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Excel Automation

  • 904 installs
  • 1.3k repo stars
  • Updated August 4, 2026
  • daymade/claude-code-skills

excel-automation is a macOS document automation skill that creates formatted Excel reports with openpyxl, parses complex xlsm financial models via zipfile and XML, and controls Excel windows through AppleScript.

About

excel-automation is a macOS-focused skill from daymade/claude-code-skills for creating, parsing, and controlling Excel files programmatically. Developers run uv scripts such as create_formatted_excel.py with openpyxl for professional report formatting, and parse_complex scripts using stdlib zipfile and XML when openpyxl cannot handle investment-bank xlsm financial models. AppleScript commands automate Excel window control on macOS. Reach for excel-automation when generating formatted .xlsx reports, extracting data from complex .xlsm models, or driving Excel UI automation on a Mac rather than manual spreadsheet work.

  • Three core capabilities: create formatted Excel with openpyxl, parse complex xlsm/xlsx via zipfile+xml, control Excel vi
  • Handles investment-bank-grade financial models and VBA workbooks that openpyxl cannot process
  • Includes decision tree for choosing between openpyxl, stdlib parsing, and osascript based on file complexity
  • Professional formatting for reports, mockups, and dashboards with one-command scripts
  • Built-in timeout safeguards for AppleScript to prevent hangs during window control

Excel Automation by the numbers

  • 904 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +44 installs in the week ending Aug 4, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #313 of 2,715 Automation & Workflows skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills --skill excel-automation

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs904
repo stars1.3k
Security audit2 / 3 scanners passed
Last updatedAugust 4, 2026
Repositorydaymade/claude-code-skills

How do you parse complex xlsm Excel models programmatically?

Create formatted Excel reports, parse complex financial models, and programmatically control Excel windows on macOS.

Who is it for?

macOS developers automating Excel report generation, xlsm financial model parsing, or Excel UI control with Python and AppleScript.

Skip if: Skip excel-automation on Windows or Linux, or when Google Sheets or CSV-only workflows replace native Excel file handling.

When should I use this skill?

Trigger on formatted Excel report creation, xlsm financial model parsing, openpyxl scripting, or macOS Excel AppleScript automation requests.

What you get

Formatted .xlsx reports, parsed xlsm financial model data, and AppleScript-driven Excel window automation on macOS.

  • Formatted .xlsx reports
  • Parsed xlsm model data
  • AppleScript Excel automation scripts

By the numbers

  • Uses openpyxl for formatted xlsx creation and zipfile+xml for xlsm fallback parsing

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Excel Automation

Create professional Excel files, parse complex financial models, and control Excel on macOS.

Quick Start

# Create a formatted Excel report
uv run --with openpyxl scripts/create_formatted_excel.py output.xlsx

# Parse a complex xlsm that openpyxl can't handle
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm              # List sheets
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm "DCF"        # Extract a sheet
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm --fix        # Fix corrupted names

# Control Excel via AppleScript (with timeout to prevent hangs)
timeout 5 osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'

Overview

Three capabilities:

CapabilityToolWhen to Use
Create formatted ExcelopenpyxlReports, mockups, dashboards
Parse complex xlsm/xlsxzipfile + xml.etreeFinancial models, VBA workbooks, >1MB files
Control Excel windowAppleScript (osascript)Zoom, scroll, select cells programmatically

Tool Selection Decision Tree

Is the file simple (data export, no VBA, <1MB)?
├─ YES → openpyxl or pandas
└─ NO
   ├─ Is it .xlsm or from investment bank / >1MB?
   │   └─ YES → zipfile + xml.etree.ElementTree (stdlib)
   └─ Is it truly .xls (BIFF format)?
       └─ YES → xlrd

Signals of "complex" Excel: file >1MB, .xlsm extension, from investment bank/broker, contains VBA macros.

IMPORTANT: Always run file <path> first — extensions lie. A .xls file may actually be a ZIP-based xlsx.

