How to integrate Excel MCP with Autogen

This guide walks you through connecting Excel to AutoGen using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Excel agent that can add sales data row to q2 table, create bar chart from revenue column, share this workbook with your manager through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your AutoGen 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.

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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.

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Introduction

This guide will help you understand how to give your AutoGen 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

ChatGPT OpenAI Agents SDK Claude Agent SDK Claude Code Claude Cowork Codex OpenCode Cursor VS Code OpenClaw Hermes CLI Google ADK LangChain Vercel AI SDK Mastra AI LlamaIndex CrewAI

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:

Get and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
Install the required dependencies for Autogen and Composio
Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Excel
Wire that MCP URL into Autogen using McpWorkbench and StreamableHttpServerParams
Configure an Autogen AssistantAgent that can call Excel tools
Run a live chat loop where you ask the agent to perform Excel operations

What is AutoGen?

Autogen is a framework for building multi-agent conversational AI systems from Microsoft. It enables you to create agents that can collaborate, use tools, and maintain complex workflows.

Key features include:

Multi-Agent Systems: Build collaborative agent workflows
MCP Workbench: Native support for Model Context Protocol tools
Streaming HTTP: Connect to external services through streamable HTTP
AssistantAgent: Pre-built agent class for tool-using assistants

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:

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

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step08 STEPS

Prerequisites

You will need:

A Composio API key
An OpenAI API key (used by Autogen's OpenAIChatCompletionClient)
A Excel account you can connect to Composio
Some basic familiarity with Autogen and Python async

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.

Install dependencies

bash

pip install composio python-dotenv
pip install autogen-agentchat autogen-ext-openai autogen-ext-tools

Install Composio, Autogen extensions, and dotenv.

What's happening:

composio connects your agent to Excel via MCP
autogen-agentchat provides the AssistantAgent class
autogen-ext-openai provides the OpenAI model client
autogen-ext-tools provides MCP workbench support

Set up environment variables

bash

COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-composio-api-key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
USER_ID=your-user-identifier@example.com

Create a .env file in your project folder.

What's happening:

COMPOSIO_API_KEY is required to talk to Composio
OPENAI_API_KEY is used by Autogen's OpenAI client
USER_ID is how Composio identifies which user's Excel connections to use

Import dependencies and create Tool Router session

python

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio

from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient
from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import McpWorkbench, StreamableHttpServerParams

load_dotenv()

async def main():
    # Initialize Composio and create a Excel session
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
    session = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["excel"]
    )
    url = session.mcp.url

What's happening:

load_dotenv() reads your .env file
Composio(api_key=...) initializes the SDK
create(...) creates a Tool Router session that exposes Excel tools
session.mcp.url is the MCP endpoint that Autogen will connect to

Configure MCP parameters for Autogen

python

# Configure MCP server parameters for Streamable HTTP
server_params = StreamableHttpServerParams(
    url=url,
    timeout=30.0,
    sse_read_timeout=300.0,
    terminate_on_close=True,
    headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")}
)

Autogen expects parameters describing how to talk to the MCP server. That is what StreamableHttpServerParams is for.

What's happening:

url points to the Tool Router MCP endpoint from Composio
timeout is the HTTP timeout for requests
sse_read_timeout controls how long to wait when streaming responses
terminate_on_close=True cleans up the MCP server process when the workbench is closed

Create the model client and agent

python

# Create model client
model_client = OpenAIChatCompletionClient(
    model="gpt-5",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
)

# Use McpWorkbench as context manager
async with McpWorkbench(server_params) as workbench:
    # Create Excel assistant agent with MCP tools
    agent = AssistantAgent(
        name="excel_assistant",
        description="An AI assistant that helps with Excel operations.",
        model_client=model_client,
        workbench=workbench,
        model_client_stream=True,
        max_tool_iterations=10
    )

What's happening:

OpenAIChatCompletionClient wraps the OpenAI model for Autogen
McpWorkbench connects the agent to the MCP tools
AssistantAgent is configured with the Excel tools from the workbench

