Agent skill · writing content · github
convert-excel-to-md
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.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a Python script for converting Excel files to Markdown, which includes specific handling for embedded images and structured output that the AI wouldn't generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires markitdown, pip, python installed locally. About 4k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 37,534 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Convert Excel to Markdown When to use this skill Trigger this skill any time there is a .xlsx file that needs to be understood or processed — for example, a user attaches a spreadsheet and asks questions about it, wants a summary of the data, wants specific rows or values pulled out, or wants multiple workbooks in a folder processed together. Excel's native .xlsx format is a zipped XML bundle that is not reliably readable as plain text, so always convert it to Markdown first using the script in this skill rather than trying to open or parse the file directly. This skill only supports .xlsx. If asked to convert a legacy .xls file, tell the user it isn't supported and ask them to re-save it as .xlsx (Excel: File > Save As > Excel Workbook (.xlsx)) first. Mixed file types: When the user references a folder or set of documents containing multiple supported file types (.pdf, .docx, .xlsx), this skill handles only .xlsx files. The agent MUST also invoke the sibling skills in parallel: convert-pdf-to-md for any .pdf files convert-word-to-md for any .docx files Never process a folder and silently skip a supported file type. All three skills must be invoked together when mixed types are present. Setup (once per environment) Before the first conversion in a given environment, follow references/setup.md step by step to ensure Python, pip, and the markitdown package are installed. Do this proactively rather than guessing whether the environment is ready — the script itself will also fail with a clear pointer back to that file if markitdown turns out to be missing, so it's safe to just try the conversion first if you're reasonably confident setup was already done. Usage The conversion script lives at scripts/convertexceltomd.py. Output structure: MarkItDown's XLSX converter renders each sheet as its own ## <SheetName> Markdown table — it has no support for embedded images at all. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills github/convert-excel-to-md