Excel MCP Server

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.haris-musa/excel-mcp-server -->

A Model Context Protocol server that lets AI assistants create, read and edit Excel workbooks. It needs no Microsoft Excel installation.

localhost-only HTTP by default, and atomic saves that never leave a half-written file

• Read and write cells, formulas and dates, with paging for large sheets and search
• Format fonts, fills, borders, number formats, column widths and frozen panes
• Structure sheets, rows and columns, merged cells, tables, charts and summary tables
• Rules: conditional formatting and data validation (dropdowns, number limits)
• Macros: read the VBA code in .xlsm files, module by module (read-only, never run)
• Safe by design: optional folder confinement, a formula safety check, read-only mode,

Works with .xlsx, .xlsm (macros are preserved), .xltx and .xltm files.

Quick start

You need uv. The server runs with uvx excel-mcp-server stdio.

Claude Desktop: download excel-mcp-server-.mcpb from the latest release and open it. Claude asks which folder the server may use.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add excel -- uvx excel-mcp-server stdio --allow-dir ~/Documents/Excel

Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop (manual) and most other clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excel": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["excel-mcp-server", "stdio", "--allow-dir", "/path/to/your/workbooks"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "excel": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["excel-mcp-server", "stdio", "--allow-dir", "${workspaceFolder}"]
    }
  }
}

If your client cannot find uvx (common with desktop apps on macOS), use its full path, which which uvx prints.

Choosing which files it can use

With --allow-dir DIR, the server only opens workbooks inside DIR (subfolders included) and relative paths such as reports/q1.xlsx start there. Repeat the flag to allow several folders, or set EXCELFILESPATH (separate folders with : on macOS/Linux and ; on Windows).

Without --allow-dir, any absolute path to an Excel file works. In every mode the server only touches Excel files and never silently overwrites an existing workbook.

Remote use (Streamable HTTP)

uvx excel-mcp-server streamable-http --allow-dir /srv/workbooks

Clients connect to http://127.0.0.1:8017/mcp. Workbooks live in the --allow-dir folder (default ./excelfiles), and exportworkbook / import_workbook move files between the server and the client.

The server listens on localhost only. To accept other machines, set a token and a host:

EXCEL_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=change-me uvx excel-mcp-server streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0

Clients then send Authorization: Bearer change-me. Put a TLS-terminating reverse proxy in front of it for use across networks.

Docker

docker build -t excel-mcp-server .
docker run -p 8017:8017 -v "$PWD/workbooks:/data" -e EXCEL_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=change-me excel-mcp-server

Configuration

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.