Creating Excel Files (openpyxl)

Professional Color Convention (Investment Banking Standard)

ColorRGB CodeMeaning
Blue0000FFUser input / assumption
Black000000Calculated value
Green008000Cross-sheet reference
White on dark blueFFFFFF on 4472C4Section headers
Dark blue text1F4E79Title

Core Formatting Patterns

from openpyxl.styles import Font, PatternFill, Border, Side, Alignment

# Fonts
BLUE_FONT = Font(color="0000FF", size=10, name="Calibri")
BLACK_FONT_BOLD = Font(color="000000", size=10, name="Calibri", bold=True)
GREEN_FONT = Font(color="008000", size=10, name="Calibri")
HEADER_FONT = Font(color="FFFFFF", size=12, name="Calibri", bold=True)

# Fills
DARK_BLUE_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="4472C4")
LIGHT_BLUE_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="D9E1F2")
INPUT_GREEN_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="E2EFDA")
LIGHT_GRAY_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="F2F2F2")

# Borders
THIN_BORDER = Border(bottom=Side(style="thin", color="B2B2B2"))
BOTTOM_DOUBLE = Border(bottom=Side(style="double", color="000000"))

Number Format Codes

FormatCodeExample
Currency'$#,##0'$1,234
Currency with decimals'$#,##0.00'$1,234.56
Percentage'0.0%'12.3%
Percentage (2 decimal)'0.00%'12.34%
Number with commas'#,##0'1,234
Multiplier'0.0x'1.5x

Conditional Formatting (Sensitivity Tables)

Red-to-green gradient for sensitivity analysis:

from openpyxl.formatting.rule import ColorScaleRule

rule = ColorScaleRule(
    start_type="min", start_color="F8696B",   # Red (low)
    mid_type="percentile", mid_value=50, mid_color="FFEB84",  # Yellow (mid)
    end_type="max", end_color="63BE7B"         # Green (high)
)
ws.conditional_formatting.add(f"B2:F6", rule)

Execution

uv run --with openpyxl scripts/create_formatted_excel.py

Full template script: See scripts/create_formatted_excel.py

Parsing Complex Excel (zipfile + xml)

When openpyxl fails on complex xlsm files (corrupted DefinedNames, complex VBA), use stdlib directly.

XLSX Internal ZIP Structure

file.xlsx (ZIP archive)
├── [Content_Types].xml
├── xl/
│   ├── workbook.xml          ← Sheet names + order
│   ├── sharedStrings.xml     ← All text values (lookup table)
│   ├── worksheets/
│   │   ├── sheet1.xml        ← Cell data for sheet 1
│   │   ├── sheet2.xml        ← Cell data for sheet 2
│   │   └── ...
│   └── _rels/
│       └── workbook.xml.rels ← Maps rId → sheetN.xml
└── _rels/.rels

Sheet Name Resolution (Two-Step)

Sheet names in workbook.xml link to physical files via _rels/workbook.xml.rels:

import zipfile
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

MAIN_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main'
REL_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships'
RELS_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships'

def get_sheet_path(zf, sheet_name):
    """Resolve sheet name to physical XML file path inside ZIP."""
    # Step 1: workbook.xml → find rId for the sheet name
    wb_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/workbook.xml'))
    sheets = wb_xml.findall(f'.//{{{MAIN_NS}}}sheet')
    rid = None
    for s in sheets:
        if s.get('name') == sheet_name:
            rid = s.get(f'{{{REL_NS}}}id')
            break
    if not rid:
        raise ValueError(f"Sheet '{sheet_name}' not found")

    # Step 2: workbook.xml.rels → map rId to file path
    rels_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels'))
    for rel in rels_xml.findall(f'{{{RELS_NS}}}Relationship'):
        if rel.get('Id') == rid:
            return 'xl/' + rel.get('Target')

    raise ValueError(f"No file mapping for {rid}")

Cell Data Extraction

def extract_cells(zf, sheet_path):
    """Extract all cell values from a sheet XML."""
    # Build shared strings lookup
    shared = []
    try:
        ss_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/sharedStrings.xml'))
        for si in ss_xml.findall(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}si'):
            texts = si.itertext()
            shared.append(''.join(texts))
    except KeyError:
        pass  # No shared strings

