xlide-excel-word-powerpoint-access-office-vba-mcp
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| prompts | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| resources | {
"subscribe": false,
"listChanged": false
} |
| experimental | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| xlide_list_projectsA | Finds the Office files in this server's workspace and returns their absolute paths, host application and whether their VBA can be opened. Call this first when the user has not named a file. Covers Excel (.xlsm, .xlsb, .xlam, .xls, and .xlsx for Power Query and sheets), Word (.docm, .dotm, .doc), PowerPoint (.pptm, .potm), Access (.accdb, .mdb), and Visual Basic 6 projects (.vbp, whose modules are the files its manifest names). Files whose extension is recognized but not openable are listed with the reason, so a template or add-in is not silently missing. |
| xlide_project_infoA | Everything about one Office file in a single call: its VBA modules with kinds and line counts, its UserForms, its Power Query queries, its worksheets with used ranges and named ranges, and whether the VBA project is password-protected or digitally signed. Call this once per file before working on it. Each module carries a content_token for a guarded write. |
| xlide_validate_projectA | Checks a file's VBA project for structural problems: records that disagree with each other, a module the directory names but the container does not hold, and the like. This is about the container, not about the code; use xlide_analyze for the code. Worth calling before risky work on an old or repaired file. |
| xlide_create_projectA | Creates a new Office file with an empty VBA project at the given absolute path, from a template the application itself authored, so it opens with no repair prompt. Extensions: .xlsm, .xlsb, .xlam, .docm, .pptm, .accdb, and .xlsx for a workbook with Power Query and no macros. It never overwrites an existing file. |
| xlide_doctorA | Reports what this server can reach: its workspace roots, whether it is read-only, which optional layers are installed, and, on Windows, which Office applications are available to run macros and tests. Call it when a tool reports something missing, or before promising the user a test run. |
| xlide_list_modulesA | Lists the VBA modules in an Office file: name, kind (standard, class, document or userform), line count, and a content_token to pass to a guarded write. xlide_project_info returns this and more in one call; use this one when the file is already known and only the module list is wanted. |
| xlide_read_moduleA | The canonical way to read VBA. Returns a module's source as the VBA editor shows it, with the attribute header stripped, plus a content_token. Pass that token back as expected_content_token when you write, and the write is refused if anything changed the module in between. start_line and end_line read a slice of a long module; both are 1-based and inclusive. |
| xlide_list_proceduresA | Lists the Sub, Function and Property procedures in one module, with each one's kind, scope, line number and signature. Use it to find where to change something without reading a long module in full. |
| xlide_search_modulesA | Searches every module's source in an Office file and returns each match with its module, line number and the line itself. Use it to find where a name is declared or used before changing it. Plain text by default; set is_regex for a Python regular expression. |
| xlide_write_moduleA | The canonical way to change VBA. Writes a module's source into the Office file and saves it. It replaces the module's whole source, so send all of it; send the body only, because the attribute header is managed for you. A module that does not exist is created: standard by default, or a class with kind='class'. Pass expected_content_token from your read and the write is refused if the module changed since. The result carries a diff of what the file now holds, read back after saving, which is what to show the user when they ask what changed. After writing, call xlide_analyze and treat any error as a build failure. Ask the user first when the project is protected or signed. |
| xlide_rename_moduleA | Renames a VBA module everywhere its name is stored, and saves the file. Calls to the module's procedures elsewhere in the project are not rewritten; search for the old name first with xlide_search_modules. Document modules such as ThisWorkbook and Sheet1 cannot be renamed, because the host owns them. |
| xlide_delete_moduleA | Permanently deletes a VBA module from an Office file and saves it. There is no undo: ask the user first, and read the module before deleting it so its code can be put back if they change their mind. Document modules cannot be deleted. |
| xlide_analyzeA | Runs static analysis over every VBA module in an Office file and returns the problems with module, line, column, code and message. Needs no Office installation and runs nothing. Each file is measured against its own host's object model, so Word code is never judged by Excel's surface, and a Visual Basic 6 project against no host at all, because its code does not run in one. Call this after every VBA change and treat any problem at error severity as a build failure: fix it and analyze again until it is clean. Warnings are worth reading; some are style, some are the bug. |
| xlide_analyze_sourceA | Runs static analysis over VBA source you are holding, before it is written to a file. Use it to check code you have just generated: it costs nothing, needs no file, and catches the compile errors that would otherwise surface in front of the user. Pass host so the code is measured against the right object model, and file_path instead if the code is destined for a file that already exists, which resolves calls into the rest of that project. |
