mcp-server-excel copilot-instructions.md

mcp-server-excel copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from sbroenne/mcp-server-excel. It costs 1,206 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A set of coding instructions for ExcelMcp, a Windows .NET solution that controls the desktop Excel application through its automation interface. It covers both the MCP server and the excelcli command-line client.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when building, testing, or changing ExcelMcp's Excel operations, command-line tools, MCP tools, generated code, or documentation.
Why use it?
It helps keep both ways of using the project consistent and explains which tests require Excel installed on Windows.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add instructions/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel/copilot-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote 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.

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README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel/copilot-instructions.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel/copilot-instructions)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 1,206 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,206 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.01206 $0.01206
Opus 5 $0.00603 $0.00603
Sonnet 5 $0.00241 $0.00241
Haiku 4.5 $0.00121 $0.00121

Measured 4d ago against content hash fa3034b4b6f0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

mcp-server-excel copilot-instructions.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 4d 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.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 109 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 109 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Copilot Instructions - ExcelMcp

ExcelMcp is a Windows-only .NET 10 solution that automates desktop Excel through COM. It has two equal user entry points: the MCP Server and excelcli. A feature is incomplete if those surfaces differ in behavior, validation, defaults, or documentation.

Repository map

  • src/ExcelMcp.ComInterop: STA execution, COM lifetime, sessions, shutdown
  • src/ExcelMcp.Core: Excel operations and result models
  • src/ExcelMcp.Service: command dispatch used by both entry points
  • src/ExcelMcp.CLI: CLI client and daemon transport
  • src/ExcelMcp.McpServer: MCP tools and in-process service bridge
  • src/ExcelMcp.Generators*: generated CLI, service, and MCP surfaces
  • tests: xUnit projects; most Core behavior tests require desktop Excel
  • skills/shared: source of truth for shared CLI/MCP agent guidance
  • gh-pages: MkDocs site built from canonical repository documentation

Environment

  • Use Windows and PowerShell. The pinned SDK is in global.json.
  • Microsoft Excel is required for COM integration tests and local end-to-end smoke tests. GitHub-hosted runners can build the solution but do not have Excel; never report Excel-dependent tests as passing there.
  • .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml prepares cloud-agent dependencies.

Working rules

  1. Read only the path-specific files under .github/instructions that match the files being changed. Those files contain the detailed implementation rules.
  2. Diagnose behavior before editing. For a bug or feature, add a focused regression/integration test first, observe the expected failure, implement the fix, and rerun that test. Pure documentation and configuration changes do not need a synthetic test.
  3. Search for the same contract or generated pattern across Core, Service, CLI, MCP, tests, skills, and docs. Update every affected surface.
  4. Preserve unrelated worktree changes. Do not create temporary planning or summary files in the repository.
  5. Prefer existing helpers and generated surfaces. Do not duplicate dispatch, validation, serialization, COM cleanup, or documentation-count logic.

Read the full file on GitHub · 109 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 109 lines · 1,206 tokens per session scan A fa3034b4b6f0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

mcp-server-excel copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository sbroenne/mcp-server-excel (653 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 1,206 tokens to every session, about $0.0060 per session on Opus 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 2026-08-30.

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