# Build and Validate Excel Workbooks

Spreadsheet changes can damage formulas, styles, macros, or workbook structure. This skill uses direct OOXML workflows and validation tools to preserve existing files.

## Install

```bash
npx skillstore add minimax-ai/minimax-xlsx
```

## Metadata

- Status: approved
- Slug: minimax-ai-minimax-xlsx
- Version: 1.0
- Author version: 1.0
- Skillstore revision: r2
- Version status: invalid
- Tree hash: cc3ed83cced8045bc84abf3279e34a4b6963ebd75d305853229c155e2675ccb1
- Author: MiniMax-AI
- GitHub username: MiniMax-AI
- License: MIT
- Repository: https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/skills/tree/main/skills/minimax-xlsx
- Ref: 02be9409c79ca1183f7844009c14d9df684d0cf9
- Supported tools: Claude, Codex, Claude Code
- Audit status: complete
- Agent install advisory: confirmation\_required
- Manual install advisory: allowed
- Artifact signature: available
- Audit attestation: unavailable
- Human verification: not\_verified
- Risk factors: network, filesystem, external\_commands
- Quality score: 38
- Quality tier: warning
- Public page: https://skillstore.pages.dev/skills/minimax-ai-minimax-xlsx
- Manifest: https://skillstore.pages.dev/api/skills/minimax-ai-minimax-xlsx/manifest

## Capabilities

- Reads workbook structure, sheet names, cell data, formulas, and summary statistics.
- Creates XLSX files from a minimal OOXML template.
- Edits existing workbooks through unpacked XML to preserve unsupported Excel features.
- Adds columns or rows with formulas, number formats, styles, and borders.
- Checks formulas for missing sheets, invalid references, and cached error values.
- Recalculates formulas through headless LibreOffice when it is installed.

## Use Cases

- Review Financial Models: Inspect assumptions, formulas, totals, formatting, and formula errors before a model is distributed.
- Update Operational Workbooks: Insert budget rows, add calculated columns, and preserve the workbook layout during recurring updates.
- Automate Spreadsheet Quality Checks: Run structural, formula, and style checks as part of a controlled document workflow.

## Prompt Templates

### Inspect a Workbook

```
Inspect [file.xlsx]. Summarize each sheet, important columns, formulas, missing values, and notable data quality issues. Do not modify the source file.
```

### Create a Formatted Workbook

```
Create [output.xlsx] from this table: [paste data]. Add formulas for totals, apply suitable number formats, and validate the finished workbook.
```

### Edit an Existing Model

```
Update [input.xlsx] and write [output.xlsx]. Add [requested rows or columns], preserve every existing sheet, and verify representative original values afterward.
```

### Validate and Repair Formulas

```
Audit [model.xlsx] for missing sheets, broken references, error values, circular-reference risks, and inconsistent formatting. Repair confirmed issues and produce a validated copy.
```

## Limitations

- Dynamic formula recalculation requires a local LibreOffice installation.
- Direct XML editing requires careful handling of complex charts, pivots, macros, and relationships.
- Validation cannot guarantee identical behavior across every Excel and LibreOffice version.
- Archive processing does not enforce workbook size or expansion limits.

## Best Practices

- Keep the original workbook unchanged and write edits to a separate output file.
- Locate target rows and sheets by labels and relationships before changing XML.
- Run structural and formula validation after every edit.

## Anti Patterns

- Do not rebuild an existing workbook when a targeted XML edit is sufficient.
- Do not hardcode calculated values when the workbook requires formulas.
- Do not treat a successful ZIP operation as complete workbook validation.

## Security Audit

- Audited at: 2026-08-09T08:53:32.353\+00:00
- Summary: Most static alerts are scanner mismatches caused by OOXML namespace URIs, Markdown backticks, XML syntax, and safe argument-array subprocess calls. Confirmed risks include predictable shared temporary paths and recursive deletion of a caller-supplied output directory. Semantic review also found an agent-control instruction and unbounded processing of untrusted workbook archives.

## Stats

- Views: 360
- Downloads: 34
- Favorites: 1
- Popularity score: 0