| xlide_rulesA | The analyzer's rule catalogue: every diagnostic code with its title, default severity, category, whether it mirrors a VBA compile failure, and the MS-VBAL section it enforces. Use it to explain a code to the user, or to decide whether a finding is a compile error or a judgement call. |
| xlide_list_referencesA | Lists the type libraries a VBA project references: the name code uses to qualify them, the kind, and the registry or file path the project recorded. Call it when a name will not resolve, when deciding between early and late binding, or when code works on one machine and not another: a reference names a path and a version, so a project can be broken by the machine rather than by its own code. |
| xlide_access_catalogA | Lists what an Access database holds besides its code: tables with their columns, saved queries with their SQL, and the relationships between tables. An .accdb is an application rather than a document, and the VBA in it is written against these, so reading the modules alone shows half of it. Access files only. |
| xlide_list_formsA | Lists the UserForms in an Office file, or the forms and reports in an Access database, with each one's control count and, for Access, the sections a control can go in. A design's code is a module of the same name, read with xlide_read_module. |
| xlide_read_formA | Reads one form's design: every control with its name, type, the container it sits in, and the properties the developer set. Properties left at their default are not stored and so are not listed. Use it to understand a form's layout, or to see which control an event procedure belongs to. |
| xlide_manage_formA | Creates a UserForm, or an Access form or report, and saves the file. A form is a designer storage and a code module of the same name, and this writes both, which is why it exists rather than xlide_write_module. Renaming and deleting work on Access designs, where both halves move together; for a UserForm they are refused, because nothing here can move the designer storage and doing half of it loses the form. Add controls afterwards with xlide_edit_form, and write its event procedures with xlide_write_module. |
| xlide_edit_formA | Changes one form's design and saves the file: add a control, remove one, or set a property on one. Geometry is in points for a UserForm and twips for an Access design. Setting a property to null clears it, putting the control back at its default. Removing a container takes its children with it, so ask the user first. Adding a control does not write its event procedure; do that with xlide_write_module on the form's code module. |
| xlide_list_queriesA | Lists the Power Query queries in an Excel workbook: name, group, description, where each loads, and its applied step names. Queries live outside the VBA project, so a plain .xlsx has them too. Call this when asked what a workbook does; a workbook with no macros can still be doing most of its work here. |
| xlide_read_queryA | Reads one query's M formula, with its description, group, load target and refresh settings. The formula is the whole let ... in expression as the Advanced Editor shows it. |
| xlide_write_queryA | Changes a workbook's Power Query and saves it. action='set' replaces a query's M formula, creating it if it does not exist; 'rename' renames it and rewrites the queries that reference it by name; 'remove' deletes it and everything that loaded it onto a sheet, which has no undo, so ask the user first. 'load' puts a query's result on a worksheet and 'unload' takes it back off. Loading needs the column names, because writing the connection means naming the columns and knowing them means running the query, which nothing here does; Excel settles them against the real result on the first refresh. A query already loaded keeps its rows until Excel refreshes it. |
| xlide_list_sheetsA | Lists the worksheets in an Excel file with their used ranges, whether each is hidden, and the workbook's named ranges. Call this before reading cells, so the range you ask for is one that holds data. Works on .xlsx, .xlsm and .xlam; a .xlsb or .xls keeps its grid in a binary format this server does not read. |
| xlide_read_cellsA | Reads a range of cells from a worksheet and returns a grid of values, formulas, or both. Values are what Excel last calculated and stored, so a formula whose inputs changed outside Excel shows its old result. Ask for formulas when you need to understand what a sheet computes, and values when you need what it currently shows. At most 20,000 cells per call. |
| xlide_list_shapesA | Lists what sits on a worksheet's drawing layer: buttons, form controls, AutoShapes, text boxes, pictures, charts and groups, each with the cells it covers and, where it has one, the macro a click runs. Call it when asked how a workbook is started, or before renaming a Sub: a button's OnAction names a procedure and nothing rewrites it. ActiveX controls are listed but have no macro; their code is event procedures in the sheet's module. |
| xlide_set_shape_macroA | Changes which macro an existing shape or button runs when clicked, and saves the workbook. An empty macro clears the link. Use it after writing a Sub, so a button actually calls it, and after renaming one, because nothing rewrites an OnAction. Give the procedure as Proc or Module.Proc; it must already exist in the project, so write it first. This changes an existing shape only: adding or deleting one is not offered, because a form control lives in four parts that have to agree and a wrong one produces a workbook Excel repairs on open. |
