Excel Spreadsheet Diagnostic Engine

Problem It Solves

Many Excel issues are not missing features, but wrong tool choices inside the grid: monthly reports rebuilt by hand, unreadable nested IF formulas, VBA used for simple summaries, and references that break when a source column is inserted. The real failure is usually missing structural diagnosis. This skill turns natural-language spreadsheet requests into concrete build paths and helps engineers avoid fragile default patterns.

How It Works

• Classify the problem: lookup, conditional logic, cleaning, reporting, automation, modeling, visualization
• Choose tools by priority: prefer XLOOKUP, IFS, and SUMIFS; then dynamic arrays, pivot tables, cleaning workflows, and only then VBA
• Produce an actionable structure: problem type, target platform, optimal tool, paste-ready formulas or steps, why this tool, failure points, and next step
• Handle cross-platform cases: adapt for Excel 365, legacy Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, and Calc, with fallbacks when features are unavailable

Boundary: it does not replace business judgment, nor cover permissions, security, or organizational workflow constraints; complex modeling, external data sources, and macro security still require human review.