Post #2220318
2026-05-07 20:06 UTC
When Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork needs to create an Excel file, it uses LibreOffice - not Excel.😏
The actual process seems to be: Claude agent calls openpyxl (Python library) to generate the file. Then, the headless soffice of LibreOffice is used to validate the output. Finally, the user is shown a file in Excel for the web.
It makes perfect sense, given how Anthropic built Cowork and Microsoft just licensed it from them.
#Copilot #Cowork #Excel #LibreOffice
Replies (2)
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@stragu@mastodon.indie.host 2026-05-07 21:27
@jukkan@mstdn.social hey @libreoffice@fosstodon.org , you might be interested 😄👆
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@OmegaPolice@hachyderm.io 2026-05-09 09:02
@jukkan@mstdn.social _Is_ there even headless tooling by MS to work with Office docs? I wouldn't know, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there wasn't. Certainly no OSS, given through how many hoops I've seen colleagues jump to implement the inevitable "make it export Excel" requirements.