officeCLI Agent Skill

Create, analyze, proofread, and modify Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) using the officecli CLI tool. Use when the user wants to create, inspect, check formatting, find issues, add charts, or modify Office documents.

2k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

2544

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/heshengtao/super-agent-party --skill officeCLI

The instruction itself

20 sections, as written by the author

officecli

AI-friendly CLI for .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. Single binary, no dependencies, no Office installation needed.

Install & Update

Same command for both install and upgrade:

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.ps1 | iex

After installation, run source ~/.zshrc (macOS) or source ~/.bashrc (Linux) to make the officecli command available.

Verify: officecli --version

officecli auto-updates daily in the background.

Strategy

L1 (read) → L2 (DOM edit) → L3 (raw XML). Always prefer higher layers. Add --json for structured output.

Help System (IMPORTANT)

When unsure about property names, value formats, or command syntax, ALWAYS run help instead of guessing. One help query is faster than guess-fail-retry loops.

Three-layer navigation — start from the deepest level you know:

officecli pptx set              # All settable elements and their properties
officecli pptx set shape        # Shape properties in detail
officecli pptx set shape.fill   # Specific property format and examples

Replace pptx with docx or xlsx. Commands: view, get, query, set, add, raw.

Performance: Resident Mode

For multi-step workflows (3+ commands on the same file), use open/close:

officecli open report.docx       # keep in memory — fast subsequent commands
officecli set report.docx ...    # no file I/O overhead
officecli close report.docx      # save and release

Quick Start

PPT:

officecli create slides.pptx
officecli add slides.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Q4 Report" --prop background=1A1A2E
officecli add slides.pptx /slide[1] --type shape --prop text="Revenue grew 25%" --prop x=2cm --prop y=5cm --prop font=Arial --prop size=24 --prop color=FFFFFF
officecli set slides.pptx /slide[1] --prop transition=fade --prop advanceTime=3000

Word:

officecli create report.docx
officecli add report.docx /body --type paragraph --prop text="Executive Summary" --prop style=Heading1
officecli add report.docx /body --type paragraph --prop text="Revenue increased by 25% year-over-year."

Excel:

officecli create data.xlsx
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/A1 --prop value="Name" --prop bold=true
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/B1 --prop value="Score" --prop bold=true
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/A2 --prop value="Alice"
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/B2 --prop value=95

L1: Create, Read & Inspect

officecli create <file>               # Create blank .docx/.xlsx/.pptx (type from extension)
officecli view <file> <mode>          # outline | stats | issues | text | annotated
officecli get <file> <path> --depth N # Get a node and its children [--json]
officecli query <file> <selector>     # CSS-like query
officecli validate <file>             # Validate against OpenXML schema

view modes

| Mode | Description | Useful flags |

|------|-------------|-------------|

| outline | Document structure | |

| stats | Statistics (pages, words, shapes) | |

| text | Plain text extraction | --start N --end N, --max-lines N |

| annotated | Text with formatting annotations | |

get

Any XML path via element localName. Use --depth N to expand children. Add --json for structured output.

officecli get report.docx '/body/p[3]' --depth 2 --json
officecli get slides.pptx '/slide[1]' --depth 1          # list all shapes on slide 1
officecli get data.xlsx '/Sheet1/B2' --json

Run officecli docx get / officecli xlsx get / officecli pptx get for all available paths.

query

CSS-like selectors: [attr=value], [attr!=value], [attr~=text], [attr>=value], [attr<=value], :contains("text"), :empty, :has(formula), :no-alt.

officecli query report.docx 'paragraph[style=Normal] > run[font!=Arial]'
officecli query slides.pptx 'shape[fill=FF0000]'

validate

officecli validate report.docx    # Check for schema errors
officecli validate slides.pptx    # Must pass before delivery

For large documents, ALWAYS use --max-lines or --start/--end to limit output.

L2: DOM Operations

set — modify properties

officecli set <file> <path> --prop key=value [--prop ...]

Any XML attribute is settable via element path (found via get --depth N) — even attributes not currently present.

Run officecli <format> set for all settable elements. Run officecli <format> set <element> for detail.