Run the interactive chat loop

python

print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
print("Ask any Excel related question or task to the agent.\n")

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

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

    if not user_input:
        continue

    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    # Run the agent with streaming
    try:
        response_text = ""
        async for message in agent.run_stream(task=user_input):
            if hasattr(message, "content") and message.content:
                response_text = message.content

        # Print the final response
        if response_text:
            print(f"Agent: {response_text}\n")
        else:
            print("Agent: I encountered an issue processing your request.\n")

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Agent: Sorry, I encountered an error: {str(e)}\n")

What's happening:

The script prompts you in a loop with You:
Autogen passes your input to the model, which decides which Excel tools to call via MCP
agent.run_stream(...) yields streaming messages as the agent thinks and calls tools
Typing exit, quit, or bye ends the loop

Complete Code

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

python

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio

from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient
from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import McpWorkbench, StreamableHttpServerParams

load_dotenv()

async def main():
    # Initialize Composio and create a Excel session
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
    session = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["excel"]
    )
    url = session.mcp.url

    # Configure MCP server parameters for Streamable HTTP
    server_params = StreamableHttpServerParams(
        url=url,
        timeout=30.0,
        sse_read_timeout=300.0,
        terminate_on_close=True,
        headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")}
    )

    # Create model client
    model_client = OpenAIChatCompletionClient(
        model="gpt-5",
        api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
    )

    # Use McpWorkbench as context manager
    async with McpWorkbench(server_params) as workbench:
        # Create Excel assistant agent with MCP tools
        agent = AssistantAgent(
            name="excel_assistant",
            description="An AI assistant that helps with Excel operations.",
            model_client=model_client,
            workbench=workbench,
            model_client_stream=True,
            max_tool_iterations=10
        )

        print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
        print("Ask any Excel related question or task to the agent.\n")

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

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

            if not user_input:
                continue

            print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

            # Run the agent with streaming
            try:
                response_text = ""
                async for message in agent.run_stream(task=user_input):
                    if hasattr(message, 'content') and message.content:
                        response_text = message.content

                # Print the final response
                if response_text:
                    print(f"Agent: {response_text}\n")
                else:
                    print("Agent: I encountered an issue processing your request.\n")

            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Agent: Sorry, I encountered an error: {str(e)}\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Conclusion

You now have an Autogen assistant wired into Excel through Composio's Tool Router and MCP. From here you can:

Add more toolkits to the toolkits list, for example notion or hubspot
Refine the agent description to point it at specific workflows
Wrap this script behind a UI, Slack bot, or internal tool

Once the pattern is clear for Excel, you can reuse the same structure for other MCP-enabled apps with minimal code changes.

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 SharePoint Worksheet

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

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.

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.

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.

Create Workbook

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

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.

Export Workbook to PDF

Tool to export an Excel workbook to PDF via Microsoft Graph's format conversion.

Get Chart Axis

Tool to retrieve a specific axis from a chart.

Get Chart Data Labels

Tool to retrieve the data labels object of a chart.

Get Chart Legend

Tool to retrieve the legend object of a chart.

Get Range

Get a range from a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

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 a SharePoint Excel workbook using Microsoft Graph Sites API.

Get table column

Tool to retrieve a specific column from a workbook table.

Get workbook

Tool to retrieve the properties and relationships of a workbook.

Get Worksheet

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

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 Charts

List charts in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

List Chart Series

Tool to list all data series in a chart.

List Comments

Tool to list comments in an Excel workbook.

List Drive Item Children

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

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 API.

List SharePoint Tables

List tables in a SharePoint worksheet using Microsoft Graph Sites API.

List SharePoint Worksheets

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

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 worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

List Workbook Permissions

Tool to list permissions set on the workbook file.

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.

Search Drive Files

Tool to search OneDrive drive items by query to discover Excel workbook IDs.

Sort Range

Sort a range in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Update Chart

Update a chart in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Update Chart Legend

Tool to update formatting or position of a chart legend.

