Excel Data Manager MCP server

This MCP server provides comprehensive Excel file management and data analysis capabilities, allowing you to read, write, analyze, and visualize Excel data through Claude Desktop's model context protocol.

Installation

Set Up Python Environment

# Using uv (recommended)
uv init excel-mcp-server
cd excel-mcp-server
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Or using pip
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install Dependencies

# Using uv
uv pip install -e .

Integration with Claude Desktop

Connect to Claude

1. Install Claude Desktop
2. Open Settings and go to the Developer tab
3. Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-excel-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PYTHONPATH": "/path/to/your/python"
      }
  }
}

Using the Excel MCP Server

File Reading Tools

The server provides several tools for reading Excel files:

• read_excel: Read data from Excel files (XLSX, XLS, CSV, TSV, JSON)
• get_excel_info: Get file metadata and structure
• get_sheet_names: Get a list of worksheet names in an Excel file

Data Analysis Tools

Analyze your Excel data with these tools:

• analyze_excel: Perform statistical analysis on your data
• filter_excel: Filter data based on specific conditions
• pivot_table: Create pivot tables to summarize data
• data_summary: Generate comprehensive data summaries

Visualization Tools

Create visual representations of your data:

• export_chart: Generate various chart types including:
  • Line charts
  • Bar charts
  • Scatter plots
  • Histograms

File Operation Tools

Manage Excel files with these tools:

• write_excel: Create new Excel files
• update_excel: Update existing Excel files

Working with Resources

The Excel MCP server offers the following resource patterns:

• excel://{file_path}: Access file content
• excel://{file_path}/info: Get file structure information
• excel://{file_path}/preview: Generate data preview image

Example Usage Queries

You can interact with the Excel MCP server using natural language queries such as:

• "Analyze my sales_data.xlsx file"
• "Create a bar chart for product_sales.csv"
• "Filter employees over 30 in employees.xlsx"
• "Generate a pivot table of department sales"

Security Features

The Excel MCP server implements several security measures:

• Reads files only from specified paths
• Limits file size to prevent memory issues
• Prevents accidental file overwriting
• Strictly controls data transformation operations

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.