Stefan Broenner
f0d04ea96a
- Change --self-contained to --no-self-contained in build script - Remove architecture-specific RID for portable build - Extension now works on both x64 and ARM64 Windows Bin folder: 77 MB -> 8.4 MB VSIX package: ~25 MB -> 3.5 MB Closes #250
Excel MCP Server - AI-Powered Excel Automation
Control Microsoft Excel with AI through GitHub Copilot - just ask in natural language!
MCP Server for Excel enables AI assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) to automate Excel through natural language commands. Automate Power Query, DAX measures, VBA macros, PivotTables, Charts, formatting, and data transformations - no Excel programming knowledge required.
🛡️ 100% Safe - Uses Excel's Native COM API - Zero risk of file corruption. Unlike third-party libraries that manipulate .xlsx files directly, this project uses Excel's official API ensuring complete safety and compatibility.
💡 Interactive Development - See results instantly in Excel. Create a query, run it, inspect the output, refine and repeat. Excel becomes your AI-powered workspace for rapid development and testing.
Features
The Excel MCP Server provides 12 specialized tools with 172 operations for comprehensive Excel automation:
- 🔄 Power Query (9 ops) - Atomic workflows, M code management, load destinations
- 📊 Data Model/DAX (14 ops) - Measures, relationships, model structure
- 🎨 Excel Tables (24 ops) - Lifecycle, filtering, sorting, structured references
- 📈 PivotTables (25 ops) - Creation, fields, aggregations, data extraction
- 📉 Charts (14 ops) - Create, configure, manage series and formatting
- 📝 VBA (6 ops) - Modules, execution, version control
- 📋 Ranges (42 ops) - Values, formulas, formatting, validation, protection
- 📄 Worksheets (16 ops) - Lifecycle, colors, visibility, cross-workbook moves
- 🔌 Connections (9 ops) - OLEDB/ODBC management and refresh
- 🏷️ Named Ranges (6 ops) - Parameters and configuration
- 📁 Files (5 ops) - Session management and workbook creation
- 🎨 Conditional Formatting (2 ops) - Rules and clearing
📚 Complete Feature Reference →
💬 Example Prompts
Data Transformation & Analysis:
- "Optimize all my Power Queries in this workbook for better performance"
- "Create a PivotTable from SalesData table showing top 10 products by region with sum and average"
- "Create a data model from the following tables ... "
- "Build a DAX measure calculating year-over-year growth with proper time intelligence"
- "Filter this table by Column Product = Sushi"
- *"Create a treemap chart from this table".
Formatting & Styling (No Programming Required):
- "Format the revenue columns as currency, make headers bold with blue background, and add borders to the table"
- "Apply conditional formatting to highlight values above $10,000 in red and below $5,000 in yellow"
- "Convert this data range to an Excel Table with style TableStyleMedium2, add auto-filters, and create a totals row"
Workflow Automation:
- "Find all cells containing 'Q1 2024' and replace with 'Q1 2025', then sort the table by Date descending"
- "Add data validation dropdowns to the Status column with options: Active, Pending, Completed"
- "Merge the header cells, center-align them, and auto-fit all column widths to content"
Quick Start
- Install this extension (you just did!)
- Ask Copilot in the chat panel:
- "List all Power Query queries in workbook.xlsx"
- "Create a DAX measure for year-over-year revenue growth"
- "Export all Powere Queires and VBA modules to .vba files for version control"
That's it! The extension automatically installs .NET 8 runtime and includes a bundled MCP server.
➡️ Learn more and see examples
Requirements
- Windows OS - Excel COM automation requires Windows
- Microsoft Excel 2016+ - Must be installed on your system
- .NET 8 Runtime - Automatically installed by the extension
Potential Issues
"Excel is not installed" error:
- Ensure Microsoft Excel 2016+ is installed on your Windows machine
- Try opening Excel manually to verify it works
"VBA access denied" error:
- VBA operations require one-time manual setup in Excel
- Go to: File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings → Macro Settings
- Check "Trust access to the VBA project object model"
Copilot doesn't see Excel tools:
-
Restart VS Code after installing the extension
-
Troubleshooting
-
Check Output panel → "Excel MCP Server" for connection status
Documentation & Support
- Complete Documentation - Full guides and examples
- Report Issues - Bug reports and feature requests
License
MIT License - see LICENSE
Built with GitHub Copilot | Powered by Model Context Protocol