excel-mcp-server is a Model Context Protocol server that enables AI assistants to create, read, and edit Excel workbooks without Microsoft Excel installed. It supports workbook data, formulas, formatting, sheets, charts, tables, validation rules, and read-only VBA inspection, with safeguards such as folder confinement, read-only mode, and atomic saves.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to haris-musa/excel-mcp-server. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/haris-musa/excel-mcp-serverWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.04206 | $0.04206 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.01682 | $0.01682 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00841 | $0.00841 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00421 | $0.00421 |
Grade A, and why
excel-mcp-server AGENTS.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 16d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 276 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
AGENTS.md
Guidance for AI coding agents and human contributors working on excel-mcp-server: an
MCP server that lets LLM clients create, read and modify Excel files via openpyxl, without
Microsoft Excel installed. Distributed on PyPI (uvx excel-mcp-server) and as an MCP Bundle
(.mcpb) for one-click install in desktop clients.
The server runs with access to users' filesystems and is installed by thousands of people. Safety and correctness beat features. When in doubt, do less and ask.
This file holds durable rules. It deliberately avoids pinning versions: the
source of truth for versions is pyproject.toml, uv.lock, and the upstream docs linked below.
1. Stay current. Verify, don't assume
The MCP ecosystem moves fast and your training data is probably out of date. Before any change that touches the protocol, the SDK, packaging, CI or dependencies:
- Check the latest upstream state rather than relying on memory or on existing code:
- MCP spec (current revision + changelog + deprecated-features registry): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/latest
- Python SDK docs and migration guides: https://py.sdk.modelcontextprotocol.io/
- Latest package versions:
https://pypi.org/pypi/<package>/json - MCPB bundle spec: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/mcpb/blob/main/MANIFEST.md
- MCP Registry (
server.json): https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry
- Target the latest stable spec revision, SDK major, and tool versions. Don't target prereleases, and don't stay on an old major "because it works".
- Never implement a feature the spec marks Deprecated, and plan removal of any we use within its deprecation window.
- This file wins over existing code. If code contradicts a rule here, follow the rule for new code and flag the mismatch (or fix it in a dedicated PR). Don't copy it.
- If you find something outdated (dependency, action, API, doc), say so, even if it is outside your task. Open or suggest a separate issue/PR rather than widening your diff.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 16d ago Changed · +7 lines · +127 tokens per session f7a4ef2a90fd
- 18d ago Changed · +20 lines · +340 tokens per session cd4bea7dab84
- 28d ago First seen · 249 lines · 3,739 tokens per session scan A 4ec5c15ba7a9
excel-mcp-server AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository haris-musa/excel-mcp-server (4,268 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 4,206 tokens to every session, about $0.0168 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-29.
Other instructions, from other repositories
mcp-server-excel copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for sbroenne/mcp-server-excel: This repository contains generated plugin publication output. Before changing anything, read the repository warning.
vscode buildNext.instructions.md
Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, cache eligibility and rollout and applying the notice (cutover).
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.
vscode copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code copilot instructions, project overview, root folders, core architecture (src/ folder) and built-in extensions (extensions/ folder).