Officecli XLSX

OfficeCLI XLSX Skill

Runtime contract

Wayland Desktop supplies a checksum-pinned native officecli runtime. Do not install, update, download, or replace it from this skill.

Run officecli --version before authoring. The native low-level contract requires the exact verified 1.0.136 version; use officecli --help to verify the top-level commands. If the runtime is missing, incompatible, or unverified, stop native authoring and use Wayland's reinstall/update recovery path. Never curl an installer, invoke PowerShell bootstrap code, or fall back to the separately hosted-credit generator without explicit network and cost approval.

⚠️ Help-First Rule

This skill teaches what good xlsx looks like, not every command flag. When a property name, enum value, or alias is uncertain, consult help BEFORE guessing.

officecli help xlsx                         # List all xlsx elements
officecli help xlsx <element>               # Full element schema (e.g. pivottable, chart, cf)
officecli help xlsx <verb> <element>        # Verb-scoped (e.g. add chart, set cell)
officecli help xlsx <element> --json        # Machine-readable schema

Help reflects the installed CLI version. When this skill and help disagree, help is authoritative.

Shell & Execution Discipline

Shell quoting (zsh / bash). Excel paths contain [], and number formats contain $. Both are shell metacharacters. Rules:

• ALWAYS quote element paths: "/Sheet1/row[1]", not /Sheet1/row[1].
• Use single quotes for any prop value containing $: numFmt='$#,##0'.
• For formulas with cross-sheet ! references, use batch with a <<'EOF' heredoc (see Known Issues).
• NEVER hand-write \$, \t, \n inside executable examples. The CLI does not interpret backslash escapes; they will land in your file as literal characters.

Incremental execution. Run commands one at a time and read each exit code. officecli mutates the file on every call; a 50-command script that fails at command 3 will cascade silently. One command → check output → continue.

Requirements for Outputs

Before reaching for a command, know what a good xlsx looks like. These are the deliverable standards every workbook MUST meet.

All Excel files

Zero formula errors. Every delivered workbook MUST have ZERO #REF!, #DIV/0!, #VALUE!, #NAME?, #N/A. No exceptions - guard denominators with IFERROR or IF(x=0,...).

Formulas, not hardcoded values. If a number can be computed from other cells, it is a formula. Hardcoding 5000 where =SUM(B2:B9) belongs breaks the contract that the workbook stays live when inputs change. This is the single most important rule in this skill.

Professional font. Use one consistent, professional font across the workbook (Arial / Calibri / Times New Roman). Don't mix four fonts because one sheet came from CSV.

Explicit widths. There is no auto-fit. Any column the user will read MUST have width set - default 8.43 chars clips everything. Sensible starts: labels 20-25, numbers 12-15, dates 12, short codes 8-10.

Preserve existing templates. When editing a file that already has a look, match it. Existing conventions override these guidelines.

Visual delivery floor (applies to EVERY workbook)

Before you declare done, run officecli view "$FILE" html and Read the returned HTML path to confirm all of these:

• No ### in any cell. ### means a column is too narrow for its widest value. Every column the user reads needs an explicit width. ### in a delivered file is unfinished work, never "a small visual nit".
• No truncated titles. Sheet titles, section headers, long labels must fit. Widen the column or apply wrapText=true on the cell.
• No placeholder tokens rendered as data. $fy$24, {var}, <TODO>, xxxx must never appear in a cell, chart title, series name, or legend. These are build-time tokens that escaped replacement.
• Pie / doughnut slices have distinct fill colors. If the slices render same-colored, switch to bar / column or set colors=... explicitly.
• No empty trailing pages / empty chart anchors. anchor=D2:J18 over empty source cells looks like a broken chart.

If any of the above fails, STOP and fix before declaring done.

Print layout. Any sheet the user may print or send as a board pack needs page setup. Default portrait + no fit-to-page splits wide tables and charts mid-way. Apply per sheet:

officecli set "$FILE" "/Summary" --prop orientation=landscape --prop fitToPage=true

Trigger: sheet holds a chart, or > 8 columns, or the user's ask mentions print / board / investor.

Financial models only - skip this section if you are building a template, tracker, CSV import, or operational sheet

Scope: budgets, forecasts, 3-statement models, valuation, any $-heavy analytical workbook. A customer-support tracker or onboarding template does not need this section.

Color coding - industry standard. Five core colors used as a language, not decoration. A reviewer should tell what a cell IS by color alone - before reading the formula.

