx stats

Summary statistics across all sheets.

Issue Detection

officecli view data.xlsx issues

Empty sheets, broken formulas, missing references.

Element Inspection

# Workbook root (lists all sheets, doc properties)
officecli get data.xlsx /

# Sheet overview (freeze, autoFilter, zoom, tabColor)
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1"

# Single cell (value, type, formula, font, fill, borders, numFmt)
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/A1"

# Cell range
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/A1:D10"

# Row properties
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/row[1]"

# Column properties
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/col[A]"

# Chart
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/chart[1]"

# Table (ListObject)
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/table[1]"

# Data validation rule
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/validation[1]"

# Conditional formatting rule
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/cf[1]"

# Comment
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/comment[1]"

# Named range
officecli get data.xlsx "/namedrange[1]"

Add --depth N to expand children, --json for structured output. Excel-native notation also supported: Sheet1!A1, Sheet1!A1:D10.

CSS-like Queries

# Cells with formulas
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:has(formula)'

# Cells containing text
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("Revenue")'

# Empty cells
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:empty'

# Cells by type
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell[type=Number]'

# Cells by formatting
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell[font.bold=true]'

# Column B non-zero
officecli query data.xlsx 'B[value!=0]'

# Sheet-scoped
officecli query data.xlsx 'Sheet1!cell[value="100"]'

# Find all charts
officecli query data.xlsx 'chart'

# Find all tables
officecli query data.xlsx 'table'

# Find all pivot tables
officecli query data.xlsx 'pivottable'

Operators: =, !=, ~= (contains), >=, <=, [attr] (exists).

Design Principles

Professional spreadsheets need clear structure, correct formulas, and intentional formatting.

Use Formulas, Not Hardcoded Values (MANDATORY)

This is the single most important principle. The spreadsheet must remain dynamic -- when source data changes, formulas recalculate automatically. Hardcoded values break this contract.

# WRONG -- hardcoded calculation result
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/B10" --prop value=5000

# CORRECT -- let Excel calculate
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/B10" --prop formula="SUM(B2:B9)"

Financial Model Color Coding

These are industry-standard financial modeling conventions. Apply when building financial models. For non-financial workbooks, use project-appropriate styling.

Number Format Strings

Shell quoting: Number formats containing $ must use single quotes ('$#,##0') or heredoc in batch mode. Double quotes cause shell variable expansion.

Column Width and Row Height

# Set column width (character units, ~1 char = 7px)
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/col[A]" --prop width=15
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/col[B]" --prop width=12

# Set row height (points)
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/row[1]" --prop height=20

# Hide column/row
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/col[D]" --prop hidden=true
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1/row[5]" --prop hidden=true

There is no auto-fit. Set column widths explicitly. Common widths: labels=20-25, numbers=12-15, dates=12, short codes=8-10.

Freeze Panes

# Freeze first row (headers)
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1" --prop freeze=A2

# Freeze first column and first row
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1" --prop freeze=B2

Print Area

# Set print area on a sheet
officecli set data.xlsx "/Sheet1" --prop printArea="A1:F20"

Data Validation for Input Cells

# Dropdown list
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type validation --prop sqref="C2:C100" --prop type=list --prop formula1="Yes,No,Maybe" --prop showError=true --prop errorTitle="Invalid" --prop error="Select from list"

# Number range
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type validation --prop sqref="D2:D100" --prop type=decimal --prop operator=between --prop formula1=0 --prop formula2=100 --prop showError=true --prop error="Enter 0-100"

Always add data validation on input cells in financial models and trackers. It prevents data entry errors.

Print Area and Page Setup

For print-ready workbooks, set appropriate column widths and row heights. Consider which sheets need headers repeated on each page.

QA (Required)

Assume there are problems. Your job is to find them.

Your first spreadsheet build is almost never correct. Approach QA as a bug hunt, not a confirmation step. If you found zero issues on first inspection, you were not looking hard enough.