| xlide_write_cellsA | Writes a rectangular block of values and formulas into a worksheet, starting at one cell, and saves the file. Each row of data is a row of the sheet. A string starting with '=' is written as a formula, as you would type it into Excel 365 with no _xlfn prefixes; anything else is a value. A value written over a formula removes that formula, which is what typing into the cell does. Only the rows you touch are rewritten, so charts, styles, pivot caches and the VBA project are untouched. Ask the user before overwriting cells that hold data. Nothing recalculates until Excel next opens the workbook. |
| xlide_format_cellsA | Changes how a range looks: bold and font, fill colour, borders, alignment, number format, and merging. Only what you pass is changed, so each cell keeps the rest of its own format and making a header row bold does not flatten the number formats under it. Colours are RRGGBB or AARRGGBB hex without a leading hash. A number format is an Excel format code such as '#,##0.00' or 'yyyy-mm-dd'; that code is also what decides whether a number is shown as a date. Works on .xlsx, .xlsm and .xlam. |
| xlide_manage_sheetA | Adds, removes, renames, moves, hides, shows, protects or unprotects a worksheet. Renaming rewrites the formulas and defined names that referred to the old name, so nothing breaks. Removing a sheet takes its cells, tables and everything on it, and formulas elsewhere that pointed at it become #REF!, which has no undo: ask the user first. Protecting a sheet stops editing in Excel; it is not a security boundary and the password is trivially recovered. Works on .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlam. |
| xlide_manage_rows_columnsA | Inserts, deletes, resizes, hides, shows, groups or ungroups whole rows or columns. Inserting and deleting move every reference in the workbook with them: a formula pointing below an inserted row follows it, and one pointing into deleted cells becomes #REF!, exactly as Excel does it. Deleting has no undo, so ask the user first. Widths are in characters and heights in points, which is what Excel's own dialogs use. Works on .xlsx, .xlsm and .xlam. |
| xlide_manage_tableA | Lists, adds or removes Excel tables, the ListObjects that Ctrl+T creates. A table names a block so formulas can say Sales[Amount] instead of an address that breaks when rows move, and it is what a Power Query load writes into. action='list' reads them and changes nothing. Adding one takes the column names from the header row of the range you give. Removing one leaves the cells and takes the table, so structured references to it break. |
| xlide_manage_nameA | Lists, adds or removes a workbook's defined names. A defined name is what lets a formula say TaxRate rather than Config!$B$7, and VBA reads them too, so renaming or removing one can break code as well as formulas. action='list' changes nothing. refers_to is a formula, so it needs its sheet and its dollar signs: Data!$A$1:$A$50. |
| xlide_manage_validationA | Lists, adds or clears data validation: what a cell will accept, and the dropdown it shows. kind='list' with formula1 as a comma-separated set of values gives a dropdown; kind='list' with a range reference gives one driven by cells. The other kinds take an operator and one or two formulas, which may be literals or references. Validation stops typing in Excel, not writing through this server, and Excel does not re-check cells that already held a value. |
| xlide_manage_conditional_formatA | Lists, adds or clears conditional formatting: the rules that colour cells by what is in them. rule='cell_is' with an operator and a value paints cells that compare true; rule='expression' takes a formula written for the top-left cell of the range and applied relatively, the way Excel's 'Use a formula' box works; rule='color_scale' and 'data_bar' are the gradient and in-cell bar. The paint itself is the fill and font arguments, which is what Excel calls a differential format. |
| xlide_manage_hyperlinkA | Lists, adds or removes hyperlinks on a worksheet. A link either goes out to a target, which is a URL or a file path, or inside the workbook to a location such as 'Summary!A1'. Pass one or the other. The cell's displayed text is separate from the link and is left alone unless you pass display. |
| xlide_page_setupA | Reads how a worksheet is set up to print: orientation, paper size, margins, the print area, the rows or columns repeated on every page, whether it is scaled to fit, and the header and footer. Call it when asked why a sheet prints the way it does, or before changing a layout somebody set up deliberately. |
| xlide_export_modulesA | Writes every VBA module in an Office file to a folder as .bas and .cls files, for source control or review. Previews by default: it reports what it would create, update and leave alone, and writes nothing until apply=true. Only when the user asks for it. The exported files are copies: editing one changes nothing inside the Office file until xlide_import_modules runs. |
| xlide_import_modulesA | Reads .bas and .cls files from a folder back into an Office file's VBA project and saves it. Previews by default: it reports which modules would change and by how much, and writes nothing until apply=true. A file whose name matches no module creates one. Document modules such as ThisWorkbook are written but never created. After applying, call xlide_analyze. |