Update Range

Update a range in a worksheet using Microsoft Graph API.

Update SharePoint Range

Update a range in a SharePoint worksheet using Microsoft Graph Sites API.

Update Table

Update a table in a workbook using Microsoft Graph API.

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.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Excel MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT

Use Excel MCP with ChatGPT

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Excel MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use Excel MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Use Excel MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Use Excel MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex

Use Excel MCP with Codex

Cursor

Use Excel MCP with Cursor

OpenClaw

Use Excel MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes

Use Excel MCP with Hermes

CLI

Use Excel MCP with CLI

Google ADK

Use Excel MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

Use Excel MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Use Excel MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI

Use Excel MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex

Use Excel MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Use Excel MCP with CrewAI

OpenCode

Use Excel MCP with OpenCode

VS Code

Use Excel MCP with VS Code

MORE TOOLKITS

Explore Other Toolkits

Toolkit marketplace

21risk

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21RISK is a web app built for easy checklist, audit, and compliance management. It streamlines risk processes so teams can focus on what matters.

Abstract

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Abstract provides a suite of APIs for automating data validation and enrichment tasks. It helps developers streamline workflows and ensure data quality with minimal effort.

Addressfinder

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Addressfinder is a data quality platform for verifying addresses, emails, and phone numbers. It helps you ensure accurate customer and contact data every time.

Agentql

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Agentql is a toolkit that connects AI agents to the web using a specialized query language. It enables structured web interaction and data extraction for smarter automations.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Excel MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Excel tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Excel and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Autogen fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Excel tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Excel scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Excel data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

Start with Excel.It takes 30 seconds.

Managed auth, hosted MCP servers, and every Excel tool your agent needs.Free to start.

Start building

Customer stories

Teams ship real agents on Composio

GET STARTED FOR FREE BOOK A DEMO

Karan skipped his own birthday party to fix our critical issue. It was 10pm and he diverted his Waymo to help us instead. This really sets the bar — it shows the commitment you need when users rely on your software.

Harsha Gaddipati

Co-founder, Slashy

A lot of students tell us that the moment their connected tools start talking to each other inside Opennote feels almost magical. The agent just knows them, and it's immensely helped keep new users on the platform.

Abhi Arya

Co-founder, Opennote

We chose Composio over Pipedream because it delivered depth where it mattered — niche tools and tricky edge cases other platforms simply ignored. That gave us confidence to scale without compromising.

Nirman Dave

CEO, Zams

As a solo builder, shipping fast is life or death. The only way I can outcompete incumbents is by outmanoeuvring them. Getting bogged down managing agent auth would have been a death sentence.

Ryan Yu

Founder, Extra Thursday

Before Composio, adding tool integrations was slow and resource-intensive. Each one could take weeks of engineering time, and maintaining them meant constantly keeping up with API changes.

Tomisin Jenrola

Founder & CEO, SwarmZero

With hands-on help from their founder, we integrated Gmail and Google Drive in just 30 minutes. This level of personal support and commitment is exactly what startups should strive for.

Jerome Leclanche

Co-Founder, Ingram Technologies

How to integrate Excel MCP with Autogen

Connect Excel without auth hassles

Introduction

Also integrate Excel with

TL;DR

What is AutoGen?

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

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

What is Composio SDK?

How the Composio SDK works

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

Install dependencies

Set up environment variables

Import dependencies and create Tool Router session

Configure MCP parameters for Autogen

Create the model client and agent

Run the interactive chat loop

Complete Code

Conclusion

Supported Tools

How to build Excel MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT

OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Codex

Cursor

OpenClaw

Hermes

CLI

Google ADK

LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

OpenCode

VS Code

Explore Other Toolkits

21risk

Abstract

Addressfinder

Agentql

Frequently asked questions

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Excel MCP?+

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Autogen?+

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Excel while using Tool Router?+

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?+

Start with Excel.It takes 30 seconds.

Teams ship real agents on Composio