Excel MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that reads and writes MS Excel data.

Features

• Read/Write text values
• Read/Write formulas
• Create new sheets
• ✨ NEW: Data validation with dropdown lists
• ✨ NEW: Conditional formatting (highlighting, color scales, data bars)
• ✨ NEW: VBA code execution and module creation

🪟Windows only:

• Live editing
• Capture screen image from a sheet
• ✨ VBA functionality (OLE backend)

For more details, see the tools section.

Requirements

• Node.js 20.x or later

Supported file formats

• xlsx (Excel book)
• xlsm (Excel macro-enabled book)
• xltx (Excel template)
• xltm (Excel macro-enabled template)

Installation

Installing via NPM

excel-mcp-server is automatically installed by adding the following configuration to the MCP servers configuration.

For Windows:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "excel": {
            "command": "cmd",
            "args": ["/c", "npx", "--yes", "ms-excel-mcp-server"],
            "env": {
                "EXCEL_MCP_PAGING_CELLS_LIMIT": "4000"
            }
        }
    }
}

For other platforms:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "excel": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": ["--yes", "ms-excel-mcp-server"],
            "env": {
                "EXCEL_MCP_PAGING_CELLS_LIMIT": "4000"
            }
        }
    }
}

Installing via Smithery

⚠️ Note: Smithery indexing is pending for newly published packages. If the command below fails with "Server not found", use the npm method above instead.

To install Excel MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install ms-excel-mcp-server --client claude

Tools

excel_describe_sheets

List all sheet information of specified Excel file.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file

excel_read_sheet

Read values from Excel sheet with pagination.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• range
  • Range of cells to read in the Excel sheet (e.g., "A1:C10"). [default: first paging range]
• showFormula
  • Show formula instead of value [default: false]
• showStyle
  • Show style information for cells [default: false]

excel_screen_capture

[Windows only] Take a screenshot of the Excel sheet with pagination.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• range
  • Range of cells to read in the Excel sheet (e.g., "A1:C10"). [default: first paging range]

excel_write_to_sheet

Write values to the Excel sheet.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• newSheet
  • Create a new sheet if true, otherwise write to the existing sheet
• range
  • Range of cells to read in the Excel sheet (e.g., "A1:C10").
• values
  • Values to write to the Excel sheet. If the value is a formula, it should start with "="

excel_create_table

Create a table in the Excel sheet

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name where the table is created
• range
  • Range to be a table (e.g., "A1:C10")
• tableName
  • Table name to be created

excel_copy_sheet

Copy existing sheet to a new sheet

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• srcSheetName
  • Source sheet name in the Excel file
• dstSheetName
  • Sheet name to be copied

excel_add_data_validation

Add data validation to Excel cells including dropdown lists and input validation.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• cellRange
  • Range of cells to apply data validation (e.g., "A1:A10")
• validationType
  • Type of validation: list, whole, decimal, date, time, textLength, custom
• options
  • Data validation options (dropdownList, formulas, error messages, etc.)

excel_add_conditional_formatting

Add conditional formatting to Excel cells with highlighting, color scales, and data bars.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• cellRange
  • Range of cells to apply conditional formatting (e.g., "A1:A10")
• conditions
  • Conditional formatting conditions (type, criteria, values, formatting)

excel_execute_vba (Windows OLE only)

Execute VBA code on an Excel worksheet.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• sheetName
  • Sheet name in the Excel file
• vbaCode
  • VBA code to execute

excel_add_vba_module (Windows OLE only)

Add a VBA module to an Excel workbook.

Arguments:

• fileAbsolutePath
  • Absolute path to the Excel file
• moduleName
  • Name for the VBA module
• vbaCode
  • VBA code to add to the module

Note: For detailed examples and usage instructions, see docs/NEW_FEATURES.md

Configuration

You can change the MCP Server behaviors by the following environment variables:

EXCEL_MCP_PAGING_CELLS_LIMIT

The maximum number of cells to read in a single paging operation.
[default: 4000]

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Kazuki Negoro

excel-mcp-server is released under the MIT License