OfficeCLI
OfficeCLI is the world's first and the best Office suite designed for AI agents.
Give any AI agent full control over Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — in one line of code.
Open-source. Single binary. No Office installation. No dependencies. Works everywhere.
OfficeCLI's built-in HTML rendering engine reproduces documents with high fidelity — and that's what gives AI eyes. It renders .docx / .xlsx / .pptx to HTML or PNG, closing the render → look → fix loop.
Paste this into your AI agent's chat — it will read the skill file and install everything automatically:
curl -fsSL https://officecli.ai/SKILL.md
That's it. The skill file teaches the agent how to install the binary and use all commands.
For Humans
Option A — GUI: Install AionUi — a desktop app that lets you create and edit Office documents through natural language, powered by OfficeCLI under the hood. Just describe what you want, and AionUi handles the rest.
Option B — CLI: Download the binary for your platform from GitHub Releases, then run:
officecli install
This copies the binary to your PATH and installs the officecli skill into every AI coding agent it detects — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, and more. Your agent can immediately create, read, and edit Office documents on your behalf, no extra configuration needed.
For Developers — See It Live in 30 Seconds
# 1. Install (macOS / Linux) — or: brew install officecli / npm install -g @officecli/officecli
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
# 2. Create a blank PowerPoint
officecli create deck.pptx
# 3. Start live preview — opens http://localhost:26315 in your browser
officecli watch deck.pptx
# 4. Open another terminal, add a slide — watch the browser update instantly
officecli add deck.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Hello, World!"
That's it. Every add, set, or remove command you run will refresh the preview in real time. Keep experimenting — the browser is your live feedback loop.
Quick Start
# Create a presentation and add content
officecli create deck.pptx
officecli add deck.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Q4 Report" --prop background=1A1A2E
officecli add deck.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
# View as outline
officecli view deck.pptx outline
# → Slide 1: Q4 Report
# → Shape 1 [TextBox]: Revenue grew 25%
# View as HTML — opens a rendered preview in your browser, no server needed
officecli view deck.pptx html
# Get structured JSON for any element
officecli get deck.pptx '/slide[1]/shape[1]' --json
# Save and close — flushes the resident session to disk
officecli close deck.pptx
{
"tag": "shape",
"path": "/slide[1]/shape[1]",
"attributes": {
"name": "TextBox 1",
"text": "Revenue grew 25%",
"x": "720000",
"y": "1800000"
}
}
Why OfficeCLI?
What used to take 50 lines of Python and 3 separate libraries:
from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.util import Inches, Pt
prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])
title = slide.shapes.title
title.text = "Q4 Report"
# ... 45 more lines ...
prs.save('deck.pptx')
Now takes one command:
officecli add deck.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Q4 Report"
What OfficeCLI can do:
- Create documents from scratch -- blank or with content
- Read text, structure, styles, formulas -- in plain text or structured JSON
- Analyze formatting issues, style inconsistencies, and structural problems
- Modify any element -- text, fonts, colors, layout, formulas, charts, images
- Reorganize content -- add, remove, move, copy elements across documents
Word — full i18n & RTL support (per-script font slots, per-script BCP-47 lang tags lang.latin/ea/cs, complex-script bold/italic/size, direction=rtl cascading through paragraph/run/section/table/style/header/footer/docDefaults, rtlGutter + pgBorders shorthand, locale-aware page numbering for Hindi/Arabic/Thai/CJK; create --locale ar-SA auto-enables RTL), paragraphs (framePr, tabs shorthand, char-based indents), runs (underline.color, position half-pts), tables (virtual column ops add/remove/move/copyfrom, hMerge), styles, textbox / shape (textbox: rotation, textDirection eaVert/vert270, gradient, shadow, opacity), headers/footers, images (PNG/JPG/GIF/SVG), equations (LaTeX input), diagrams (mermaid → native editable shapes, or any mermaid type as a full-fidelity PNG), comments, footnotes, watermarks, bookmarks, TOC, charts, hyperlinks, sections, form fields, , (22 zero-param types + MERGEFIELD / REF / PAGEREF / SEQ / STYLEREF / DOCPROPERTY / IF), , ( + , per-target selector, tracked Find&Replace), page background color,
