xlai

A Claude Code plugin for interactive Excel exploration and modification.

Features

• List and connect to open Excel workbooks
• Explore sheets, ranges, and named ranges
• Read cell values and formulas
• Modify workbooks with natural language commands
• Safe by default (read-only mode)

Requirements

• Windows with Microsoft Excel installed
• Claude Code CLI

Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jamtho/xlai.git
cd xlai

# Run the install script
# Windows (PowerShell):
.\install.ps1

# Windows (Git Bash / WSL):
./install.sh

This installs the /xl skill to your user skills directory (~/.claude/skills/xl/).

As a Plugin

To install as a namespaced plugin (/xlai:xl):

# Create symlink (requires admin on Windows)
mklink /D "%USERPROFILE%\.claude\plugins\xlai" "C:\path\to\xlai"

Usage

1. Open Excel and load a workbook
2. Start Claude Code
3. Type /xl to invoke the skill

Example Prompts

• "Show me what workbooks are open"
• "List the sheets in this workbook"
• "Read the data in A1:D10 on Sheet1"
• "What named ranges are defined?"
• "Show me the formulas in column B"
• "Find cells that reference Sheet2"
• "Add a new sheet called Summary"
• "Rename Sheet1 to Data"

Safety

The plugin operates in read-only mode by default. Write operations require explicit --mode rw which Claude will use only when you request modifications.

Read-only mode guarantees:

• No writes to values, formulas, or structure
• No calculation triggers
• No refresh of external data
• No opening or closing workbooks

Bundled Binary

This plugin includes xl.exe from xl-cli. For xl.exe bugs or feature requests, see the xl-cli repository.

License

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright (c) 2026 James Thompson