KitchenSink4XL

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.KitchenSink4AI/kitchensink4xl -->

# 🔌 KitchenSink4XL Community Edition

[![Tests](https://github.com/KitchenSink4AI/KitchenSink4XL/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/KitchenSink4AI/KitchenSink4XL/actions/workflows/tests.yml)
[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/kitchensink4xl)](https://pypi.org/project/kitchensink4xl/)
[![License: AGPL-3.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-AGPL--3.0-blue)](LICENSE)

[Landing page](https://kitchensink4.ai/KitchenSink4XL/) · [llms.txt](https://kitchensink4.ai/KitchenSink4XL/llms.txt) (machine-readable capability manifest for agents and LLM crawlers)

**Read and edit Excel workbooks with your AI assistant, and know which numbers are calculated, cached or missing.**

Read and edit real Excel workbooks from Claude Code, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI or any other MCP client that runs local tools. KitchenSink4XL connects your assistant to .xlsx files with tools for formulas, tables and data checks, and it tells you whether a value was calculated, cached or never computed before you put it in a report. Files are processed on your computer; the only thing that leaves it is what your AI app sends to its own provider. The Community edition is free under the AGPL. The Business edition adds a Windows installer, a signed update channel, a license your company can approve and support.

**Works on:** Windows, macOS and Linux for the file tools. Recalculation, pivots and the other Excel-powered features need Windows with Microsoft Excel installed.

## Install

Pick the route for your AI app. The commands go in PowerShell on Windows or a terminal on macOS and Linux, not into an AI chat. The package routes need Python 3.12 or newer.

**Claude Desktop**

Install [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/), then quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Download the `.mcpb` file from [KitchenSink4XL releases](https://github.com/KitchenSink4AI/KitchenSink4XL/releases/latest). In Claude Desktop open Settings, then Extensions, then Advanced settings, then Install extension, and choose the file. The bundle fetches the Python package the first time it starts, so the first launch needs a network connection. Restart your session and check that the tools show as connected.

**Claude Code or Codex CLI**

Install uv, then run the line for your app and restart your session:

```sh
claude mcp add xl -s user -- uvx kitchensink4xl
```

```sh
codex mcp add xl -- uvx kitchensink4xl
```

**Any other local MCP client**

Use `uvx` as the command and `kitchensink4xl` as its argument, or install the package and use `kitchensink4xl` as the server command:

```sh
pip install kitchensink4xl
```

Then follow your client's guide for adding a local MCP server. Installing the package on its own does not connect it to an AI app.

**Business edition**

Compare the editions on the [pricing page](https://kitchensink4.ai/pricing/). Already purchased? Your Windows installer and download link are in your [license portal](https://get.kitchensink4.ai/my-license/).

## What it can do

69 tools with every pack enabled, including the pack controls. The default lite surface has 40.

- See whether a value was calculated, cached or missing before you use it.
- Read a range or summarize a large table without pulling every row.
- Write formulas, values and number formats into an existing workbook.
- Add or remove rows and columns while supported references update.
- Sort, filter and format tables for a client or a colleague.
- Import and export CSV and JSON.
- Check a workbook for structural problems before sharing it.
- Use installed Excel on Windows for recalculation, pivots and PDF export.

What is available depends on the packs you enable and the applications installed. The full tool reference is below.

## Business edition

Need a license your company can approve and a setup someone supports? The Business edition pairs these tools with a Windows installer, a signed update channel and support under the Business terms. Update checks tell you when a covered release is available; nothing installs on its own. Compare the options on the [pricing page](https://kitchensink4.ai/pricing/). The Community edition stays free under the AGPL, including business use that meets its terms.

## Privacy Policy

The tools run on your computer, and KitchenSink4AI receives no documents and no usage data from them. Your AI app may send prompts, file contents and tool results to its own provider under that app's settings and terms. Installing downloads packages, and the Community version check contacts PyPI unless you disable it; those requests carry connection details such as your network address and never your documents. Cloud folders and backups follow their own settings. The [Privacy Policy](https://kitchensink4.ai/privacy/) covers the product, purchases and support records.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft and Excel are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

## The number that looks right and isn't

Here is the dirty secret of every tool that reads Excel files: a spreadsheet
remembers its answers, not its thinking. When something changes upstream, the
old answers just sit there, looking exactly like real numbers. Most AI tools
will read one anyway and confidently report it, and you will make a decision
based on it. This server refuses to bluff. Every number it hands your AI comes
with the truth attached: freshly calculated, remembered from the last save, or
missing, with the affected cells named. And when it really matters, it asks
Excel itself to recalculate and prove it.

