Skills
xlflow skill install installs the bundled xlflow Skill for agent tools. The Skill is a thin orchestration layer: it directs an agent through the normal proof loop and the safety decisions that apply to most Excel/VBA work, while xlflow itself remains the source of truth for command syntax, diagnostics, and enforcement. It includes a compact, executable session-first command sequence and a purpose-to-command capability map so an agent unfamiliar with xlflow can safely begin the normal development loop without first reconstructing it from command documentation.
The normal loop is: orient, analyze structural impact when relevant, edit source artifacts, validate, push or import, run focused verification, inspect workbook results when relevant, perform broader verification, then save and stop the session.
The installed Skill loads specialized guidance only when the task requires it:
| Task | Reference |
|---|---|
| Tests and test failures | references/testing.md |
| Formula-driven behavior | references/formulas.md |
| UserForm design and inspection | references/forms.md |
| FormSpec field syntax and edit rules | references/forms-properties.md |
| Property types, enums and applicability | references/forms-contract.md |
| Complete UserForm authoring examples | references/forms-examples.md |
| Interactive dialogs and unattended UI | references/xlflow-ui.md |
| Runtime diagnostics | references/debugging.md |
| Recovery-required state | references/recovery.md |
| Call graph, impact, and dependencies | references/code-analysis.md |
This structure keeps detailed workflows available without turning SKILL.md into a CLI reference. In particular, recovery remains fail-closed: when xlflow reports that recovery is required, stop normal workbook operations and follow the recovery reference.
The FormSpec references are bundled with the installed skill. The property contract is generated from the same metadata used by UserForm validation and editor intelligence. Maintainers run pnpm docs:generate-form-skill after changing that metadata; pnpm docs:check rejects a stale generated reference. The companion guidance explains additional compiler limits, and the examples show complete input, grouped-choice and page/image forms. MSForms properties absent from the xlflow contract should not be guessed into a spec.
Supported provider targets:
| Agent target | Install path |
|---|---|
agents | .agents/skills/xlflow |
codex | .codex/skills/xlflow |
claude | .claude/skills/xlflow |
cursor | .cursor/skills/xlflow |
gemini | .gemini/skills/xlflow |
Use --force only when you intentionally want to overwrite an existing installed skill.