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How to integrate Excel MCP with CrewAI

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Microsoft Excel is a robust spreadsheet application for organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data. It's the go-to tool for calculations, reporting, and flexible data management.

125 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Excel to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Excel agent that can create workbooks and worksheets, read and update cell ranges, add rows to tables, build charts, and sort and filter data through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your CrewAI agent real control over a Excel account through Composio's Excel MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Also integrate Excel with

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TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get a Composio API key and configure your Excel connection
  • Set up CrewAI with an MCP enabled agent
  • Create a Tool Router session or standalone MCP server for Excel
  • Build a conversational loop where your agent can execute Excel operations

What is CrewAI?

CrewAI is a powerful framework for building multi-agent AI systems. It provides primitives for defining agents with specific roles, creating tasks, and orchestrating workflows through crews.

Key features include:

  • Agent Roles: Define specialized agents with specific goals and backstories
  • Task Management: Create tasks with clear descriptions and expected outputs
  • Crew Orchestration: Combine agents and tasks into collaborative workflows
  • MCP Integration: Connect to external tools through Model Context Protocol

What is the Excel MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Excel MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Excel account. It provides structured and secure access to your spreadsheets, so your agent can perform actions like adding data, creating tables, managing worksheets, generating charts, and sharing workbooks on your behalf.

  • Automated data entry and updates: Let your agent add rows, columns, or clear specific ranges in any worksheet—keeping your data fresh, organized, and accurate.
  • Effortless table and worksheet management: Direct your agent to create tables, add new worksheets, or organize data structures for seamless tracking and reporting.
  • Dynamic chart generation: Have your agent visualize your data instantly by adding charts to any worksheet for quick insights and analysis.
  • Advanced filtering and sorting: Ask your agent to apply filters or custom sorts to tables, making it easy to focus on what matters most in your datasets.
  • Secure sharing and permission control: Empower your agent to grant access or update permissions on workbooks, ensuring your team can collaborate safely and efficiently.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

Composio's Composio SDK helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Composio SDK

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Composio SDK works

The Composio SDK follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step08 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.9 or higher
  • A Composio account and API key
  • A Excel connection authorized in Composio
  • An OpenAI API key for the CrewAI LLM
  • Basic familiarity with Python
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models, or you can connect to another model provider.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.
3

Install dependencies

bash
pip install composio crewai crewai-tools[mcp] python-dotenv
What's happening:
  • composio connects your agent to Excel via MCP
  • crewai provides Agent, Task, Crew, and LLM primitives
  • crewai-tools[mcp] includes MCP helpers
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables from .env
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID scopes the session to your account
  • OPENAI_API_KEY lets CrewAI use your chosen OpenAI model
5

Import dependencies

python
import os
from composio import Composio
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
import dotenv

dotenv.load_dotenv()

COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
What's happening:
  • CrewAI classes define agents and tasks, and run the workflow
  • MCPServerHTTP connects the agent to an MCP endpoint
  • Composio will give you a short lived Excel MCP URL
6

Create a Composio Tool Router session for Excel

python
composio_client = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio_client.create(user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID, toolkits=["excel"])

url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • You create a Excel only session through Composio
  • Composio returns an MCP HTTP URL that exposes Excel tools
7

Initialize the MCP Server

python
server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users search the internet effectively",
        backstory="You are a helpful assistant with access to search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )
What's Happening:
  • Server Configuration: The code sets up connection parameters including the MCP server URL, streamable HTTP transport, and Composio API key authentication.
  • MCP Adapter Bridge: MCPServerAdapter acts as a context manager that converts Composio MCP tools into a CrewAI-compatible format.
  • Agent Setup: Creates a CrewAI Agent with a defined role (Search Assistant), goal (help with internet searches), and access to the MCP tools.
  • Configuration Options: The agent includes settings like verbose=False for clean output and max_iter=10 to prevent infinite loops.
  • Dynamic Tool Usage: Once created, the agent automatically accesses all Composio Search tools and decides when to use them based on user queries.
8

