Excel MCP Server

This project is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI models that can read Excel files and return their contents as CSV text per sheet.

What it does

The server exposes a tool that reads an Excel file from disk and returns an object where each key is the name of a sheet and each value is the content of that sheet in CSV format.

Related MCP server: Excel MCP Server

Requirements

• Node.js

• npm, pnpm (recommended), or any compatible Node.js package manager

Installation

• Install the dependencies with:

npm install

• Or with pnpm:

pnpm install

For security reasons, the pnpm package manager is recommended. You can configure it with the following command before installing any dependencies:

pnpm config set minimum-release-age 1440 --global

This adds a layer of security against supply chain attacks.

• Or install dependencies with your favorite Node.js package manager.

Usage with MCP clients

This server is intended to be started by MCP-compatible clients. You generally do not need to run it manually. Below are example client configurations (replace /path/to/... with the actual path on your system).

• Continue (VSCode extension) — example config.yaml:

mcpServers:
    - name: excel MCP server
      command: npx
      args:
          - -y
          - node
          - /path/to/mcp_servers/excel/main.js
      env: {}

• Claude (desktop) — example claude_desktop_config.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "excel": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": ["-y", "node", "/path/to/mcp_servers/excel/main.js"]
        }
    }
}

• GitHub Copilot (VSCode). Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows or Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) to open the Command Palette. Execute the MCP: Open User Configuration command. This creates a clean mcp.json in your global user profile directory. Edit the mcp.json file and place the following:

{
    "servers": {
        "excel": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": ["-y", "node", "/path/to/mcp_servers/excel/main.js"]
        }
    }
}

• Generic MCP client (command line):

npx -y node /path/to/mcp_servers/excel/main.js

Tool exposed

The server exposes the following MCP tool:

• read-excel-file

  • Parameters:

    • file_absolute_path: the absolute path to the Excel file to read

Example

If the Excel file contains two sheets, the tool may return a response like:

{
    "success": true,
    "result": {
        "Sheet1": "name,age\nAna,30\nLuis,25",
        "Sheet2": "city,country\nMadrid,Spain\nLima,Peru"
    }
}

Notes

• Check the documentation of the MCP client you use for the exact configuration key names; the examples above are common templates.

• When chatting with the AI, make sure to provide the absolute path of Excel file.