Excel — cells (phonetic guide / furigana on add, Excel-UI --shift left\|up on remove / shift=right\|down on add), formulas (350+ built-in functions with auto-evaluation, spilling dynamic arrays with _xlfn. auto-prefix, financial / bond and statistical families, OFFSET/INDIRECT, defined-name formula bodies inlined at parse, formula-ref rewrite on row/col insert), sheets (visible/hidden/veryHidden, print margins, printTitleRows/Cols, RTL sheetView, cascade-aware sheet rename, empty-cell bloat filter on open), boolean and/or selectors (row[Salary>5000 and Region=EMEA]), tables, sort (sheet / range, multi-key, sidecar-aware), conditional formatting, charts (including box-whisker, pareto with auto-sort + cumulative-%, log axis), pivot tables (multi-field, date grouping, showDataAs, sort, grandTotals, subtotals, compact/outline/tabular layout, repeat item labels, blank rows, calculated fields, persistent labelFilter / topN filters, cache CoW + cross-pivot sharing), slicers, named ranges, data validation, images (PNG/JPG/GIF/SVG with dual-representation fallback), sparklines, comments (RTL), autofilter, shapes, OLE objects, CSV/TSV import, cell addressing
PowerPoint — slides (header/footer/date/slidenum toggles, hidden), shapes (pattern fill, blur effect, hyperlink tooltip + slide-jump links, highlight color on runs, slideMaster/slideLayout typed add/set/remove, arrow alias, effective.X + effective.X.src), images (PNG/JPG/GIF/SVG, fill modes: stretch/contain/cover/tile, brightness/contrast/glow/shadow, rotation, link + tooltip), tables (built-in PowerPoint style catalogue, virtual /col[C] get + swap/copyFrom, row/col Move/CopyFrom, fill/background alias), charts (pieOfPie, barOfPie, per-attr axisLine/gridline setters, series add/remove with theme palette, anchor=x,y,w,h shorthand), animations (15 emphasis + 16 exit template-backed presets, multi-effect chains, motion-path presets, repeat/restart/autoReverse, chart animations + chartBuild), transitions (morph + p14 + 12 p15 PowerPoint 2013+ presets), 3D models (.glb) (combined rotation=ax,ay,az), slide zoom, equations (LaTeX input), diagrams (mermaid flowchart / sequence → native editable shapes, or any mermaid type as a full-fidelity PNG), themes, connectors (from/to accept a full /slide[N]/shape[@name=Foo] path), video/audio (loop, autoStart), groups (link + tooltip; Get/Query/Add/Remove all descend into groups), notes (RTL, lang), (RTL, legacy + modern p188 threaded round-trip), SmartArt (round-trip via add-part + raw-set), , (add/set by phType)
Use Cases
For Developers:
- Automate report generation from databases or APIs
- Batch-process documents (bulk find/replace, style updates)
- Build document pipelines in CI/CD environments (generate docs from test results)
- Headless Office automation in Docker/containerized environments
For AI Agents:
- Generate presentations from user prompts (see examples above)
- Extract structured data from documents to JSON
- Validate and check document quality before delivery
For Teams:
- Clone document templates and populate with data
- Automated document validation in CI/CD pipelines
Installation
Ships as a single self-contained binary. The .NET runtime is embedded -- nothing to install, no runtime to manage.
One-line install:
# 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
Or via a package manager:
# Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew install officecli
# Scoop (Windows)
scoop install officecli
# npm (all platforms — fetches the native binary for your platform)
npm install -g @officecli/officecli
Or download manually from GitHub Releases:
Verify installation: officecli --version
Or self-install from a downloaded binary (or run bare officecli to auto-install):
officecli install # explicit
officecli # bare invocation also triggers install
Updates are checked automatically in the background. Disable with officecli config autoUpdate false or skip per-invocation with OFFICECLI_SKIP_UPDATE=1. Configuration lives under ~/.officecli/config.json.
Key Features
Built-in Engines & Generation Primitives
OfficeCLI is self-contained. The capabilities below ship inside the binary — no Office required.
Rendering engine — high-fidelity, built-in
OfficeCLI's keystone: a from-scratch, high-fidelity HTML rendering engine that lets an AI agent see the rendered document instead of guessing from the DOM. It covers shapes, charts (trendlines, error bars, waterfall, candlestick, sparklines), equations (OMML → LaTeX, rendered with KaTeX), 3D .glb models via Three.js, morph transitions, slide zoom, and shape effects. Per-page PNG screenshots are produced by piping the rendered HTML through a headless browser. Three modes:
view html— standalone HTML file, assets inlined. Open in any browser.view screenshot— per-page PNG, ready for multimodal agents to read.watch— local HTTP server with auto-refreshing preview; everyadd/set/removeupdates the browser instantly. Excel watch supports inline cell editing and drag-to-reposition charts.
officecli view deck.pptx html -o /tmp/deck.html
officecli view deck.pptx screenshot -o /tmp/deck.png # add --page 1-N for more slides
officecli watch deck.pptx # http://localhost:26315
Without visualization, an agent generating slides is flying blind — it can read the DOM but can't tell if the title overflows or two shapes overlap. Because rendering is built into the binary, the render → look → fix loop works in CI, in Docker, on a server with no display — anywhere the binary runs.
