# Create and Edit Excel Workbooks

Spreadsheet work often needs reliable formulas, formatting, and file output. This skill guides Claude, Codex, and Claude Code through Excel creation, editing, validation, and conversion workflows.

## Install

```bash
npx skillstore add anthropics/xlsx
```

## Metadata

- Status: approved
- Slug: xlsx
- Skillstore revision: r1
- Version status: missing
- Tree hash: 2ea71ab3edd21e1444ba9dc7eb65a8f109cb7492b38e23f121babd5f713faf91
- Author: anthropics
- GitHub username: anthropics
- License: Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms
- Repository: https://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/xlsx
- Ref: 64ca8af0f54a325752f08bd54e52151061ea659a
- 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, env\_access
- Quality score: 38
- Quality tier: warning
- Public page: https://skillstore.pages.dev/skills/xlsx
- Manifest: https://skillstore.pages.dev/api/skills/xlsx/manifest

## Capabilities

- Creates new XLSX files from tabular data or user requirements.
- Edits existing XLSX, XLSM, CSV, and TSV files while preserving useful workbook structure.
- Uses pandas for data cleaning, analysis, restructuring, and bulk spreadsheet operations.
- Uses openpyxl for formulas, cell formatting, workbook structure, and Excel-specific features.
- Runs provided LibreOffice-based tooling to recalculate formulas and detect Excel formula errors.
- Supports Office archive unpacking, validation, and repacking workflows for advanced file repair.

## Use Cases

- Clean operational exports: Turn messy CSV, TSV, or Excel exports into structured workbooks with consistent columns and formatting.
- Build financial models: Create Excel models with formulas, assumption cells, professional number formats, and validation checks.
- Repair workbook issues: Inspect formulas, detect common Excel errors, and produce a corrected workbook file for review.

## Prompt Templates

### Create a Simple Workbook

```
Create an XLSX file from this data. Add clear headers, freeze the top row, and format numbers for easy review.
```

### Clean an Existing Spreadsheet

```
Open the attached spreadsheet, clean inconsistent rows, standardize column names, and save a corrected XLSX file.
```

### Add Formulas and Formatting

```
Update this workbook with formulas, totals, percentage calculations, and professional formatting. Recalculate and check for formula errors.
```

### Validate a Complex Workbook

```
Inspect this workbook for broken formulas, invalid references, formatting issues, and data type problems. Return a fixed spreadsheet file.
```

## Limitations

- Formula recalculation depends on LibreOffice being installed and callable as soffice.
- The skill does not integrate with the Google Sheets API or cloud spreadsheet services.
- Very large workbooks may need read-only, write-only, or chunked processing strategies.
- It cannot guarantee compatibility with every Excel feature outside the supported Python libraries.

## Best Practices

- Use formulas for workbook calculations so results update when source data changes.
- Preserve existing workbook styles and structure unless the user requests a redesign.
- Recalculate and verify workbooks before delivery when formulas are added or changed.

## Anti Patterns

- Do not hardcode calculated results when an Excel formula should remain dynamic.
- Do not save a workbook opened with calculated values only if formulas must be preserved.
- Do not use this skill when the deliverable is a report, script, or cloud integration instead of a spreadsheet file.

## Security Audit

- Audited at: 2026-07-21T08:28:17.935\+00:00
- Summary: The audit confirmed expected local filesystem operations, archive handling, LibreOffice execution, and formula-recalculation setup. Archive extraction lacks path and resource safeguards, and the LibreOffice helper trusts a predictable shared library path before using LD\_PRELOAD. Most static URL, schema-path, Markdown, and obfuscation findings are false positives.

## Stats

- Views: 239
- Downloads: 158
- Favorites: 3
- Popularity score: 0