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/officecli-data-dashboard

Use this skill to build a multi-element Excel dashboard — Dashboard sheet on open, multiple formula-driven KPI cards, multiple charts, sparklines, and conditional formatting — from CSV or tabular input. Trigger on: 'dashboard', 'KPI dashboard', 'analytics dashboard', 'executive

From plugin
officecli
27k11 skills
Install
$ npx -y skills add iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI --skill officecli-data-dashboard --agent claude-code

How it fires

How this skill gets triggered: by you, by Claude, or both.

  • Fires itselfAuto-invocation. Claude auto-loads it when your prompt matches the work.Auto-invocation is when the right skill fires by itself at the right moment, driven by a FLOW.md router and a hook, instead of you invoking it by name. It is the difference between a skill being installed and a skill actually getting used.Read the full definition →
  • You can call itInvoke it directly when you want it.
  • Slash command/officecli-data-dashboard

Context preview

The summary Claude sees to decide when to auto-load this skill.

Use this skill to build a multi-element Excel dashboard — Dashboard sheet on open, multiple formula-driven KPI cards, multiple charts, sparklines, and conditional formatting — from CSV or tabular input. Trigger on: 'dashboard', 'KPI dashboard', 'analytics dashboard', 'executive

SKILL.md

officecli-data-dashboard.SKILL.md
name: officecli-data-dashboard
description: "Use this skill to build a multi-element Excel dashboard — Dashboard sheet on open, multiple formula-driven KPI cards, multiple charts, sparklines, and conditional formatting — from CSV or tabular input. Trigger on: 'dashboard', 'KPI dashboard', 'analytics dashboard', 'executive dashboard', 'metrics dashboard', 'CSV to dashboard', 'data visualization'. Output is a single .xlsx. Scene-layer on officecli-xlsx: inherits every xlsx hard rule. DO NOT invoke for: a single budget tracker / one-sheet CSV-with-formatting (use xlsx), a 3-statement / DCF / LBO financial model (use financial-model), a weekly report with ≤ 1 chart and < 10 rows (use xlsx)."

Data Dashboard (scene-layer on officecli-xlsx)

A dashboard is not "a spreadsheet with charts". It is a composition: **one Dashboard sheet the user lands on** with formula-driven KPI cards, cell-range-linked charts, sparklines, and semantic conditional formatting. Everything else (raw data, aggregations) is upstream infrastructure the user should never need to open. This skill teaches the composition pattern. Everything about the xlsx engine — cells, formulas, batch JSON, shell quoting, validate, HTML preview — comes from `officecli-xlsx` and is not re-taught here.

Setup

If `officecli` is missing:

  • **macOS / Linux**: `curl -fsSL https://d.officecli.ai/install.sh | bash`
  • **Windows (PowerShell)**: `irm https://d.officecli.ai/install.ps1 | iex`

Verify with `officecli --version` (open a new terminal if PATH hasn't picked up). If install fails, download a binary from https://github.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/releases.

⚠️ Help-First Rule

**When a prop name, enum value, or alias is uncertain, consult help before guessing.**

officecli help xlsx                          # element list
officecli help xlsx chart                    # full schema for charts
officecli help xlsx sparkline                # sparklines
officecli help xlsx conditionalformatting    # all CF rule types

Help reflects the installed CLI version. When this skill and help disagree, **help wins**. DeferredAddKeys (`combosplit`, `holesize`) work on `add` only — see Reference.

Mental Model & Inheritance

This skill **inherits every xlsx hard rule** from `officecli-xlsx` — shell quoting, zero formula errors, visual delivery floor, batch JSON shape (`{"command":"set"|"add","path":...,"props":{...}}` — key is `command`, NOT `action`), batch JSON dotted-name rule, chart data-feed forms, batch+resident limits, `validate` discipline. Read officecli-xlsx first; honour those rules, do not re-teach them here.

**Reverse handoff — do NOT use this skill when:**

  • The ask is a **single-sheet CSV-with-formatting tracker** (no Dashboard sheet, no KPI cards, ≤ 1 chart) → go back to `officecli-xlsx`.
  • The ask is a **3-statement / DCF / LBO financial model** with blue-inputs / black-formulas / cross-sheet drivers → use `officecli-financial-model`.
  • The ask is a **weekly status report** with one SUMIF summary and one chart over < 10 rows → `officecli-xlsx`.

This skill only accepts: "a Dashboard sheet the user opens first, multiple KPI cards, multiple charts, some CF / sparklines".

Shell & Execution Discipline

→ see officecli-xlsx §Shell & Execution Discipline for the baseline (quoting, heredoc for `!`, incremental execution).

Two increments specific to dashboards:

  • **Long chart `add` commands exceed 180 chars.** Always split across lines with trailing `\`; never pack a chart command onto a single line. The longer the command, the higher the chance a shell-escape bug hides inside it.
  • **Multi-instance counts use `query --json | jq length`, never `raw-get | grep -c`.** Example: `officecli query "$FILE" chart --json | jq '.data.results | length'` for "how many charts do I have?".

Core Principles

Five non-negotiable principles. If any one is violated the output is not a dashboard, it is a spreadsheet that happens to have a chart.

1. **Formula-driven KPIs.** Every KPI value on the Dashboard sheet is a formula — `SUM`, `AVERAGE`, `IFERROR((...-...)/...,0)`, whatever — referring to cells on the Data / Summary sheet. Never hardcode a computed number. When the underlying data changes tomorrow, KPIs update on open.

2. **Cell-range references for charts.** Every chart series reads from a cell range: `series1.values="Sheet1!B2:B13"`. Inline `data="Revenue:100,200,300"` is for a 5-minute demo, not a delivered dashboard. The one exception: data requires an aggregation Excel cannot express (rare) — document the exception in a comment cell.

3. **Dashboard-first architecture.** KPI label cells, KPI value cells, charts, sparklines all live on the **Dashboard** sheet — the single sheet a user lands on. Raw imports and `SUMIFS` rollups live on Data / Summary sheets, upstream of the Dashboard. The user should never need to switch tabs to find the answer.

4. **Visible cells only for chart sources.** LibreOffice does not evaluate formulas in hidden columns or hidden sheets at render time. A chart whose `series1.values` points at a hidden-column `SUMIFS` renders blank. Pattern: aggregate into a **visible** Summary sheet, point charts at Summary cells, hide only helper columns that are not chart sources.

5. **Data-size-aware complexity.** A 10-row dataset does not get 5 KPIs and 4 charts. A 200-row dataset does not get 1 KPI and 1 chart. Scale up the composition with the input (table in §Design Ideas). Overbuilding is as wrong as underbuilding.

Requirements

All `officecli-xlsx` requirements apply (→ see officecli-xlsx §Requirements for Outputs). Dashboards add these:

  • **Dashboard sheet is the active tab on open.** Confirm 0-based sheet index with `officecli query "$FILE" sheet` BEFORE filling `activeTab="N"`. Never guess the index.
  • **`calc.fullCalcOnLoad=true`.** Set via `officecli set "$FILE" / --prop calc.fullCalcOnLoad=true`. Do NOT `raw-set` `<calcPr>` — it produces duplicate elements that fail validate.
  • **Refresh
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