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/convert-excel-to-md

@e4a1f57 official
by githubgithub/awesome-copilot40k stars
5,040

Converts Excel (.xlsx) workbooks into Markdown so their contents can be accurately analyzed, summarized, searched, or extracted from. Use this skill whenever the user shares, references, or asks about a .xlsx file — even if they don't say "convert" or "markdown" explicitly. This includes requests to "read", "summarize", "review", "extract data from", "compare", "chart", or "analyze" a spreadsheet, workbook, budget, data export, or tracker. Always run the bundled conversion script to produce Markdown first; do not attempt to parse .xlsx content directly or write ad-hoc extraction code. Also use this skill for batch requests involving a whole folder of Excel workbooks. IMPORTANT: When the user references a folder or set of documents containing multiple file types (.pdf, .docx, .xlsx), invoke ALL three sibling skills — convert-pdf-to-md, convert-word-to-md, and convert-excel-to-md — so no file type is silently skipped.

Ask your Agent

Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/github/awesome-copilot/convert-excel-to-md

This session only. Nothing lands on disk.

referencessetup.md

≈691 tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

Environment Setup for convert-excel-to-md

Follow these steps exactly, in order, before running scripts/convert_excel_to_md.py for the first time in a given environment. Don't skip steps or improvise alternatives — they're written to be deterministic and safe to re-run.

1. Check Python is available (3.10+)

python --version
  • If this fails (command not found), install Python 3.10 or newer:
    • Windows: winget install --id Python.Python.3.12 -e
    • macOS: brew install python@3.12
    • Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python-is-python3
  • If the reported version is older than 3.10, install a newer Python using the same command above (MarkItDown requires 3.10+).

2. Check pip is available

python -m pip --version
  • If this fails, bootstrap pip:
python -m ensurepip --upgrade

3. Install MarkItDown with Excel (.xlsx) support

Use the scripts/requirements.txt file bundled with this skill to install a pinned, known-good version of the dependency:

python -m pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

This pulls in markitdown[xlsx] (MarkItDown's XLSX table conversion dependencies, which include pandas and openpyxl). No extra package is needed for image extraction — this skill's script reads embedded images directly from the .xlsx zip structure using Python's built-in zipfile and xml modules.

4. Verify the install

python -c "from markitdown import MarkItDown; print('markitdown OK')"

Expect to see markitdown OK printed with no errors. If you see ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'markitdown', repeat step 3 — pip may be installing into a different Python environment than the one being invoked (check python -m pip --version shows the same path as python --version's interpreter).

Notes

  • This setup only needs to be done once per environment/virtual environment, not once per conversion.
  • convert_excel_to_md.py itself also checks for markitdown at startup and prints a pointer back to this file if it's missing, so re-running setup is safe and idempotent.
  • Only .xlsx is supported by this skill. Legacy binary .xls files are out of scope (a completely different, harder-to-parse file format) — ask the user to re-save the file as .xlsx (Excel: File > Save As > Excel Workbook (.xlsx)) if one is encountered.
  • Chart objects (as opposed to embedded pictures) are not extracted as images — only raster pictures actually embedded in the workbook's xl/media folder are. Native Excel charts would need to be rendered by Excel/LibreOffice to become images, which this lightweight skill does not attempt.

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 warning2mo3 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub2mo

    This skill converts Excel (.xlsx) files to Markdown using the Microsoft MarkItDown library, facilitating data analysis and extraction workflows. It includes features for batch processing and automated extraction of embedded images.

  • Socket2mo

    No alerts

  • Snyk2mo

    Risk: MEDIUM · 1 issue

Provenance

Signed by skilld at e4a1f57. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 19 hours ago.

Activeupdated 3 months ago

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