A reviewer should tell what a cell IS just by its color - before reading the formula. This is a communication contract, not a cosmetic preference.

Number formatting - standards, not preferences.

• Years are text, not numbers. Format 2026 not 2,026 - use numFmt="@" or set type=string.
• Currency carries its unit in the header (Revenue ($mm)), not in every cell.
• Zeros display as -, not 0. Use $#,##0;($#,##0);"-".
• Percentages default to one decimal: 0.0%.
• Negatives use parentheses: (1,234) not -1,234.
• Valuation multiples use 0.0x format (EV/EBITDA, P/E, etc.).

Assumptions live in cells, not inside formulas. =B5*(1+$B$6) is correct; =B5*1.05 is a bug. Document each blue hardcoded input with an adjacent source note in the next cell or a cell comment:

Source: Company 10-K, FY2024, Page 45, Revenue Note
Source: Bloomberg, 2026-05-02, AAPL US Equity
Source: Management guidance, Q2 2026 earnings call

Any hardcoded number without a source is an undocumented assumption - a reviewer cannot audit it.

Common Workflow

Six steps. Every non-trivial build follows this shape.

1. Choose the mode. Always use officecli open <file> at the start and officecli close <file> at the end. Resident mode is the default, not an optimization - it avoids re-parsing the file on every command. For many cells, use batch: ≤ 50 ops/block recommended; tested up to 80+ ops per block on pure value-set payloads with zero failures. Cross-sheet formula batches are the exception - run those non-resident, single heredoc (see Known Issues).
2. Create or load. officecli create "$FILE" (new) or officecli view "$FILE" outline (existing - get the lay of the land first).
3. Build incrementally. One command, read the output, continue. After any structural op (new sheet, chart, named range, pivot), run get on it to confirm shape before stacking more on top.
4. Format. Column widths, number formats, freeze panes, tab colors, header fills. Formatting is not optional polish - per "Requirements for Outputs" it is part of the deliverable.
5. Close, then reckon with the cache. officecli close <file> writes to disk. Newly-added formulas ship without cached values; when a human opens the file in a spreadsheet app, the app recalculates and populates them. But your downstream INDEX/MATCH, SUMPRODUCT, or any formula that references an upstream formula will cache whatever the upstream cached at write-time - often 0 or a stale value - and that cached lie survives into non-recalculating readers. After any multi-formula build involving array formulas (SUMPRODUCT, SUMIFS with dynamic criteria) or cross-sheet chains, re-touch every downstream cell (run set again with the same formula) so the engine recomputes its cache from the freshly-cached upstream. ⚠️ Re-touch on cross-sheet chains via resident is unreliable (see Batch / resident caveats) - prefer non-resident set for the re-touch pass. Then officecli get a few downstream cells and eyeball that their cachedValue= is plausible. Array-formula fallback: for SUMPRODUCT(1/COUNTIF(range, range)) distinct-count patterns, the CLI engine treats the inner division as scalar and caches 1/N (e.g. 0.001543) rather than the true distinct count. Re-touching won't fix it. Fallback: hardcode the correct value + an adjacent comment "hardcoded distinct count; update if Data rows change", and tell the reader at delivery. Better than shipping a cached lie. Do NOT run validate while a resident is open - it reports spurious drawing errors.
6. QA - assume there are problems. See the QA section. You are not done when your last command exited 0; you are done after one fix-and-verify cycle finds zero new issues.

Quick Start

Minimal viable xlsx: 3 months of revenue + a total formula + column widths + a currency format. Adapt, don't copy-paste - your file, your data.

officecli create "$FILE"
officecli open "$FILE"
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/A1 --prop value=Month --prop bold=true
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B1 --prop value=Revenue --prop bold=true
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/A2 --prop value=Jan
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/A3 --prop value=Feb
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/A4 --prop value=Mar
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B2 --prop value=42000 --prop numFmt='$#,##0'
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B3 --prop value=45000 --prop numFmt='$#,##0'
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B4 --prop value=48000 --prop numFmt='$#,##0'
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/A5 --prop value=Total --prop bold=true
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B5 --prop formula="SUM(B2:B4)" --prop bold=true --prop numFmt='$#,##0'
officecli set "$FILE" "/Sheet1/col[A]" --prop width=12
officecli set "$FILE" "/Sheet1/col[B]" --prop width=15
officecli close "$FILE"
officecli validate "$FILE"

Verified: validate returns no errors found, B5 resolves to 135000. This is the shape of every build: open → set cells/formulas → format → close → validate.

