markbundle

Convert Office files into AI-readable, searchable Markdown bundles — and rebuild them back.

markbundle currently turns spreadsheets like .xlsx into a folder that humans and AI agents can read, search, diff, edit, version-control, and roundtrip back to the original format. The bundle format is designed to support more document types over time, such as DOCX and other Office-style files.

Why markbundle?

Binary Office files are hard to review in Git and hard for AI tools to understand. markbundle makes them transparent:

• AI-readable: convert opaque Office binaries into plain Markdown and JSON that LLMs can inspect directly.
• Searchable: use grep, ripgrep, IDE search, or AI agents to find sheet content, links, comments, and metadata.
• Markdown-first: sheets become readable Markdown tables, with ordinary links, comments, images, and whole-cell text styles represented in Markdown.
• Roundtrip-ready: convert .xlsx → .markbundle → .xlsx.
• Git-friendly: metadata is written only for cases Markdown cannot fully represent.
• Visual context preserved: images render inline and keep their display size.
• Comments included: normal and threaded comments are exported with author/status metadata.
• More than XLSX: starts with spreadsheets, but the .markbundle format is intended to support DOCX and other file types in the future.

Quick example

markbundle workbook.xlsx
# creates ./workbook.markbundle/

markbundle workbook.markbundle
# creates ./workbook.xlsx

For a display-focused bundle with less metadata:

markbundle workbook.xlsx --minimal

A bundle looks like:

workbook.markbundle/
├── index.md
├── manifest.json
├── media/
└── metadata/   # only when needed

See the canonical XLSX format details in docs/xlsx-markbundle-spec.md.

Status

Early development. XLSX export/import is the current focus; DOCX and other formats are planned.