Integrating Codex CLI with Excel data via CData CLI

Codex CLI is OpenAI's open-source coding agent that runs locally from your terminal, built in Rust for speed and efficiency. It can read, modify, and execute code on your machine through natural language instructions, handling multi-file edits, running shell commands, reviewing code changes, and launching Codex Cloud tasks. Its support for integrations, agent skills, and AGENTS.md configuration files makes it well-suited for structured, tool-driven workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through CData CLI.

By describing your data goals in plain language, Codex CLI can handle the full setup process, from driver configuration and license activation to connection creation and query execution, without manual intervention at each step.

This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Excel data to Codex CLI through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

1. Codex CLI installed
2. CData CLI installed
3. Access to Excel

Step 1: Download the skill (one-time setup)

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

1. The official CData CLI Skill is available on GitHub and installs through npx skills in the terminal:

   npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills

2. Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for Codex. 👁 Install for Codex
   

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

1. Navigate to the directory within the terminal and start a session with the codex command: 👁 Start a Codex session
   

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

Describe what you want to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Excel data.

I would like to build a command line app that connects to Excel data and checks for updates from Sheet. Make sure to include data from important columns like Name and Revenue.

This prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.

1. Driver setup: Codex CLI checks for an existing CData Excel driver, or searches and downloads a new one:

• cdatacli drivers list

• cdatacli drivers search --driver "Excel"

• cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id <artifact-id>

2. Activation: Activate the Excel driver with a single command for a trial or full license:

• cdatacli drivers activate "Excel" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --trial

• cdatacli drivers activate "Excel" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --key "<product-key>"

3. Establish the Excel connection: Check for existing Excel connections or create a new one:

• cdatacli connection list

• cdatacli connection create --driver Excel --name my_excel_connection --connectionstring "Prop1=value1;Prop2=value2;..."

4. Create a Excel skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources. You can use these to generate a source-specific skill file that guides the agent through best practices for the driver.
• Run the following command and save the output to your skills directory, either at the project level or globally. (Note: If you receive a "No instructions available for Excel" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.)

  cdatacli drivers skill "Excel" > ~/skills/cdata-excel/SKILL.md

Step 4: Query Excel data

With the CData driver fully configured, your agent can now execute queries and write code against live Excel data:

cdatacli query sql --connection my_excel_connection --sql "SELECT * FROM Sheet"

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Query Excel data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

Codex CLI and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live Excel data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal in plain language, and the agent handles driver configuration, connection setup, and query execution from start to finish in the terminal.

Download the free CData CLI and start a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Excel today.