CSV / bulk import

Native import command (preferred for CSV/TSV). Fastest path; loads a CSV into a sheet in one call. --header sets AutoFilter + freeze pane on row 1. Widths and numFmt still need a follow-up pass (per D-12 in Dashboard skill).

officecli import "$FILE" /Sheet1 --file data.csv --header
officecli import "$FILE" /Sheet1 --file data.tsv --format tsv --header
officecli import "$FILE" /Sheet1 --stdin --start-cell B2 < data.csv

Python + batch fallback - use when you need custom type coercion, formula injection, or the CSV lives inside another data pipeline. Recipe for 600-6000+ cells:

# gen_batch.py - produces batch chunks of 80 value-set ops each
import csv, json
ops = []
with open("data.csv") as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    for r, row in enumerate(reader, start=1):
        for c, val in enumerate(row):
            col = chr(ord('A') + c)
            ops.append({"command":"set","path":f"/Data/{col}{r}",
                        "props":{"value": val}})
for i in range(0, len(ops), 80):
    print(json.dumps(ops[i:i+80]))

python gen_batch.py | while IFS= read -r chunk; do
  printf '%s\n' "$chunk" | officecli batch "$FILE"
done

Outcome: 648-row retail CSV (6490 cells) loads in ~30s, zero failures. Tune: start at 80 ops/chunk, drop to 40 if any chunk fails. Numeric type inference and formulas come later via targeted set - batch in this recipe is pure value injection.

Reading & Analysis

Start wide, then narrow. outline first tells you what sheets exist and where the data is; jump into view / get / query only once you know where to look.

Open the rendered workbook to eyeball your own work.

• officecli view $FILE html - Read the returned HTML to audit the rendered output. Each sheet is addressable, charts render inline. Catches ###, placeholder leakage, pivot layout, row-height clipping.
• officecli watch $FILE keeps a live preview running for the human user - they open it at their own discretion. Use when the user wants to watch along; agent self-check uses view html above. Use view html as your first visual check after a batch of edits - fix at source. For final visual verification, the user opens the .xlsx in their Excel / WPS / Numbers viewer.

Orient. Sheets, dimensions, formula counts.

officecli view "$FILE" outline

Extract. Plain text dump for content QA or LLM context; scope with --start / --end / --cols for big files.

officecli view "$FILE" text --start 1 --end 50 --cols A,B,C

Other view modes worth knowing: annotated (cell values + types/formulas + warnings), stats (numeric summaries), issues (broken formulas, empty sheets, missing refs).

Inspect one element. Use XPath-style paths. Always quote - shells glob [N].

officecli get "$FILE" "/Sheet1/A1"            # one cell
officecli get "$FILE" "/Sheet1/A1:D10"        # range
officecli get "$FILE" "/Sheet1/chart[1]"      # chart
officecli get "$FILE" "/Sheet1/table[1]"      # ListObject
officecli get "$FILE" "/namedrange[1]"        # workbook-level named range

Add --depth N to expand children; add --json for machine output. Full element list: officecli help xlsx.

Query across the workbook. CSS-like selectors. Use for systematic checks (formula coverage, error cells, empty headers) rather than hand-walking.

officecli query "$FILE" 'cell:has(formula)'       # every formula cell
officecli query "$FILE" 'cell:contains("#REF!")'  # broken references
officecli query "$FILE" 'cell[type=Number]'       # typed filter
officecli query "$FILE" 'Sheet1!B[value!=0]'      # sheet-scoped

Operators: =, !=, ~= (contains), >=, <=, [attr] (exists).

Merge cells shortcut. officecli query $FILE merge or mergedrange - both are aliases for mergeCell (1.0.60+). Returns every merged range in the workbook without hand-walking <mergeCell> entries.

When the data is big enough that a row-walk is useless, reach for Excel's own analytical elements:

• Build a pivot table with officecli add (--type pivottable) to group/aggregate without writing 20 SUMIFs. Attach a slicer (--type slicer) to give the reader a filter UI.
• Drop a sparkline (--type sparkline) in a row to show per-row trends - cheaper than one line chart per row and they print inline. type is a strict enum: line | column | stacked (plus aliases winloss / win-loss → stacked). Invalid type= values hard-fail on 1.0.58+ - no silent fallback to line anymore.
• Run officecli help xlsx pivottable, officecli help xlsx slicer, officecli help xlsx sparkline for the exact prop names.