Create a CLI Chatloop and define the Crew

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

conversation_context = ""

while True:
    user_input = input("You: ").strip()

    if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
        print("\nGoodbye!")
        break

    if not user_input:
        continue

    conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    task = Task(
        description=(
            f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
            f"Current request: {user_input}"
        ),
        expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
        agent=agent,
    )

    crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
    result = crew.kickoff()
    response = str(result)

    conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
    print(f"Agent: {response}\n")
What's Happening:
  • Interactive CLI Setup: The code creates an infinite loop that continuously prompts for user input and maintains the entire conversation history in a string variable.
  • Input Validation: Empty inputs are ignored to prevent processing blank messages and keep the conversation clean.
  • Context Building: Each user message is appended to the conversation context, which preserves the full dialogue history for better agent responses.
  • Dynamic Task Creation: For every user input, a new Task is created that includes both the full conversation history and the current request as context.
  • Crew Execution: A Crew is instantiated with the agent and task, then kicked off to process the request and generate a response.
  • Response Management: The agent's response is converted to a string, added to the conversation context, and displayed to the user, maintaining conversational continuity.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Excel and CrewAI:

python
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()

GOOGLE_API_KEY = os.getenv("GOOGLE_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not GOOGLE_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("GOOGLE_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment.")

# Initialize Composio and create a session
composio = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio.create(
    user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID,
    toolkits=["excel"],
)
url = session.mcp.url

# Configure LLM
llm = LLM(
    model="gpt-5",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
)

server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users with internet searches",
        backstory="You are an expert assistant with access to Composio Search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        llm=llm,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )

    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

    conversation_context = ""

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()

        if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
            print("\nGoodbye!")
            break

        if not user_input:
            continue

        conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
        print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

        task = Task(
            description=(
                f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
                f"Current request: {user_input}"
            ),
            expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
            agent=agent,
        )

        crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
        result = crew.kickoff()
        response = str(result)

        conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
        print(f"Agent: {response}\n")

Conclusion

You now have a CrewAI agent connected to Excel through Composio's Tool Router. The agent can perform Excel operations through natural language commands.

Next steps:

  • Add role-specific instructions to customize agent behavior
  • Plug in more toolkits for multi-app workflows
  • Chain tasks for complex multi-step operations
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Excel action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add Chart

Add a chart to a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Add Named Item

Add a workbook- or worksheet-scoped named item using an invariant reference or a local formula.

Add SharePoint Worksheet

Add a new worksheet to an Excel workbook in a SharePoint site's default drive using Microsoft Graph.

Add Table

Create a new table in a worksheet using the Microsoft Graph API.

Add Table Column

Add a column to a table using Microsoft Graph API.

Add Table Row

Add a row to a table using Microsoft Graph API.

Add Workbook Permission

Tool to grant access to a workbook via invite.

Add Worksheet

Add a new worksheet to an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

Apply Table Filter

Apply a filter to a table column using Microsoft Graph API.

Apply Table Sort

Apply a sort to a table using Microsoft Graph API.

Autofit Range

Autofit columns or rows intersecting a workbook range.

Calculate Workbook Function

Run one allowlisted Microsoft Graph v1.

Calculate Excel Workbook

Calculate Excel Workbook

Clear Range

Tool to clear values, formats, or contents in a specified worksheet range.

Clear Table Filter

Clear a filter from a table column using Microsoft Graph API.

Clear All Table Filters

Clear All Table Filters

Clear Table Sort

Clear Table Sort

Close Excel Session

Tool to close an existing Excel workbook session.

Convert Table To Range

Convert a table to a range using Microsoft Graph API.

Copy Drive Item

Create a non-destructive asynchronous copy of a file or folder.

Create Comment

Create a plain-text Excel cell comment through Microsoft Graph beta.

Create Folder

Create a folder under a parent Microsoft Graph drive item.

Create Upload Session

Create a resumable upload session at a drive-root path.

Create Workbook

Tool to create a new Excel workbook file at a specified drive path.