Value formats:

| Type | Format | Examples |

|------|--------|---------|

| Colors | Hex, named, RGB, theme | FF0000, red, rgb(255,0,0), accent1..accent6 |

| Spacing | Unit-qualified | 12pt, 0.5cm, 1.5x, 150% |

| Dimensions | EMU or suffixed | 914400, 2.54cm, 1in, 72pt, 96px |

add — add elements or clone

officecli add <file> <parent> --type <type> [--index N] [--prop ...]
officecli add <file> <parent> --from <path> [--index N]    # clone existing element

Element types (with aliases):

| Format | Types |

|--------|-------|

| pptx | slide, shape (textbox), picture (image/img), chart, table, row (tr), connector (connection/line), group, video (audio/media), equation (formula/math), notes, paragraph (para), run, zoom (slidezoom) |

| docx | paragraph (para), run, table, row (tr), cell (td), image (picture/img), header, footer, section, bookmark, comment, footnote, endnote |

| xlsx | sheet, row, cell, chart, image (picture), comment, hyperlink |

Clone: officecli add <file> / --from /slide[1] — copies with all cross-part relationships.

Run officecli <format> add for all addable types and their properties.

move, swap, remove

officecli move <file> <path> [--to <parent>] [--index N]
officecli swap <file> <path1> <path2>
officecli remove <file> '/body/p[4]'

batch — multiple operations in one save cycle

echo '[
  {"command":"set","path":"/Sheet1/A1","props":{"value":"Name","bold":"true"}},
  {"command":"set","path":"/Sheet1/B1","props":{"value":"Score","bold":"true"}}
]' | officecli batch data.xlsx --json

Batch supports: add, set, get, query, remove, move, view, raw, raw-set, validate.

Batch fields: command, path, parent, type, from, to, index, props (dict), selector, mode, depth, part, xpath, action, xml.

L3: Raw XML

Use when L2 cannot express what you need. No xmlns declarations needed — prefixes auto-registered.

officecli raw <file> <part>                          # view raw XML
officecli raw-set <file> <part> --xpath "..." --action replace --xml '<w:p>...</w:p>'
officecli add-part <file> <parent>                   # create new document part (returns rId)

raw-set actions: append, prepend, insertbefore, insertafter, replace, remove, setattr.

Run officecli <format> raw for available parts per format.

Common Pitfalls

| Pitfall | Correct Approach |

|---------|-----------------|

| --name "foo" | ❌ Use --prop name="foo" — all attributes go through --prop |

| x=-3cm | ❌ Negative coordinates not supported. Use x=0cm or x=36cm |

| /shape[myname] | ❌ Name indexing not supported. Use numeric index: /shape[3] |

| Guessing property names | ❌ Run officecli <format> set <element> to see exact names |

| Modifying an open file | ❌ Close the file in PowerPoint/WPS first |

| \n in shell strings | ❌ Use \\n for newlines in --prop text="..." |

Specialized Skills

This skill covers the officecli CLI basics. For complex scenarios, load the dedicated skill for better results:

|----------|-------|:-----------:|-------------|

> How to load: Ask your AI tool to enable the skill by name, or load the skill file from skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md.

Notes

Paths are 1-based (XPath convention): '/body/p[3]' = third paragraph
--index is 0-based (array convention): --index 0 = first position
After modifications, verify with validate and/or view issues
When unsure, run officecli <format> <command> [element[.property]] instead of guessing

Other skills for the same job

different authors, same section of the catalogue

DOCX

by anthropics

vendor ×16

Comprehensive document creation, editing, and analysis with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction. When Claude needs to work with professional documents (.docx files) for: (1) Creating new documents, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with tracked changes, (4) Adding comments, or any other document tasks

Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables, creating new PDFs, merging/splitting documents, and handling forms. When Claude needs to fill in a PDF form or programmatically process, generate, or analyze PDF documents at scale.

Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks

Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.

Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.

Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.

Use this skill any time a .pptx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates, layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.

Create and edit Obsidian Flavored Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties, and other Obsidian-specific syntax. Use when working with .md files in Obsidian, or when the user mentions wikilinks, callouts, frontmatter, tags, embeds, or Obsidian notes.

3k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take heshengtao/officecli from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.