Creating & Editing

Ninety percent of a build is cells, formulas, formatting, and one or two charts. The verbs: add (new element), set (change a prop), remove, move, swap, batch.

Cells and formulas

Set a value and its format in one call. Never write = at the start of a formula - the CLI strips it.

officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/B5 --prop formula="SUM(B2:B4)" --prop numFmt='$#,##0'
officecli set "$FILE" /Sheet1/C5 --prop formula="B5/A5" --prop numFmt="0.0%"

Structural properties (width, height, freeze, tabColor) live on row / col / sheet nodes:

officecli set "$FILE" "/Sheet1/col[A]" --prop width=20
officecli set "$FILE" "/Sheet1/row[1]" --prop height=22
officecli set "$FILE" "/Sheet1" --prop freeze=A2 --prop tabColor=1F4E79

Named ranges

Prefer named ranges over $B$6 in formulas. They self-document (GrowthRate beats $B$6) and they let you move the assumption cell without breaking formulas. Because ref values contain both ! and $, add them through a batch heredoc:

cat <<'EOF' | officecli batch "$FILE"
[
  {"command":"add","parent":"/","type":"namedrange","props":{"name":"GrowthRate","ref":"Sheet1!$B$6"}}
]
EOF

See officecli help xlsx namedrange for the full schema.

Batch JSON does NOT accept shell aliases. Inside batch props, always use the full dotted name - "font.color": "FF0000", "font.size": 14, never "color": "FF0000" (ambiguous: text vs fill). On a bare cell, even the shell form is rejected: --prop color=1F4E79 errors with ambiguous in cell context - use 'font.color' (text) or 'fill' (bg). Rule: in any batch JSON or cell prop, write font.color / fill explicitly. parent should be "/" for workbook-level elements and "/SheetName" for sheet-scoped; empty string is not equivalent.

Charts

Chart types live under officecli help xlsx chart - the enum is long (20+). Pick the right one for the message: column for category comparison, line for time series, pie only when slices are self-evidently proportional, scatter for correlation. Avoid exotic types unless they answer a specific question.

Three ways to feed chart data. Pick one per chart - mixing them at add-time is a common trap.

The single-column trap. dataRange="Sheet1!B2:B13" looks like "value column" but the engine rejects it with Chart requires data. Either widen the range to include the category column (A2:B13), or switch to form (c) with explicit series1.categories.

Chart anchor and series are immutable after create. set chart[N] --prop anchor=... is rejected (UNSUPPORTED props: anchor); likewise new series cannot be appended. To resize, move, or add a series: officecli remove the chart, then officecli add with the new anchor / full series list. Also note: remove chart[1] shifts chart[2] → chart[1], and re-add appends at the end - to preserve chart order, remove all and rebuild in order.

Anchor sizing. No auto-fit. A column chart with 5-6 categories + 2 series needs roughly A5:L22 (12 cols × 18 rows) to show all labels uncut. Narrower and X-axis labels clip; wider and the chart can split across pages on print/export. If in doubt, start narrow, preview via view html (Read the returned HTML path), widen in increments. Page layout (below) is the other half of the fix.

Chart dataRange - always prefix with the sheet. Even when the chart lives on the same sheet, write dataRange="Summary!A17:C22", not A17:C22. The sheet-less form works inconsistently; the prefixed form is 100% reliable.

officecli adds extended chart types the classic Excel object model lacks: boxWhisker, waterfall, funnel, histogram, treemap, sunburst. Use them when the data calls for them. Known-bad: chartType=pareto (produces invalid XML - use column or boxWhisker).

NEVER put unreplaced template tokens in chart title / series name / legend / axis title. $fy$24, {var}, <TODO>, $VAR, {{placeholder}} render literally in the legend - validate passes, but a CFO sees $fy$24 where "FY2024" should be. Always bind to final text or a cell reference (title="FY2024 Revenue" or series1.name="Sheet1!A1").

Conditional formatting

Three common flavors, each with its own prop shape (consult officecli help xlsx conditionalformatting):

• Color scales: cells shaded on a gradient by value - type=colorscale with minColor / midColor / maxColor.
• Data bars: in-cell bars showing magnitude - type=databar. ALWAYS set explicit min and max; defaults emit invalid XML (see Known Issues).
• Formula rules: highlight row when a condition is true - type=formulacf with formula="$C2>1000" and a fill/font.

Rule: apply CF sparingly. A workbook where every cell is colored tells the reader nothing.