Create Workbook Sharing Link

Create or retrieve an application-owned sharing link for a workbook.

Delete Drive Item

Move a OneDrive or SharePoint drive item to the recycle bin by item ID.

Delete Named Item

Permanently delete a workbook-scoped named item; this cannot be undone.

Delete Range

Delete worksheet cells and shift the remaining cells up or left.

Delete Table

Permanently delete an Excel table by its ID or name.

Delete Table Column

Delete a column from a table using Microsoft Graph API.

Delete Table Row

Delete a row from a table using Microsoft Graph API.

Delete Worksheet

Tool to delete a worksheet from the workbook.

Download Workbook

Download an Excel workbook in its original file format.

Export Workbook to PDF

Export an Excel workbook to PDF using Microsoft Graph format conversion, returning a download URL.

Get Excel Application

Get Excel Application

Get chart

Get chart

Get Chart Axis

Tool to retrieve a specific axis from a chart.

Get chart component

Retrieve one Excel chart component: chart title, axis title, supported gridlines, axis font, or supported line format.

Get Chart Data Labels

Tool to retrieve the data labels object of a chart.

Get chart image

Render an Excel chart as a base64-encoded image.

Get Chart Legend

Tool to retrieve the legend object of a chart.

Get chart point

Get chart point

Get chart series

Get chart series

Get Comment

Retrieve one workbook comment by its exact ID.

Get Comment Reply

Retrieve one reply to a workbook comment by its exact ID.

Get Derived Range

Return a range derived from another range by navigation or geometry.

Get Drive Item

Retrieve OneDrive or SharePoint drive item metadata by exact ID or path.

Get Named Item

Retrieve a workbook-scoped named item by exact name.

Get Named Item Range

Retrieve the Excel range of a range-valued workbook-scoped named item.

Get Excel Operation Status

Get the status of an asynchronous Excel workbook operation by its operation ID.

Get Pivot Table

Get Pivot Table

Get Projected Worksheet Subresource

Read selected properties from a worksheet range, its used range, or worksheet protection.

Get Range

Get a range from a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Get Range Format

Read one formatting component from a workbook range.

Create Excel Session

Create a session for an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

Get SharePoint Range

Get a range from a worksheet in SharePoint using Microsoft Graph Sites API.

Get SharePoint Worksheet

Get a worksheet by name or ID from an Excel workbook in a SharePoint site's default drive using Microsoft Graph.

Get Table

Retrieve one workbook- or worksheet-addressed table by ID or exact name.

Get table column

Tool to retrieve a specific column from a workbook table.

Get Table Column Cell

Read one cell by row within a selected table column's data body.

Get Table Column Range

Get Table Column Range

Get Table Range

Get Table Range

Get Table Row

Get Table Row

Get Table Row Range

Get Table Row Range

Get Table Sort

Get Table Sort

Get Visible Range

Read cells visible after worksheet filtering.

Get workbook

Retrieve a workbook's relationships, including comments, named items, operations, tables, and worksheets, with optional relationship expansion.

Get Worksheet

Get a worksheet by name or ID from an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

Get Worksheet Protection

Get Worksheet Protection

Get Worksheet Row Range

Read a zero-based worksheet row across the column bounds of the worksheet's values-only used range.

Get Worksheet Used Range

Tool to retrieve a worksheet's used range (active data region) without specifying a fixed range address.

Insert Range

Tool to insert a new cell range into a worksheet, shifting existing cells down or right.

List chart points

List chart points

List Charts

List charts in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

List Chart Series

List a page of data series names in a chart, with a next-page link when more results are available.

List Comment Replies

List replies to one workbook comment.

List Comments

List a page of comments in an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph.

List Drive Item Children

Tool to list immediate children (files/folders) of a folder DriveItem using driveId and itemId.

List Drive Item Versions

List retained versions of a OneDrive or SharePoint workbook file.

List Drive Files

List files and folders in a drive root or specified path.

List Named Items

List named items in a workbook using Microsoft Graph.

