| name | doc-office |
| description | Generate and edit Microsoft Office files — Word, Excel, PowerPoint — when the deliverable is a document, not code. Triggers on "make a Word doc", "generate an Excel report", "build a spreadsheet with formulas or charts", "create a deck or slides", "fill a docx template". Reaches for python-docx and docxtpl (templated documents), openpyxl and XlsxWriter (spreadsheets with real formulas, styling, charts), and python-pptx (slides from data). Prefers templating over hand-building; keeps numbers as live formulas, not strings. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Write, Edit |
doc-office — Word, Excel, PowerPoint
The deliverable is a .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx. Reach for the right library; prefer templating over
hand-building a document element by element.
Word
- Templated (same shape each time — a letter, a report) → docxtpl: Jinja2 inside a real .docx
template the user designed in Word. Styling stays in the template, data in code.
- From scratch → python-docx: headings, tables, images. Keep to named styles, don't hand-format
every run.
Excel
- openpyxl — read+write: formulas, styles, conditional formatting, charts, named ranges.
- XlsxWriter — write-only, but richer formatting/charts and faster on big sheets (
constant_memory mode).
- pandas
to_excel for a quick data dump; drop to openpyxl/XlsxWriter for formatting and formulas.
- Keep numbers as real formulas (
=SUM(...)), not pre-computed strings — the user expects a live model.
Set column widths, freeze the header row, format currency/dates, add a total row.
PowerPoint
- python-pptx — slides from data: pick a layout, fill placeholders, add tables/charts/images. Reuse a
branded template (
Presentation("template.pptx")) instead of the default theme.
Quality gate
- Open the file in the real app (or LibreOffice headless) — valid-looking OOXML a viewer rejects is not "done".
- Named styles + a template beat inline formatting for anything the user will maintain.
Pitfalls
- python-docx can't "update" a table of contents — Word rebuilds it on open (tell the user to press F9).
- openpyxl silently drops charts/macros it doesn't understand on round-trip — don't blindly read+write a
macro workbook (
.xlsm); use the right tool or keep a copy.
- Merged cells + formulas fight — set the value on the top-left cell only.
Learned from the community's document skills (incl. Anthropic's official DOCX/XLSX/PPTX skills) —
re-implemented as guidance over open libraries, not vendored. See docs/ECOSYSTEM.md. Pairs with doc-pdf.
