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excel-cli

Excel CLI automation skill for Windows workbooks. Use when a coding agent needs token-efficient, scriptable, or unattended Excel automation via excelcli commands. Best for CI/CD, scheduled jobs, batch processing, PowerShell workflows, and bulk workbook edits. Supports Power Query, DAX, PivotTables, Tables, Ranges, Charts, VBA, Data Models, screenshots, and formatting. Triggers: excelcli, Excel CLI, command line, batch, script, automation, CI/CD, scheduled, PowerShell, unattended, coding agent, workbook processing.

72

Quality

88%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Advisory

Suggest reviewing before use

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Discovery

100%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a strong skill description that clearly defines its niche (CLI-based Excel automation on Windows), lists comprehensive capabilities, and provides explicit trigger guidance. It effectively distinguishes itself from general Excel or spreadsheet skills by emphasizing command-line, unattended, and scripting contexts. The explicit triggers list and 'Use when' clause make it easy for Claude to select this skill appropriately.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions and capabilities: Power Query, DAX, PivotTables, Tables, Ranges, Charts, VBA, Data Models, screenshots, formatting, batch processing, bulk workbook edits. Also specifies the tool (excelcli) and platform (Windows).

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (Excel CLI automation for Windows workbooks with specific capabilities listed) and 'when' (coding agent needs token-efficient/scriptable/unattended Excel automation, CI/CD, scheduled jobs, batch processing, PowerShell workflows). Includes explicit 'Use when' clause and a 'Triggers' list.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms including 'excelcli', 'Excel CLI', 'command line', 'batch', 'script', 'automation', 'CI/CD', 'scheduled', 'PowerShell', 'unattended', 'coding agent', 'workbook processing'. These are terms users would naturally use when needing CLI-based Excel automation.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive — clearly differentiates itself from general Excel skills by focusing specifically on CLI-based, command-line, unattended automation via 'excelcli'. The emphasis on CI/CD, scripting, and coding agent use cases creates a clear niche that wouldn't overlap with interactive Excel editing or spreadsheet analysis skills.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

12

Passed

Implementation

77%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

This is a strong, highly actionable skill with clear workflows and executable examples throughout. Its main weakness is moderate verbosity from repeated session-ID patterns and some rules that could be more compact. The progressive disclosure is adequate with a reference to an external CLI command file, but the main document is dense and could benefit from offloading some detailed examples to reference files.

Suggestions

Consolidate the repeated session-ID capture pattern (shown in Rules 3, 5, and 7) into a single reusable snippet referenced by the other rules to reduce redundancy.

Consider moving the detailed Power Query lifecycle (Rule 5) and Calculation Mode workflow (Rule 7) into the references/cli-commands.md or a separate workflows reference file, keeping only brief summaries inline.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is mostly efficient and avoids explaining basic concepts, but there's some redundancy — e.g., the session ID capture pattern is shown in Rules 3, 5, and 7 with nearly identical boilerplate. Rule 2 ('Always End With a Text Summary') and Rule 6 ('Report File Errors Immediately') are behavioral instructions that could be more compact. The overall length is justified by the breadth of features covered, but tightening repeated patterns would help.

2 / 3

Actionability

Nearly every rule includes fully executable PowerShell commands with concrete flags, JSON formats, and realistic examples. The batch mode JSON structure, Power Query lifecycle, calculation mode workflow, and data writing patterns are all copy-paste ready with specific syntax.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The Workflow Checklist table provides a clear high-level sequence. Individual rules like Rule 5 (Power Query) and Rule 7 (Calculation Mode) have explicit numbered steps with validation checkpoints (e.g., 'Test M code before creating permanent queries', 'Recalculate once at end'). Rule 8 includes error handling via --stop-on-error. The session lifecycle has clear create-vs-open guidance with failure warnings.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The skill references ./references/cli-commands.md for the full command reference and common pitfalls, which is good one-level-deep disclosure. However, no bundle files were provided to verify the reference exists, and the SKILL.md itself is quite long (~170 lines of substantive content) with inline details that could potentially be split out (e.g., batch mode details, Power Query lifecycle). The structure is reasonable but the balance between inline and referenced content leans toward too much inline.

2 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Validation

100%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation11 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository
sbroenne/mcp-server-excel
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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