Formula & pivot engine
350+ built-in Excel functions evaluated automatically on write — write =SUM(A1:A2), get the cell, the value is already there. No round-trip through Office to recalc. Covers spilling dynamic arrays (FILTER / SORT / UNIQUE / SEQUENCE / LET / LAMBDA / MAP), VLOOKUP / XLOOKUP / INDEX / MATCH, financial & bond math (XIRR / PRICE / YIELD / DURATION / COUPNUM), statistical distributions, tests & regression (NORM.DIST / T.TEST / LINEST), and date & text functions.
Plus native OOXML pivot tables from a source range with one command — multi-field rows/cols/filters, 10 aggregations, showDataAs modes, date grouping, calculated fields, top-N, layouts. Pivot cache + definition are written to OOXML, so Excel opens the file with the aggregation already populated:
officecli add sales.xlsx '/Sheet1' --type pivottable \
--prop source='Data!A1:E10000' --prop rows='Region,Category' \
--prop cols=Quarter --prop values='Revenue:sum,Units:avg' \
--prop showDataAs=percentOfTotal
Template merge — generate once, fill many
merge replaces {{key}} placeholders in any .docx / .xlsx / .pptx with JSON data — across paragraphs, table cells, shapes, headers, footers, and chart titles. Agent designs the layout once (expensive); production code fills it N times (cheap, deterministic, zero token cost). Avoids the failure mode where an agent regenerates each report from scratch and produces N inconsistent layouts.
officecli merge invoice-template.docx out-001.docx --data '{"client":"Acme","total":"$5,200"}'
officecli merge q4-template.pptx q4-acme.pptx --data data.json
Round-trip dump — learn from existing docs
dump serializes any .docx, .pptx, or .xlsx — whole document or any subtree (a single paragraph, table, slide, worksheet, the styles part, numbering, theme, or settings) — into a replayable batch JSON; batch replays it. Given a sample the user wants to imitate, an agent reads the structured spec instead of raw OOXML XML, mutates, and replays. Bridges "I have an existing template" and "generate me 100 variations."
officecli dump existing.docx -o blueprint.json # whole document
officecli dump existing.docx /body/tbl[1] -o table.json # any subtree
officecli dump existing.xlsx /Sheet1 -o sheet.json # a single worksheet
officecli batch new.docx --input blueprint.json
Resident Mode & Batch
For multi-step workflows, resident mode keeps the document in memory. Batch mode applies multiple operations in a single pass.
# Resident mode — near-zero latency via named pipes
officecli open report.docx
officecli set report.docx /body/p[1]/r[1] --prop bold=true
officecli set report.docx /body/p[2]/r[1] --prop color=FF0000
officecli close report.docx
# Batch mode — multi-command execution (atomic by default: any failed item rolls back the whole batch)
echo '[{"command":"set","path":"/slide[1]/shape[1]","props":{"text":"Hello"}},
{"command":"set","path":"/slide[1]/shape[2]","props":{"fill":"FF0000"}}]' \
| officecli batch deck.pptx --json
# Inline batch with --commands (no stdin needed)
officecli batch deck.pptx --commands '[{"op":"set","path":"/slide[1]/shape[1]","props":{"text":"Hi"}}]'
# Keep whatever succeeds even if some items fail (pre-1.0.137 behavior)
officecli batch deck.pptx --input updates.json --best-effort --json
# Stop at the first failing command instead of running the rest (still rolls back everything unless combined with --best-effort)
officecli batch deck.pptx --input updates.json --stop-on-error --json
Reading the file with another tool? Flush to disk first. officecli's own reads (
get/query/view) always see your latest edits, so within officecli you never need to save. But a live resident defers the disk write, so before a non‑officecli program reads the file — python‑docx/openpyxl, Microsoft Word, a renderer, delivery/upload — flush it:officecli set report.docx /body/p[1] --prop bold=true officecli save report.docx # flush, keep the resident warm (or `close` to flush + release) python my_reader.py report.docx # now sees the editA live resident also auto‑flushes shortly after going idle (adaptive 2–10s, scaled to the document's measured save cost). For a pipeline where another program reads after every command, set
OFFICECLI_RESIDENT_FLUSH=each— every mutation is on disk before the command returns, while the resident stays warm. Full flush model (each/auto/fixed/off, save / close, env tuning): wiki → open / close.