List Pivot Tables

List Pivot Tables

List SharePoint Tables

List tables in a worksheet of an Excel workbook stored in a SharePoint site's default drive using Microsoft Graph.

List SharePoint Worksheets

List worksheets in an Excel workbook stored in SharePoint using Microsoft Graph Sites API.

List Site Lists

List SharePoint lists in a known Microsoft Graph site.

List Table Columns

List columns in a table using Microsoft Graph API.

List Table Rows

List rows in a table using Microsoft Graph API.

List Tables

List tables in a specified Excel worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

List Workbook Permissions

Tool to list permissions set on the workbook file.

List Workbook Tables

List tables across a workbook without requiring a worksheet identifier.

List Worksheets

List worksheets in an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

Merge Cells

Merge cells in a worksheet range using Microsoft Graph API.

Protect Worksheet

Tool to protect a worksheet using optional protection options.

Reapply All Table Filters

Reapply All Table Filters

Reapply Table Sort

Reapply Table Sort

Refresh Pivot Tables

Refresh Pivot Tables

Refresh Excel Session

Refresh Excel Session

Resolve Shared Workbook

Resolve a Microsoft Graph share token, shareId, or raw sharing URL to DriveItem metadata.

Revoke Workbook Permission

Remove a non-inherited sharing permission from a workbook.

Run Graph Mutation Batch

Create, update, or delete drive or workbook resources in up to 20 requests; inspect every subresponse status because individual mutations can fail.

Run Graph Read Batch

Read drive or workbook data in up to 20 GET requests; inspect every subresponse status because individual requests can fail.

Search Drive Files

Search OneDrive drive items by query and return files, optionally filtered by extension, to discover Excel workbook IDs.

Search Microsoft 365 Content

Search OneDrive and SharePoint content using Microsoft Search.

Search Sites

Search SharePoint sites by free-text query for workbook discovery.

Set chart data

Replace an Excel chart's source range and optionally choose whether rows or columns define its series.

Set chart position

Set chart position

Sort Range

Sort a range in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Unmerge Range

Split a merged worksheet range back into separate cells.

Unprotect Worksheet

Remove protection from a worksheet so it can be edited again.

Update Chart

Update a chart in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Update chart component

Update one Excel chart component: an axis, data labels, chart title, axis title, supported gridlines, axis font, fill, or supported line format.

Update Chart Legend

Update a chart legend's visibility, position, or overlay setting.

Update chart series

Rename one Excel chart series by ID or zero-based collection position.

Update Drive Item

Rename, move within the same drive, or update client timestamps for a DriveItem by stable ID.

Update Named Item

Update a workbook named item's visibility or comment.

Update Range

Update cell values in a specified worksheet range using Microsoft Graph API.

Update Range Format

Update exactly one formatting component on a workbook range.

Update SharePoint Range

Update values in a worksheet range in an Excel workbook stored in a SharePoint site's default drive using Microsoft Graph.

Update Table

Update an Excel workbook table's name, header visibility, totals visibility, or style using Microsoft Graph.

Update Table Column

Update the name or values of an Excel table column.

Update Table Column Range

Update raw values in a table column's data-body cells by zero-based index.

Update Table Row

Update Table Row

Update Worksheet

Update worksheet properties (name, position) in an Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

Upload Workbook from URL

Tool to upload an external Excel file from a URL into OneDrive/SharePoint.

Who Am I

Return the identity (email, name) of the connected Excel (Microsoft) account.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Excel MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

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Cursor logo

Cursor

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ChatGPT logo

ChatGPT

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Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

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Antigravity logo

Antigravity

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OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

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Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

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Grok Bot logo

Grok Bot

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Codex logo

Codex

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Kimi Code logo

Kimi Code

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Grok Build logo

Grok Build

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VS Code logo

VS Code

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OpenCode logo

OpenCode

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OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

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Hermes logo

Hermes

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Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

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CLI logo

CLI

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Google ADK logo

Google ADK

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LangChain logo

LangChain

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Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

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Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

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LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

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Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

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AutoGen logo

AutoGen

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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