About

Someone sends you a spreadsheet. It has 40 tabs, formulas you didn't write, and your boss wants answers by 3pm. Instead, just ask. Point Claude at any Excel file, ask what you need to know, and get answers without clicking through every tab.

Stop pretending you understand the spreadsheet your boss sent. Start actually knowing what's in it. Ask instead of clicking Point Claude at any workbook. Ask what's in it. Get answers without opening 40 tabs. Write formulas in English Describe what you need. Claude writes the formula. Copy, paste, move on. Find the broken number Something looks wrong but you don't know where to start. Claude traces it back and shows you exactly what's off.

Best for

· Understand complex workbooks without clicking through every tab
· Write Excel formulas by describing what you want in plain English
· Find formula errors and trace calculation chains in seconds
· Combine data from multiple tabs into clean, usable summaries

Not for

· Works with .xlsx—convert older .xls files first for best results
· Very large workbooks (100MB+) may need to be processed in sections
· Claude can read macro-heavy spreadsheets but can't execute VBA—it can explain what the macros do

How to use

1Install the SkillDownload the skill file directly, or install via the plugin marketplace. Skills auto-activate when relevant—no manual invocation needed.
2Ask What You NeedBe specific. "What formula drives cell B47?" beats "analyze this spreadsheet." The more precise your question, the more useful the answer.
3Point to Your FileDrag the spreadsheet into your terminal or paste the path. Your financial data stays on your machine.
4Keep DrillingClaude remembers the spreadsheet. Ask follow-ups. Dive into specific tabs. No need to re-upload.

Source

@anthropics on GitHubhttps://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/xlsx

Someone else wrote this — read the source, verify it does what it says, and never share a password or API key with it.

Example prompts

Figure out a spreadsheet you didn't build

/xlsx Before I touch anything, map this workbook. Which tabs have data vs. reference tables? What's the calculation flow? Flag anything fragile—hardcoded numbers, circular refs, formulas that might break.

Track down a wrong number

/xlsx The "Total Revenue" cell shows $4.2M. My back-of-envelope says $3.8M. Trace that formula back to source and tell me where the $400K gap is coming from.

Write a formula you can't figure out

/xlsx Write me a commission formula: 5% on the first $100K in sales, 8% from $100K-$250K, 10% above $250K. Sales in column D, starting row 2. Make it copyable down the column.

Combine data from multiple tabs

/xlsx This workbook has 12 tabs—one per month. Same structure: Product, Region, Units, Revenue. Combine all 12 into one table with a Month column added. I need it for pivot table analysis.

Board meeting in two hours

/xlsx Board meeting at 3pm. From this Q4 workbook, give me: (1) Top 5 revenue drivers vs last quarter, (2) Three cost categories that grew fastest, (3) Cash trend month-over-month. Bullet points for speaker notes.

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