bioroffice-office-suite

name	bioroffice-office-suite
description	Core guide for the BiorOffice officecli tool — create, read, analyze, and modify Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), and PowerPoint (.pptx) documents. Covers the tool calling convention, DOM paths, the built-in help system, and dynamic loading of specialized Office skills.

BiorOffice Office Suite (officecli MCP tool)

The bioroffice extension exposes one MCP tool: officecli. It creates, reads, analyzes, and modifies Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) with no Microsoft Office installation. Use it whenever the user asks for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations.

Tool calling convention

Every call is officecli with a JSON argument object. command is required:

command	key arguments
create	file — blank .docx/.xlsx/.pptx (type inferred from extension)
view	file, mode: outline | stats | issues | text | annotated | html | screenshot
get	file, path, depth (default 1)
query	file, selector (CSS-like), optional text filter
set	file, path, props (array of "key=value" strings)
add	file, parent, type, props, optional index/after/before
remove	file, path
move	file, path, to, optional index/after/before
swap	file, path, path2
validate	file — validate against the OpenXML schema
batch	file, commands (JSON array as a string) — many ops, one save cycle
raw	file, part — raw XML escape hatch
help	format (docx/xlsx/pptx), optional type for one element's schema
load_skill	name — load a specialized skill (see below)

Example — add a slide:

{"command": "add", "file": "/abs/path/deck.pptx", "parent": "/",
 "type": "slide", "props": ["title=Q4 Report", "background=1A1A2E"]}

Dynamic specialized skills (IMPORTANT)

Before substantive document work, load the matching specialized skill once per artifact with load_skill — it returns authoritative design/structure rules:

name	When to use
word	Reports, letters, memos, proposals, generic documents
academic-paper	Journal/conference/thesis with citations, equations, cross-refs
pptx	Generic decks: board reviews, sales decks, all-hands
pitch-deck	Fundraising decks only
morph-ppt / morph-ppt-3d	Morph-animated / 3D presentations
excel	Generic workbooks, formulas, pivots, trackers
financial-model	Financial models, scenarios, projections
data-dashboard	KPI/analytics dashboards with charts and sparklines

Pick the most specific match; if none fits, load the format default (word / pptx / excel). Load one skill per artifact, never stack. Loaded rules persist across turns.

Paths (DOM addressing)

• Paths are 1-based (XPath convention): /body/p[3] = third paragraph; /slide[1]/shape[2]; /Sheet1/A1; /Sheet1/A1:D10.
• --index-style index argument is 0-based (Excel row/col add: 1-based).
• Prefer stable-ID paths returned by the tool (/slide[1]/shape[@id=550950021], /body/p[@paraId=1A2B3C4D]) in multi-step edits — positional indices shift.
• In PPT, shape[1] is usually the title placeholder; content starts at shape[2].

Help system — never guess

When unsure about property names, value formats, or element types, call help instead of guessing:

{"command": "help", "format": "docx"}                      // list all elements
{"command": "help", "format": "docx", "type": "paragraph"} // full element schema

Workflow

1. create (or inspect an existing file with view mode outline / stats).
2. load_skill for the artifact type.
3. Build content with add / set (use batch for many operations — much faster).
4. Verify: view mode outline or text, then validate and view mode issues.
5. For visual checks, view mode html (no browser server needed) or screenshot.

Pitfalls

• All attributes go through props as "key=value" strings — e.g. "bold=true", "color=FF0000", "size=24", "text=Hello".
• Colors: hex with/without #, named (red), rgb(...), theme (accent1..accent6).
• Dimensions: 2cm, 1in, 72pt, 96px, or raw EMU. Spacing: 12pt, 1.5x, 150%.
• Newlines inside text props: use \n inside the JSON string value.
• After modifications, run validate and view mode issues before declaring done.
• Always pass absolute file paths.