## What happens to column F when you insert column D

Insert one column in a real workbook and you find out how much of a
spreadsheet lives to the right of where you clicked. Formulas, totals, charts,
that table on sheet three that quietly feeds the summary: all of them have
opinions about where their cells just went.

Most tools do the cheap version: move the cells, save the file, hope. The
damage never shows up when the edit runs. It shows up three days later, in a
meeting, in the one total that quietly stopped including its last row.

This server moves everything that should move, and checks the result against
what Excel itself would have done. When an edit cannot be done safely, it says
no out loud instead of guessing quietly. A refusal costs you a minute. A quiet
guess costs you the deal.

## Against the rest of the aisle

Feature grids flatter everybody. Here it is instead as the requests an agent
actually gets:

| "Hey, could you…" | 🔌 KitchenSink4XL | haris-musa (openpyxl), 4,155★† | The rest of the aisle* |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Insert a column in the middle, keep every formula pointing where it should." | ✔ formulas, tables, named ranges, charts and cross-sheet links all follow, checked against Excel's own recalculation | ✘ nothing in the docs says otherwise, and openpyxl, the library underneath, states plainly that it does not maintain formulas, tables or charts when rows and columns move | Excel does the shifting itself, on Windows, with the workbook closed and the application running |
| "Is this total current, or left over from the last save?" | ✔ every value labeled calculated, cached or absent, and the stale cells named by address | ✘ reads return the formula string; there is no way to get even the cached value | the COM server recalculates with Excel's own engine, but the value comes back with no freshness marking of any kind |
| "Sort it the way Excel would sort it, blanks and all." | ✔ numbers, then text case-insensitively, then FALSE, TRUE, errors, blanks last, both directions, checked cell for cell against Excel | ✘ no sort tool | Excel's own sort, with the application running |
| "Write a LAMBDA the file can still open afterward." | ✔ modern functions and their declared parameters prefixed correctly; 80 formulas across every documented family opened with no repair prompt | n/d, and no Excel MCP server surveyed documents the modern functions either way, as support or as a limitation | n/d |
| "Read the big workbook without torching my context window." | ✔ compact reads, a grid view, and server-side query and aggregation so the rows stay on the server | ✘ no pagination and no token budgeting anywhere in the docs; with no end cell given it reads the whole used range | the Go server pages reads by cell count, 4,000 cells at a time by default |
| "Recalculate it for real and prove it." | ✔ a private hidden Excel does the arithmetic and the result comes back labeled calculated, never mixed in with cached values | ✘ no recalculation tool, and the documentation never raises the subject | real recalculation on the COM server, which asks for Windows, an installed Excel, an interactive desktop and the workbook closed first |

Capability survey as of 2026-09-04, compiled from public repositories,
documentation, and issue trackers. n/d: not documented in the sources
surveyed, which is not a claimed absence. The most popular Excel MCP server is
haris-musa/excel-mcp-server, 25 tools on openpyxl, last released 2026-04-12;
its own open issues #94 and #118 ask for computed values instead of formula
text. openpyxl's documentation states that it does not manage dependencies
such as formulae, tables and charts when rows or columns are inserted or
deleted. \* The rest of the aisle: negokaz/excel-mcp-server (Go, seven tools,
paginated reads, live editing on Windows), sbroenne/mcp-server-excel (C#, 31
tools over 326 operations driving the real Excel application, the capability
ceiling, but Windows with Excel and exclusive access to the file, and no
file-based tier). Two newer servers, PSU3D0/agent-spreadsheet and
logisky/logisheets-mcp, embed real calculation engines and are worth watching.
Microsoft ships no Excel MCP server, and Claude for Excel is an Office add-in
rather than an MCP server. † Star counts read from the GitHub API on
2026-09-04, shown for context: stars