Three-Layer Architecture
Start simple, go deep only when needed.
# L1 — high-level views
officecli view report.docx annotated
officecli view budget.xlsx text --cols A,B,C --max-lines 50
# L2 — element-level operations
officecli query report.docx "run:contains(TODO)"
officecli add budget.xlsx / --type sheet --prop name="Q2 Report"
officecli move report.docx /body/p[5] --to /body --index 1
# L3 — raw XML when L2 isn't enough
officecli raw deck.pptx '/slide[1]'
officecli raw-set report.docx document \
--xpath "//w:p[1]" --action append \
--xml '<w:r><w:t>Injected text</w:t></w:r>'
AI Integration
MCP Server
Built-in MCP server — register with one command:
officecli mcp claude # Claude Code
officecli mcp cursor # Cursor
officecli mcp vscode # VS Code / Copilot
officecli mcp lmstudio # LM Studio
officecli mcp opencode # OpenCode
officecli mcp list # Check registration status
Exposes all document operations as tools over JSON-RPC — no shell access needed.
Direct CLI Integration
Get OfficeCLI working with your AI agent in two steps:
- Install the binary -- one command (see Installation)
- Done. OfficeCLI automatically detects your AI tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex) by checking known config directories and installs its skill file. Your agent can immediately create, read, and modify any Office document.
If auto-install doesn't cover your setup, you can install the skill file manually:
Feed SKILL.md to your agent directly:
curl -fsSL https://officecli.ai/SKILL.md
Install as a local skill for Claude Code:
curl -fsSL https://officecli.ai/SKILL.md -o ~/.claude/skills/officecli.md
Other agents: Include the contents of SKILL.md in your agent's system prompt or tool description.
Why your agent will thrive on OfficeCLI
- Deterministic JSON output — every command supports
--jsonwith consistent schemas. No regex parsing, no scraping stdout. - Path-based addressing — every element has a stable path (
/slide[1]/shape[2]). Agents navigate documents without understanding XML namespaces. (OfficeCLI syntax: 1-based indexing, element local names — not XPath.) - Progressive complexity (L1 → L2 → L3) — agents start with read-only views, escalate to DOM ops, fall back to raw XML only when needed. Minimizes token usage.
- Self-healing workflow —
validate,view issues, and the structured error codes (not_found,invalid_value,unsupported_property) return suggestions and valid ranges. Agents self-correct without human intervention. - Built-in agent-friendly rendering engine —
view html/view screenshot/watchemit HTML and PNG natively. No Office required. Agents can see their output and fix layout issues, even inside CI / Docker / headless environments. - Built-in formula & pivot engine — 350+ Excel functions auto-evaluated on write (incl. spilling dynamic arrays, financial / bond and statistical families); native OOXML pivot tables from a source range with one command. Agents read computed values and shipped aggregations immediately, without round-tripping through Office.
- Template merge — agent designs the layout once, downstream code fills
{{key}}placeholders N times. Avoids burning tokens regenerating every report from scratch. - Round-trip dump —
dumpturns any.docx,.pptx, or.xlsxinto replayable batch JSON. Agents learn from human-authored samples by reading a structured spec, not raw OOXML XML. - Built-in help — when unsure about property names or value formats, the agent runs
officecli <format> set <element>instead of guessing. - Auto-install — OfficeCLI detects your AI tooling (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, …) and configures itself. No manual skill-file setup.
Built-in Help
Don't guess property names — drill into the help:
officecli help pptx set # All settable elements and properties
officecli help pptx set shape # Detail for one element type
officecli help docx query # Selector reference: attributes, :contains, :has(), etc.
Run officecli --help for the full overview.
JSON Output Schemas
All commands support --json. The general response shapes:
Single element (get --json):
{"tag": "shape", "path": "/slide[1]/shape[1]", "attributes": {"name": "TextBox 1", "text": "Hello"}}
List of elements (query --json):
[
{"tag": "paragraph", "path": "/body/p[1]", "attributes": {"style": "Heading1", "text": "Title"}},
{"tag": "paragraph", "path": "/body/p[5]", "attributes": {"style": "Heading1", "text": "Summary"}}
]
Errors return a non-zero exit code with a structured error object including error code, suggestion, and valid values when available:
{
"success": false,
"error": {
"error": "Slide 50 not found (total: 8)",
"code": "not_found",
"suggestion": "Valid Slide index range: 1-8"
}
}
Error codes: not_found, invalid_value, unsupported_property, invalid_path, unsupported_type, missing_property, file_not_found, file_locked, invalid_selector. Property names are auto-corrected -- misspelling a property returns a suggestion with the closest match.