    # Parse sheet cells
    sheet_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read(sheet_path))
    rows = sheet_xml.findall(f'.//{{{MAIN_NS}}}row')

    data = {}
    for row in rows:
        for cell in row.findall(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}c'):
            ref = cell.get('r')         # e.g., "A1"
            cell_type = cell.get('t')   # "s" = shared string, None = number
            val_el = cell.find(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}v')

            if val_el is not None and val_el.text:
                if cell_type == 's':
                    data[ref] = shared[int(val_el.text)]
                else:
                    try:
                        data[ref] = float(val_el.text)
                    except ValueError:
                        data[ref] = val_el.text
    return data

Fixing Corrupted DefinedNames

Investment bank xlsm files often have corrupted <definedName> entries containing "Formula removed":

def fix_defined_names(zf_in_path, zf_out_path):
    """Remove corrupted DefinedNames and repackage."""
    import shutil, tempfile
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        tmp = Path(tmp)
        with zipfile.ZipFile(zf_in_path, 'r') as zf:
            zf.extractall(tmp)

        wb_xml_path = tmp / 'xl' / 'workbook.xml'
        tree = ET.parse(wb_xml_path)
        root = tree.getroot()

        ns = {'main': MAIN_NS}
        defined_names = root.find('.//main:definedNames', ns)
        if defined_names is not None:
            for name in list(defined_names):
                if name.text and "Formula removed" in name.text:
                    defined_names.remove(name)

        tree.write(wb_xml_path, encoding='utf-8', xml_declaration=True)

        with zipfile.ZipFile(zf_out_path, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zf:
            for fp in tmp.rglob('*'):
                if fp.is_file():
                    zf.write(fp, fp.relative_to(tmp))

Full template script: See scripts/parse_complex_excel.py

Controlling Excel on macOS (AppleScript)

All commands verified on macOS with Microsoft Excel.

Verified Commands

# Activate Excel (bring to front)
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'

# Open a file
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to open POSIX file "/path/to/file.xlsx"'

# Set zoom level (percentage)
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    set zoom of active window to 120
end tell'

# Scroll to specific row
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    set scroll row of active window to 45
end tell'

# Scroll to specific column
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    set scroll column of active window to 3
end tell'

# Select a cell range
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    select range "A1" of active sheet
end tell'

# Select a specific sheet by name
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    activate object sheet "DCF" of active workbook
end tell'

Timing and Timeout

Always add sleep 1 between AppleScript commands and subsequent operations (e.g., screenshot) to allow UI rendering.

IMPORTANT: osascript will hang indefinitely if Excel is not running or not responding. Always wrap with timeout:

# Safe pattern: 5-second timeout
timeout 5 osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'

# Check exit code: 124 = timed out
if [ $? -eq 124 ]; then
    echo "Excel not responding — is it running?"
fi

Common Mistakes

MistakeCorrection
openpyxl fails on complex xlsm → try monkey-patchingSwitch to zipfile + xml.etree immediately
Count Chinese characters with wc -cUse wc -m (chars, not bytes; Chinese = 3 bytes/char)
Trust file extensionRun file <path> first to confirm actual format
openpyxl load_workbook hangs on large xlsmUse zipfile for targeted extraction instead of loading entire workbook

Important Notes

  • Execute Python scripts with uv run --with openpyxl (never use system Python)
  • LibreOffice (soffice --headless) can convert formats and recalculate formulas
  • Detailed formatting reference: See references/formatting-reference.md

Related skills

How it compares

Pick excel-automation for macOS-native Excel and xlsm parsing; use generic CSV or pandas skills when files are simple tabular data without Excel-specific formatting.

FAQ

Which platforms does excel-automation support?

excel-automation targets macOS for Excel window control via AppleScript and Python scripting with openpyxl. The skill creates formatted xlsx reports and parses complex xlsm models using zipfile and XML when openpyxl cannot handle the file.

How does excel-automation handle complex xlsm files?

excel-automation uses stdlib zipfile and XML parsing for investment-bank xlsm financial models that openpyxl cannot read. Developers also run create_formatted_excel.py via uv for professionally formatted xlsx output.

Is Excel Automation safe to install?

skills.sh reports 2 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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