Content QA

# Extract text, check for missing data
officecli view data.xlsx text

# Check structure
officecli view data.xlsx outline

# Check for issues (broken formulas, missing refs, empty sheets)
officecli view data.xlsx issues

# Verify formulas exist where expected
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:has(formula)'

# Check for formula errors in cell values
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("#REF!")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("#DIV/0!")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("#VALUE!")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("#NAME?")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("#N/A")'

When editing templates, check for leftover placeholders:

officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("{{")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("xxxx")'
officecli query data.xlsx 'cell:contains("placeholder")'

Formula Verification Checklist

• Test 2-3 sample cell references: verify they pull correct values
• Column mapping: confirm cell references point to intended columns
• Row offsets: check formula ranges include all data rows
• Division by zero: verify denominators are non-zero or wrapped in IFERROR
• Cross-sheet references: use correct Sheet1!A1 format
• Cross-sheet formula escaping: run officecli get on 2-3 cross-sheet formula cells and confirm no \! in the formula string. If \! is present, the formula is broken -- delete and re-set using batch/heredoc.
• Named ranges: verify ref values match actual data locations
• Edge cases: test with zero values, negative numbers, empty cells
• Chart data vs formula results: for every chart with hardcoded/inline data, verify each data point matches the corresponding formula cell result. Use officecli get on the source cells and compare against chart series values. Mismatches here are silent data integrity bugs.

Validation

officecli validate data.xlsx

Pre-Delivery Checklist

• Metadata set (title, author)
• All formula cells contain formulas (not hardcoded values)
• No formula error values (#REF!, #DIV/0!, #VALUE!, #NAME?, #N/A)
• Number formats applied (currency, percentage, dates)
• Column widths set explicitly (no default 8.43)
• Header row styled (bold, fill, freeze panes)
• Data validation on input cells
• Charts have titles and readable axis labels
• Chart data matches source cells -- charts with hardcoded/inline data can drift from formula results. For each chart, verify every data point against the corresponding cell value. Prefer cell-range references (series1.values="Sheet1!B2:B6") over inline data to avoid transcription errors.
• Named ranges defined for key assumptions
• Document validates with officecli validate
• No placeholder text remaining
• Comments on hardcoded assumption values documenting their source

NOTE: Unlike pptx (SVG/HTML), xlsx has no visual preview mode. Verification relies on view text, view annotated, view stats, view issues, validate, and formula queries. For visual verification, the user must open the file in Excel.

Verification Loop

1. Generate workbook
2. Run view issues + view annotated (sample ranges) + validate
3. Run formula error queries (all 5 error types)
4. List issues found (if none found, look again more critically)
5. Fix issues
6. Re-verify affected areas -- one fix often creates another problem
7. Repeat until a full pass reveals no new issues

Do not declare success until you have completed at least one fix-and-verify cycle.

Common Pitfalls

Performance: Resident Mode

Always use open/close — it is the smart default, not a special-case optimization. Every command benefits: no repeated file I/O, no repeated parse/serialize cycles.

officecli open data.xlsx        # Load once into memory
officecli add data.xlsx ...     # All commands run in memory — fast
officecli set data.xlsx ...
officecli close data.xlsx       # Write once to disk

Use this pattern for every workbook build, regardless of command count.

Performance: Batch Mode

cat <<'EOF' | officecli batch data.xlsx
[
  {"command":"set","path":"/Sheet1/A1","props":{"value":"Revenue","bold":"true","fill":"1F4E79","font.color":"FFFFFF"}},
  {"command":"set","path":"/Sheet1/B1","props":{"value":"Q1","bold":"true","fill":"1F4E79","font.color":"FFFFFF"}}
]
EOF

Batch supports: add, set, get, query, remove, move, swap, view, raw, raw-set, validate.

Batch fields: command, path, parent, type, from, to, index, after, before, props (dict), selector, mode, depth, part, xpath, action, xml.

parent = container to add into (for add). path = element to modify (for set, get, remove, move, swap).

Batch mode executes multiple operations in a single open/save cycle.

Known Issues

Help System

When unsure about property names, value formats, or command syntax, run help instead of guessing. One help query is faster than guess-fail-retry loops.

officecli xlsx set              # All settable elements and their properties
officecli xlsx set cell         # Cell properties in detail
officecli xlsx set cell.font    # Specific property format and examples
officecli xlsx add              # All addable element types
officecli xlsx view             # All view modes
officecli xlsx get              # All navigable paths
officecli xlsx query            # Query selector syntax