Error Recovery -- Agents self-correct by inspecting available elements:
# Agent tries an invalid path
officecli get report.docx /body/p[99] --json
# Returns: {"success": false, "error": {"error": "...", "code": "not_found", "suggestion": "..."}}
# Agent self-corrects by checking available elements
officecli get report.docx /body --depth 1 --json
# Returns the list of available children, agent picks the right path
Mutation confirmations (set, add, remove, move, create with --json):
{"success": true, "path": "/slide[1]/shape[1]"}
Exit codes. 0 — the operation landed. 1 — it did not (process or business failure; the envelope carries error). 2 — it ran with caveats: an unsupported_property was dropped, or a validator raised a warning. Exit 2 covers both "landed with a warning" (success: true) and "nothing applied" (success: false, e.g. every property refused), so scripts must read success in the envelope, not the exit code alone; warnings[] lists what was dropped. The MCP server derives isError from the envelope the same way.
Comparison
Command Reference
End-to-End Workflow Example
A typical self-healing agent workflow: create a presentation, populate it, verify, and fix issues -- all without human intervention.
# 1. Create
officecli create report.pptx
# 2. Add content
officecli add report.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Q4 Results"
officecli add report.pptx '/slide[1]' --type shape \
--prop text="Revenue: $4.2M" --prop x=2cm --prop y=5cm --prop size=28
officecli add report.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Details"
officecli add report.pptx '/slide[2]' --type shape \
--prop text="Growth driven by new markets" --prop x=2cm --prop y=5cm
# 3. Verify
officecli view report.pptx outline
officecli validate report.pptx
# 4. Fix any issues found
officecli view report.pptx issues --json
# Address issues based on output, e.g.:
officecli set report.pptx '/slide[1]/shape[1]' --prop font=Arial
Units & Colors
All dimension and color properties accept flexible input formats:
Common Patterns
# Replace all Heading1 text in a Word doc
officecli query report.docx "paragraph[style=Heading1]" --json | ...
officecli set report.docx /body/p[1]/r[1] --prop text="New Title"
# Export all slide content as JSON
officecli get deck.pptx / --depth 2 --json
# Bulk-update Excel cells
officecli batch budget.xlsx --input updates.json --json
# Import CSV data into an Excel sheet
officecli add budget.xlsx / --type sheet --prop name="Q1 Data"
officecli import budget.xlsx "/Q1 Data" sales.csv --header
# Template merge for batch reports
officecli merge invoice-template.docx invoice-001.docx --data '{"client":"Acme","total":"$5,200"}'
# Check document quality before delivery
officecli validate report.docx && officecli view report.docx issues --json
From Python or Node.js — install one of the thin resident-pipe SDKs (no per-call process spawn):
# Python — `pip install officecli-sdk`
import officecli
with officecli.create("deck.pptx") as doc: # or officecli.open("deck.pptx")
doc.send({"command": "add", "parent": "/", "type": "slide"})
print(doc.send({"command": "get", "path": "/slide[1]"}))
// Node.js — `npm install @officecli/sdk`
const oc = require("@officecli/sdk");
const doc = await oc.create("deck.pptx"); // or oc.open("deck.pptx")
await doc.send({ command: "add", parent: "/", type: "slide" });
console.log(await doc.send({ command: "get", path: "/slide[1]" }));
await doc.close();
Both SDKs auto-provision the native CLI when missing (mirror-first, Windows-capable) and announce the install rather than doing it silently.
Or wrap subprocess directly, one-shot:
import json, subprocess
def cli(*args):
return json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["officecli", *args, "--json"], text=True))
cli("create", "deck.pptx")
Documentation
The Wiki has detailed guides for every command, element type, and property:
- By format: Word | Excel | PowerPoint
- Workflows: End-to-end examples -- Word reports, Excel dashboards, PowerPoint decks, batch modifications, resident mode
- Runnable examples: examples/ -- copy-paste scripts (.sh/.py) for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with output files included
- Troubleshooting: Common errors and solutions
- AI agent guide: Decision tree for navigating the wiki
Build from Source
Requires .NET 10 SDK for compilation only. The output is a self-contained, native binary -- .NET is embedded in the binary and is not needed at runtime.
./build.sh
License
Bug reports and contributions are welcome on GitHub Issues.
If you find OfficeCLI useful, please give it a star on GitHub — it helps others discover the project.
