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.
⚡ Powered by the real Excel engine - ExcelMcp automates the actual Excel application through its official COM API — the same engine Excel itself uses. That unlocks what spreadsheets are really for:
- Runs live Excel operations - Refresh Power Query to pull and reshape fresh data, recalculate with Excel's own engine, refresh PivotTables and the Data Model, evaluate DAX, and run VBA or Python
=PY() — the real, computed results land right in your workbook.
- Edits your existing files safely - Excel opens and saves the workbook itself, so every formula, PivotTable, chart, macro, the Data Model and all your formatting stay exactly as they were.
Other tools (openpyxl-based MCP servers and Agent Skills, including Anthropic's xlsx skill) read and rewrite the .xlsx file directly — which can quietly drop PivotTables, charts, and macros, and can't run Power Query, the Data Model, or DAX at all. Here, Excel does the work. Watch it live: just say "Show me Excel while you work."
💡 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.
Key features
The Excel MCP Server (excel-mcp) provides 26 specialized tools with 234 operations for comprehensive Excel automation:
- 🔄 Power Query & M code - Create, edit and optimize M code. Import from files, databases and APIs. Refresh queries and manage load destinations.
- 🧮 Power Pivot & DAX - Build Data Models, create DAX measures and manage table relationships. Full Power Pivot automation.
- 📊 PivotTables & charts - Create PivotTables from ranges, tables or the Data Model. Build charts and PivotCharts with full formatting control.
- 📋 Tables & ranges - Read/write data, formulas and formatting. Filter, sort and validate. Manage Excel Tables with structured references.
- 📝 VBA macros - View, import, update and execute VBA code. Export modules for version control.
- 📄 Worksheets & connections - Manage sheets, named ranges and data connections. Copy and move sheets between workbooks.
- 👁️ Agent mode - Watch AI work in Excel in real time — side-by-side view, live status-bar feedback and smart window arrangement, like a pair programmer in a spreadsheet.
- 🐍 Python in Excel - Write and run
=PY() formulas that execute in Excel's cloud Python engine — process worksheet data with pandas, NumPy and more, from your AI assistant.
- 🧪 LLM-tested quality - Tool behavior validated with real LLM workflows using pytest-skill-engineering, so AI assistants reliably understand and use every operation.
📚 See all 26 tools and 234 operations →
Agent Skills (Bundled)
This extension includes an Agent Skill following the agentskills.io specification - providing domain-specific guidance for AI assistants:
VS Code setup: Enable the preview setting chat.useAgentSkills to allow Copilot to load skills. Skills are registered via VS Code's chatSkills contribution point and managed automatically.
💬 Example Prompts
Create & Populate Data:
- "Create a new Excel file called SalesTracker.xlsx with a table for Date, Product, Quantity, Unit Price, and Total"
- "Put this data in A1:C4 - Name, Age, City / Alice, 30, Seattle / Bob, 25, Portland"
- "Add sample data and a formula column for Quantity times Unit Price"
Analysis & Visualization:
- "Create a PivotTable from this data showing total sales by Product, then add a bar chart"
- "Import products.csv with Power Query, load to Data Model, create a measure for Total Revenue"
- "Create a slicer for the Region field so I can filter the PivotTable interactively"
Formatting & Automation:
- "Format the Price column as currency and highlight values over $500 in green"
- "Export all Power Query M code to files for version control"
- "Show me Excel while you work" - watch changes in real-time
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 Power Queries and VBA modules to .vba files for version control"
That's it! The extension includes a self-contained MCP server - no .NET runtime or SDK needed.
➡️ Learn more and see examples
Requirements
- Windows OS - Excel COM automation requires Windows
- Microsoft Excel 2016+ - Must be installed on your system
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
License & Privacy
MIT License - see LICENSE
Privacy Policy - see PRIVACY.md
Built with GitHub Copilot | Powered by Model Context Protocol
