sbroenne/mcp-server-excel

VS Code: install the "sbroenne.excel-mcp" extension from the VS Code Marketplace (one-click, recommended).
Claude Desktop: download the .mcpb file from the latest GitHub release.
Any MCP client: download mcp-excel.exe from the latest release and add to PATH; or dotnet tool install --global Sbroenne.ExcelMcp.McpServer (requires .NET 10).
Auto-configure all coding agents: npx add-mcp "mcp-excel" --name excel-mcp (requires Node.js).

Usage

• •Close all Excel files before automation - the server requires exclusive access to workbooks.
• •Give natural-language prompts such as "Create a PivotTable from this data showing total sales by Product, then add a bar chart" or "Use Power Query to import products.csv, load to the Data Model, and create a measure."
• •Ask "Show me Excel while you work" to watch changes in real time (Excel runs hidden by default for speed).
• •For coding agents, install the excel-cli skill and CLI (64% fewer tokens than MCP due to a single tool instead of 26 schemas).

Key features

• ✓Powered by the real Excel engine via COM API: runs live refresh (Power Query, PivotTables, Data Model), recalculates, evaluates DAX, runs VBA and Python =PY() - does more than file-parser tools.
• ✓26 specialized tools / 234 operations covering Power Query, DAX/Data Model, Tables, PivotTables, Charts, VBA, Ranges, Worksheets, Connections, Named Ranges, Files, Calculation Mode, Slicers, Conditional Formatting, Screenshot (PNG for LLM visual verification), and Window Management.
• ✓Dual entry points with 1:1 parity: MCP Server (in-process service, conversational AI) and CLI (excelcli, background daemon over named pipe with persistent sessions and system tray UI).
• ✓GitHub Copilot CLI plugins (excel-mcp and excel-cli) available from the Copilot plugin marketplace.
• ✓LLM-tested quality: tool behavior validated with real LLM workflows via pytest-skill-engineering.

Best for

Data analysts and developers on Windows who want AI assistants to automate real Excel workbooks (Power Query, DAX, VBA, PivotTables) while preserving all formulas and formatting.

Caveats

• ⚠Windows only (COM interop is Windows-specific); requires Microsoft Excel 2016 or later installed.
• ⚠Controls an actual Excel desktop process - not suitable for server-side processing or high-volume batch operations.
• ⚠Requires exclusive access to workbooks, so close all Excel files before use.