aai-cli Excel

SkillFiles & storage

Use aai-cli to create local spreadsheet files, manage their sheet tabs, and read, update, or clear cell values — Excel (.xlsx/.xlsm) and delimited text (.csv/.tsv).

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the aai-cli Excel skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by aai-labs/agent-barn in api/domains/agents/aai_cli_skills/bundled/skills/aai-excel/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Use this skill when working with spreadsheet files on disk through aai-cli excel.

Read and write .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv, .tsv. Read-only: .xls (Excel 97–2003), .xlsb, .ods — to edit one, save it as .xlsx or .csv first.

These are local files. There is no account, profile, or credential involved — do not pass --profile, and do not ask the user to authenticate. Just point the command at a file path.

Use workbook create to start a new file, sheets list to discover tab names and how far each one's data extends, sheets add/delete/rename to change the tabs of an existing .xlsx, then values commands to read, update, or clear ranges.

Ranges use A1 notation and accept the same forms as Google Sheets: 'Sheet1'!A1:D5, a single cell, an open column range (B:C), an open row range (2:5), or a bare sheet name for everything in use. values update expects --values as a JSON array of row arrays, and writes starting at the range's top-left cell.

A .csv/.tsv file is a single sheet named after the file (sales.csvsales), so --sheets does not apply when creating one and the sheets add/delete/rename commands do not either.

Tab names follow Excel's rules: at most 31 characters, and never : \ / ? * [ ]. A workbook must keep at least one tab.

Renaming or deleting a tab does not update formulas that point at it. If any formula references the tab, the command is refused with the offending cells listed; either fix those formulas first, or pass --force and repair them afterwards. Named ranges and autofilters are handled correctly and never block the command.

Editing an .xlsx rewrites the whole workbook, which cannot preserve charts, pivot tables, form controls, external links, custom XML or sensitivity labels. Writes to such a workbook are refused with a message naming what would be lost; pass --force only if losing those is genuinely acceptable, or copy the values into a new file instead. Plain data workbooks are unaffected.

Successful output is JSON on stdout. Errors are structured JSON on stderr. See the command reference for command shapes, response notes, and examples.

Signals

GitHub stars
85
Forks
8
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
aai-excel
Source
github.com/aai-labs/agent-barn