CLI Tool

SheetKit includes a command-line tool for working with Excel (.xlsx) files directly from the terminal. The CLI provides quick access to common workbook operations without writing code.

Installation

Build from source with the cli feature:

cargo install sheetkit --features cli

Or build locally:

cargo build --release --package sheetkit --features cli

The binary will be at target/release/sheetkit.

Commands

info

Show workbook information including sheet names, active sheet, and document properties.

sheetkit info report.xlsx

Example output:

File: report.xlsx
Sheets: 3
  1: Summary (active)
  2: Data
  3: Charts
Creator: John Smith
Modified: 2025-01-15T10:30:00Z

sheets

List all sheet names in the workbook, one per line.

sheetkit sheets report.xlsx

Example output:

Summary
Data
Charts

This is useful for scripting:

for sheet in $(sheetkit sheets report.xlsx); do
  sheetkit convert report.xlsx -f csv -o "${sheet}.csv" --sheet "$sheet"
done

read

Read and display sheet data. Defaults to the active sheet with tab-separated output.

# Read the active sheet as a table
sheetkit read report.xlsx

# Read a specific sheet
sheetkit read report.xlsx --sheet Data

# Output as CSV
sheetkit read report.xlsx --format csv

Options:

Flag	Short	Description
--sheet <name>	-s	Sheet to read (default: active sheet)
--format <fmt>	-f	Output format: table (default) or csv

get

Get a single cell value.

sheetkit get report.xlsx Sheet1 A1

Returns the cell value to stdout. Empty cells produce no output. Numeric values are displayed without trailing zeros for integers. Boolean values are displayed as TRUE or FALSE.

set

Set a cell value and save to a new file.

sheetkit set report.xlsx Sheet1 A1 "New Title" -o updated.xlsx

The value is automatically interpreted:

• TRUE / FALSE (case-insensitive) are stored as booleans.
• Valid numbers are stored as numeric values.
• Everything else is stored as a string.

Options:

Flag	Short	Description
--output <path>	-o	Output file path (required)

convert

Convert a sheet to another format.

# Convert active sheet to CSV
sheetkit convert report.xlsx -f csv -o output.csv

# Convert a specific sheet
sheetkit convert report.xlsx -f csv -o data.csv --sheet Data

Options:

Flag	Short	Description
--format <fmt>	-f	Target format: csv (required)
--output <path>	-o	Output file path (required)
--sheet <name>	-s	Sheet to convert (default: active sheet)

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Error (invalid file, missing sheet, bad cell reference, etc.)

Error messages are printed to stderr.

Examples

# Quick inspection of an unknown spreadsheet
sheetkit info data.xlsx
sheetkit sheets data.xlsx
sheetkit read data.xlsx | head -5

# Extract a specific value for use in a script
total=$(sheetkit get data.xlsx Summary B10)
echo "Total: $total"

# Batch update a cell and export
sheetkit set template.xlsx Report A1 "Q4 2025" -o report.xlsx
sheetkit convert report.xlsx -f csv -o report.csv

# Export all sheets to CSV
for sheet in $(sheetkit sheets workbook.xlsx); do
  sheetkit convert workbook.xlsx -f csv -o "${sheet}.csv" --sheet "$sheet"
done