Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx)

Quick Reference

Task	Default (Node)	Fallback (Python)
Create / edit a workbook	exceljs — write a TypeScript program (packages: ["exceljs"]) and run it via your coding tool; pre-installed in the standard sandbox image	openpyxl — reach for this only when the workbook is a byproduct of a larger pandas-based analysis already running in Python (see data-analysis), not as a first choice
Bulk tabular data in/out	exceljs (worksheet.addRows(records))	pandas (pd.read_excel/DataFrame.to_excel) when the data is already a DataFrame
Static formula sanity-check	node skills/xlsx/scripts/verify_formulas.ts <file.xlsx> (via tsx, already installed by the sandbox's TypeScript runtime)	python skills/xlsx/scripts/verify_formulas.py <file.xlsx>

Default to exceljs in TypeScript for any new spreadsheet-creation task, per this environment's Node-first policy for office-document generation — reach for openpyxl/pandas only when the workbook is genuinely a byproduct of Python-side data work you're already doing (e.g. exporting a data-analysis result), not as a starting point. Both are already installed/allowlisted — no extra setup either way.

The one rule that matters most: write real formulas, not computed values

When a cell's value is the result of a calculation the user will want to keep updating (a total, a percentage, a lookup), write it as an actual Excel formula, never as the number your code computed on the JS/Python side. A hardcoded number looks correct today but silently goes stale the moment the user edits an input cell — which defeats the entire purpose of giving them a spreadsheet instead of a static table. This applies to totals, subtotals, percentages-of-total, running balances, and any lookup/reference between sheets.

In exceljs, a formula is a cell value shaped as an object, not a string prefixed with =:

worksheet.getCell("B10").value = { formula: "SUM(B2:B9)" };

Exception: raw input data (the numbers the user gave you, or that you extracted from a source document) should be hardcoded values — only derived values need to be formulas.

Creating / editing with exceljs

import ExcelJS from "exceljs";

const workbook = new ExcelJS.Workbook();
const sheet = workbook.addWorksheet("Report", {
  views: [{ state: "frozen", ySplit: 1 }], // freeze the header row
});

sheet.columns = [
  { header: "Item", key: "item", width: 32 },
  { header: "Amount", key: "amount", width: 14, style: { numFmt: "#,##0.00" } },
];

sheet.addRows([{ item: "Widgets", amount: 1200 }, { item: "Gadgets", amount: 830 }]);
sheet.getCell(`B${sheet.rowCount + 1}`).value = { formula: `SUM(B2:B${sheet.rowCount})` };

await workbook.xlsx.writeFile("report.xlsx");

• Set explicit column widths (width in the columns definition, or worksheet.getColumn(n).width = ...) and number formats (cell.numFmt = "#,##0.00" / "0.0%") — an unformatted sheet of raw numbers reads as unfinished.
• Freeze header rows for any sheet with more than ~15 data rows: worksheet.views = [{ state: "frozen", ySplit: 1 }] (add xSplit too to also freeze leading columns).
• When writing a formula whose range depends on the data you just wrote (e.g. a SUM over however many rows got added), compute the range bounds from worksheet.rowCount/actualRowCount, never a hardcoded row count — otherwise the formula silently omits rows if the dataset grows.
• Sheet/tab names: Excel forbids : \ / ? * [ ] and a 31-character limit — sanitize any user-provided sheet name before calling workbook.addWorksheet(name).
• exceljs has no auto-fit for column widths — if content length varies a lot, compute a width from the max string length in that column yourself before setting it, rather than leaving a default that truncates.

Reading a workbook

const workbook = new ExcelJS.Workbook();
await workbook.xlsx.readFile("input.xlsx");
const sheet = workbook.getWorksheet("Sheet1"); // or workbook.worksheets[0]
sheet.eachRow({ includeEmpty: false }, (row) => { /* row.values, row.getCell(n) */ });

For heavy tabular reshaping (multi-file joins, group-by/aggregate before writing the result out), it's reasonable to read via pandas.read_excel into a DataFrame instead — pandas' reshaping API is more ergonomic than hand-rolling the equivalent in exceljs, and the DataFrame can still be written out via pandas.DataFrame.to_excel (or handed to exceljs if you need formulas/styling on the way out that pandas doesn't support).

Verifying formulas without a recalculation engine

This environment cannot recalculate formulas (no LibreOffice/Excel to open the file and re-run its calculation engine), so a formula's result is never re-verified — only its shape. scripts/verify_formulas.ts (or the Python equivalent, scripts/verify_formulas.py — both inspect the same on-disk .xlsx format and produce equivalent results, so use whichever matches the sandbox session you already have open) does a best-effort static scan for the most common formula footguns:

• Division formulas whose denominator cell reference is currently blank or 0 in the data you wrote — a likely future #DIV/0! the moment that cell is read.
• A range reference (e.g. SUM(B2:B100)) that extends beyond the sheet's actual used range — usually a sign the range was hardcoded rather than computed from the data.
• Any cell whose cached value (if the file was previously touched by a real spreadsheet app) is itself an Excel error token (#REF!, #DIV/0!, #VALUE!, #N/A, #NAME?, #NULL!, #NUM!).

Run it after writing the file, before handing it to the user: npx tsx skills/xlsx/scripts/verify_formulas.ts output.xlsx. It exits non-zero and prints every flagged cell if it finds anything.

Independently cross-check any number you report in your response (e.g. "the total is $45,230") by actually computing it in code — since the formula itself is never executed in this environment, the only way to be confident the number you're telling the user about is correct is to have actually computed it yourself, not just written a formula that should compute it.

Not supported in this environment

• Formula recalculation via a LibreOffice macro (Anthropic's reference implementation's approach) — not available; formulas are written correctly but left uncalculated, and Excel/Google Sheets will calculate them on first open.