/microsoft-office

name: microsoft-office
description: Create, read, and edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files.
version: 2.0.0
author: Nous Research
license: MIT
platforms: [linux, macos, windows]
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [office, word, docx, powerpoint, pptx, excel, xlsx, csv, documents, slides, spreadsheets]
    category: productivity
    related_skills: [pdf]

Microsoft Office Skill

Create, read, edit, and template Word (`.docx`), PowerPoint (`.pptx`), and Excel (`.xlsx`, `.csv`) files offline with small Python CLIs built on python-docx, python-pptx, and openpyxl. Office itself is never needed. It does not open legacy binary formats (`.doc`, `.ppt`, `.xls`) and does not render pages without LibreOffice.

When to Use

Pick the format, then read its reference with `skill_view` before working:

| File | Reference | Typical asks | | --- | --- | --- | | `.docx` | `references/word.md` | reports, letters, contracts, `{{token}}` templates, tracked changes, comments | | `.pptx` | `references/powerpoint.md` | pitch decks, brand-template decks, chart refreshes, speaker notes, slide PNGs | | `.xlsx`, `.csv` | `references/excel.md` | styled multi-sheet workbooks, formulas, charts, CSV conversion, row/column restructures |

Deeper notes: `references/revisions-and-comments.md` (Word review markup) and `references/restructuring.md` (Excel reference shifting).

• Not for `.doc`/`.ppt`/`.xls`: convert first with

`soffice --headless --convert-to docx|pptx|xlsx old-file` when LibreOffice is installed.

• Not for `.odt`/`.odp`/`.ods`, or WYSIWYG layout work.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+ with `python-docx`, `python-pptx`, and `openpyxl` (import names

`docx`, `pptx`, `openpyxl`).

• Pick the interpreter with `terminal`. Use `python` when it already imports

the libraries (the Hermes Docker image ships them). Otherwise, when `hermes` is on PATH, let Hermes build its shared, pinned documents environment under the Hermes home: it survives container restarts, never touches the Hermes install itself, and is safe to run from several agents at once. When it is not (the terminal runs in a Docker sandbox, which has no Hermes), the block builds a venv in the sandbox home with the same pinned versions. Use this exact block in every document skill so they all share one environment:

  python -c "import docx, pptx, openpyxl" 2>/dev/null && PY=python || if command -v hermes >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    PY="$(hermes pm environment documents --extra documents --extra documents-pdf)"
  else
    PY="$HOME/.cache/hermes-docs-venv/bin/python"
    "$PY" -c "import docx, openpyxl, pptx, reportlab, pypdf, pdfplumber, pypdfium2" 2>/dev/null || (
      # Safe to run from several agents at once: each caller builds a private venv,
      # a symlink publishes the first finished one atomically, the others delete theirs.
      mkdir -p "$HOME/.cache" && cd "$HOME/.cache" && stage="$(mktemp -d hermes-docs-venv.XXXXXX)" || exit 1
      old="$(readlink hermes-docs-venv)"  # an earlier build that no longer imports, if any
      python3 -m venv "$stage" &&
        "$stage/bin/python" -m pip install -q --disable-pip-version-check python-docx==1.2.0 openpyxl==3.1.5 python-pptx==1.0.2 reportlab==5.1.0 pypdf==6.21.2 pdfplumber==0.11.10 pypdfium2==5.14.0 &&
        "$stage/bin/python" -c "import docx, openpyxl, pptx, reportlab, pypdf, pdfplumber, pypdfium2" &&
        if [ -z "$old" ]; then python3 -c 'import os, sys; os.symlink(*sys.argv[1:])' "$stage" hermes-docs-venv
        elif [ "$(readlink hermes-docs-venv)" = "$old" ]; then
          ln -s "$stage" "$stage.lnk" && python3 -c 'import os, sys; os.replace(*sys.argv[1:])' "$stage.lnk" hermes-docs-venv &&
            case "$old" in hermes-docs-venv.??????) rm -rf "$old" ;; esac
        fi 2>/dev/null
      [ "$(readlink hermes-docs-venv)" = "$stage" ] || rm -rf "$stage" "$stage.lnk"
    )
  fi
  export PY
  "$PY" scripts/docx_create.py --help

Run every helper with `"$PY"`. In PowerShell (Hermes runs on that host, so it is on PATH): `$env:PY = hermes pm environment documents --extra documents --extra documents-pdf`. Never `pip install` into the interpreter that runs Hermes or into the `hermes pm environment` one; Hermes owns both.

• Optional: LibreOffice (`soffice`) for PDF export, Excel recalculation, and

slide rendering, plus poppler (`pdftoppm` or `pdftocairo`) for slide PNGs. The helpers that need them report what is missing and exit 0.

How to Run

Every helper lives in `scripts/`, is an argparse CLI with `--help`, prints JSON to stdout, and exits non-zero on failure. Run them with `terminal` from the skill directory. Author JSON specs with `write_file`; read results with `read_file` or straight from stdout.

"$PY" scripts/docx_create.py spec.json out.docx
"$PY" scripts/pptx_create.py deck.json out.pptx
"$PY" scripts/xlsx_create.py spec.json report.xlsx

Quick Reference

| Task | Word | PowerPoint | Excel | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Create from JSON spec | `docx_create.py` | `pptx_create.py` | `xlsx_create.py`, `csv_to_xlsx.py` | | Read back | `docx_read.py --text/--structure` | `pptx_read.py --outline` | `xlsx_read.py --sheets/--json` | | Edit | `docx_edit.py` | `pptx_edit.py` | `xlsx_edit.py`, `xlsx_restructure.py` | | Fill a template | `docx_template.py` | `pptx_from_template.py` | — | | Review / check | `docx_revisions.py`, `docx_comments.py`, `docx_validate.py` | `pptx_render.py` (slide PNGs) | `xlsx_recalc.py`, `xlsx_to_csv.py` |

The per-format reference has the full flag table.

Procedure

1. Identify the format from the file extension or the ask, and load its reference (`skill_view` with `file_path=references/<format>.md`). 2. Set `PY` with the Prerequisites block once per session. 3. Create, edit, or read with that format's helpers; pass an output path to keep the original whenever the helper supports one. 4. Verify the result as the reference's Verification section says, then give the user the exact