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Excelente documentation

An AI agent that works inside your Excel workbook. Install it, connect a model, and put it to work.

Excelente is an open source Excel add-in that puts an autonomous AI agent in a task pane beside your spreadsheet. The agent reads your workbook, plans its approach, calls Excel tools, and writes back only after you approve each change.

It was built by commercial real estate practitioners for the workflows we use every day. The tools underneath it (reading formulas, writing ranges, tracing dependencies, reasoning across sheets) work on any Excel workbook.

The Excelente task pane open beside a rent roll. The transcript shows format_range and inspect_workbook tool calls, a "Wrote values / formulas" change card with an undo button, and the composer in Work mode.

Start here#

If you have never opened Excelente, three pages get you working:

  1. Install Excelente, about a minute from the Marketplace or from inside Excel.
  2. Connect a model: your own OpenRouter key, or, for a limited time, the included model if you are a CRE Agents or A.CRE Intelligence Hub member.
  3. Quickstart, a first real task from prompt to finished build.

Copying a page into your agent#

Every page here has a Copy page button next to its title. It puts the page on your clipboard as clean Markdown, so you can paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, or whatever agent you are working with. Useful when you are extending Excelente, writing a skill, or wiring up a connector.

Two ways to run it#

Excelente is Apache 2.0. You can use the hosted build we publish to Microsoft Marketplace, or clone excelente-add-in and run your own. The documentation covers both. Pages under Run it yourself are for the second group.

First steps#

Install ExcelenteInstall from Microsoft Marketplace or from the Add-ins button inside Excel. Takes about a minute. Connect a modelBring an OpenRouter key and pick from hundreds of models. Excelente does not ship a model of its own. QuickstartRun one real task end to end, from prompt to approved write to verified build.

Core concepts#

How the agent worksThe loop between your prompt and a finished build, and the limits that keep it predictable. What the agent can seeHow Excelente reads your workbook, what reaches the model, and what stays on your machine until asked for. Plan mode and Work modeHave the agent propose a numbered plan before it touches anything, or let it execute directly. Approvals and undoEvery change to your workbook stops for your approval, and every approved change can be reverted. Sub-agents and verificationFour typed helpers the agent delegates to, and why a Reviewer checks every non-trivial build.

Working in Excel#

The chat panelA tour of the task pane, the composer toolbar, and the cards the agent puts in front of you. Slash commandsEight built-in commands, plus every installed skill, from the same menu. AttachmentsSend images, PDFs, and spreadsheets to the agent, and what each one costs you in limits. Workbook memoryDurable notes about this workbook, stored in the file itself, loaded on every turn. Conversation historyEvery conversation auto-saves against its workbook, and you can pick any of them back up.

Skills#

Skills overviewMarkdown playbooks that teach the agent how you want a job done, loaded only when relevant. Bundled skillsThe eleven skills that ship with Excelente, what each one covers, and how they are licensed. Write your own skillThe SKILL.md format, the frontmatter schema, packaging references, and installing what you build.

Connectors#

Connectors overviewBring outside tools and data into the agent's toolbelt over MCP. CRE Agents and the Intelligence HubThe two A.CRE connectors that ship preconfigured, what they add, and how to turn each one on. Add your own MCP serverPoint Excelente at any Streamable HTTP MCP server and its tools join the agent's toolbelt.

Models#

Choosing a modelHow the model picker is organized, what the capability rank means, and which models can actually do the work. Reasoning and agent paceHow much the model thinks before it acts, and how long it works before checking in with you. Cost and limitsWho bills you, where to watch the running total, and what drives it up.

Tool reference#

Tool referenceEvery tool the agent can call, what it does, and whether it stops for your approval. run_excel_scriptThe Office.js escape hatch, what it can and cannot reach, and why VBA is permanently out.

Run it yourself#

Build and sideload your ownClone the public repo, run the dev server, and load your build into Excel. Deploy your own instanceHost the built bundle, generate a manifest with your own add-in id, and distribute it. ArchitectureHow the code is laid out, the rules that keep it testable, and where to add things.

Resources#

TroubleshootingThe failures people actually hit, what causes each one, and how to clear it. Privacy and data handlingWhat leaves your workbook, where it goes, and what is stored on your machine rather than ours.