| xlide_git_changesA | Lists what changed inside an Office file since a git revision, one entry per VBA module and Power Query, with a unified diff. git diff cannot show this: the file is binary, so a commit that changed one line and one that replaced the whole project look the same. Call this before committing, and to review what an agent or a colleague changed. Worksheet cell values are not compared. Defaults to HEAD; pass any revision git understands. Needs the file to be inside a git repository and tracked in that revision. |
| xlide_run_macroA | Runs a procedure that already exists in an Office file, in an application this server starts and owns, under a deadline. Windows only, with the application installed. The document opens read-only unless read_only=false, and closes without saving unless save=true. Returns the procedure's return value, anything it logged, and, on a VBA error, the error number and message. The failing line and call stack come from instrumentation applied to injected source, so a procedure already in the document does not carry them; run the same code through xlide_run_vba when you need them. A run that exceeds its timeout reports 'timeout' and the application is terminated. Ask the user before running a macro that changes data. |
| xlide_run_vbaA | Injects VBA source into a document and calls one procedure from it, under a deadline. Windows only. Use it to check what a piece of code actually does before writing it into a file, or to read something out of a document that no existing macro exposes. With no file_path it runs in a new empty document. Errors come back as data with the failing line and call stack, never as a dialog. Call PyVbaLog "text" from the code to return output; Debug.Print and MsgBox do not work under automation. |
| xlide_run_testsA | Runs the VBA tests in an Office file: every zero-argument procedure whose name starts with Test. Windows only, with the application installed. Each test is run on its own, so one that hangs is reported as a timeout and the rest still run. Returns pass or fail per test with the assertion message, failing line, call stack and any logged output. Use PyVbaAssert and PyVbaAssertEqual in the tests; the harness supplies them. |
| xlide_compile_checkA | Asks the real VBA editor to compile a file's project, and reports whether it accepted it. Windows only. This is the compiler's own verdict, where xlide_analyze is a static analyzer's; run the analyzer first, because it is free and needs no Office, and use this when the last word matters. Excel is made visible for the check, because a hidden instance does not surface the compile-error dialog and would report a rejection as a pass. |
| xlide_live_sessionsA | Lists the running xlide_vbide sessions this machine can reach: one per Office process that has opened the Visual Basic Editor with the add-in loaded. Use it to find out whether the user has a live editor before asking about what is on their screen. Windows only, and the add-in's local API has to be switched on by the user. Each session is probed before it is listed, because a discovery file outlives the process that wrote it. |
| xlide_live_stateA | What the running Visual Basic Editor is doing right now: the module and project on screen, whether the project is in break mode, whether there are unsaved edits, the procedure the caret is in, and whether the analyzer engine is answering. Use it when the user asks about what they are looking at, or before suggesting an edit to a module they may have unsaved changes in. |
| xlide_live_requestA | Calls one read route on a running xlide_vbide session and returns its JSON. Start with route='agent', which answers with the session's own route table and what each one is for. Allowed routes: agent, agent/examples, agent/routes, analyzer, doctor, engine, model, native, project, projects, state, stats, windows. Routes that drive the editor are deliberately not reachable here. |
| xlide_live_read_moduleA | Reads a module's text as the running editor holds it, including edits the user has not saved. This is the one read that can differ from xlide_read_module, and the difference is exactly the user's unsaved work. Use it to see what they are actually working on; use xlide_read_module for what is in the file. surface_only=true reads the modern editor's own copy instead, which exists only for a module the user has open in a tab. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Agent instructions | The workflow and the rules, as text the user can paste into CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or .github/copilot-instructions.md. |
| Workspace | The roots every path argument is resolved inside, and the write mode. |
TDQS
Scored across 49 tools
Every tool has a clearly distinct purpose, and overlapping tools are explicitly differentiated in their descriptions (e.g., xlide_analyze vs xlide_compile_check, xlide_run_vba vs xlide_run_macro). Even closely related operations like listing modules versus full project info are cleanly scoped, so an agent can reliably select the correct tool.
All tools follow the xlide_verb_noun pattern in snake_case, with consistent prefixes like live_ for editor sessions and manage_ for multi-action tools. Simple noun names like xlide_doctor and xlide_rules fit the convention without violating it, making the set highly predictable.
At 49 tools, the server far exceeds the 25+ threshold for a heavy toolset. While every tool appears justified for the broad VBA/Office automation scope, the sheer number is likely overwhelming for agents and makes discovery and selection difficult.
The set provides end-to-end coverage: module CRUD and analysis, form design, Power Query management, worksheet and cell operations, shapes, names, validation, formatting, import/export, git integration, and live editor interaction. No obvious gaps or dead ends exist for the declared purpose.