Excel CLI Plugin

npm version GitHub stars

Let your coding agent create and update Microsoft Excel workbooks from the terminal: work with cells, formulas, Power Query, PivotTables, charts, and VBA in the desktop app.

Ask your agent to enter data, write formulas, refresh Power Query, build PivotTables and charts, work with DAX, or run VBA. The agent runs excelcli commands and learns them from the built-in help. ExcelMcp operates the actual Excel application, so Excel handles calculations and workbook features. The CLI offers the same features as the Excel MCP Server and usually uses fewer AI tokens.

Requires Windows, desktop Excel 2016 or later, and Node.js 18 or later with npx. ExcelMcp runs in an interactive desktop session.

What you can ask your agent to do

Request	Result
"Create a sales tracker with Date, Product, Quantity, Unit Price, and Total columns."	A workbook with a table and formulas.
"Create a PivotTable showing revenue by region, then add a chart."	A summary and chart built in Excel.
"Refresh the Power Query queries in this workbook and save it."	Updated query results saved in the workbook.
"Put this data into a worksheet and format the totals."	Formatted data ready to read.

The CLI provides 31 feature command categories with 408 operations, including Power Query, DAX and the Data Model, PivotTables, tables, charts, worksheets, formulas, VBA, and more. See the complete feature reference.

Install

Install from Awesome Copilot, the default marketplace in current Copilot clients:

copilot plugin install excel-cli@awesome-copilot

Or use the direct marketplace:

copilot plugin marketplace add sbroenne/mcp-server-excel-plugins
copilot plugin install excel-cli@mcp-server-excel-plugins

Choose one marketplace for this plugin; do not install both copies.

The plugin runs the published npm package through npx, so you do not need to install excelcli separately or change your PATH:

npx -y @sbroenne/excelcli@latest --help

For quoted JSON arguments in Windows PowerShell, the agent can use the plugin's bin\start-cli.ps1 wrapper instead. For other coding agents, or to install excelcli as a command on your PATH, follow the CLI installation guide.

CLI or MCP?

The CLI and the MCP plugin give your agent the same Excel features. You can install either or both; the difference is only technical:

Interface	Works with	Context
CLI (`excelcli`)	Agents that can run terminal commands	Built-in help, read only when needed
MCP Server	Any MCP-compatible client	60 tool schemas loaded into context

Coding agents can use either one. The CLI usually uses fewer AI tokens because the agent does not load every tool definition up front. In one comparison using the same task and AI model, the CLI used about 59,000 AI tokens and MCP used 163,000 (about 64% fewer with CLI). This is one measured result, not a promise; results vary by task, model, and AI client. See the benchmark context.

More features

Workbooks and data: create, open, save, and close workbooks; edit ranges, tables, and formulas.
Analysis: refresh Power Query, query the Data Model with DAX, and build PivotTables and slicers.
Reports: create and format charts, worksheets, and conditional formatting.
Automation: manage connections, run VBA, and automate Excel windows.
Protected workbooks: detect IRM/AIP protection and open Excel visibly for sign-in.
Sessions: keep a workbook open across commands so the agent can work step by step.

M and DAX code stays on your computer by default. If you set --format-m-code or --format-dax to true, the corresponding code is sent to powerqueryformatter.com or daxformatter.com. Only turn it on when you want to send code to those services.

Supported agents

GitHub Copilot CLI
Other coding agents that can run terminal commands, using the CLI installation guide