Formulon

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CLI Workflows ​

The CLI is the lowest-friction Formulon surface. It is useful when you need spreadsheet calculation in shell scripts, CI, or one-off reproductions — without writing a host-language integration.

Glossary: standalone binary

A single executable file that links Formulon and a minimal command runner. No Node, Python, or shared libraries required at runtime. Download per (os, arch) from GitHub Releases.

Common workflows:

  • eval: evaluate a formula or expression under a named profile.
  • recalc: recalculate a workbook and write updated bytes.
  • dump: inspect workbook structure and calculated values.

Use the CLI in CI to catch accidental workbook changes and to reproduce issues without writing a host-language integration first.

Examples ​

sh
formulon --version
formulon eval '=SUM(1,2,3)'
formulon eval --json '=1/0'
formulon recalc input.xlsx -o output.xlsx
formulon dump --formulas input.xlsx
formulon dump --values output.xlsx
formulon dump --sheets input.xlsx
formulon dump --metadata input.xlsx

--values recalculates; --formulas does not

dump --values recalculates the workbook before printing values, so it sees up-to-date results. dump --formulas and dump --metadata skip recalculation to stay cheap and side-effect-free.

CI usage ​

Run recalc and dump --values to snapshot calculated outputs against checked-in goldens. The CLI is deterministic for the same workbook + profile, so a git diff over the dump file is a stable signal in CI.

sh
formulon recalc model.xlsx -o /tmp/model.recalc.xlsx --quiet
formulon dump --values /tmp/model.recalc.xlsx > model.values.txt
git diff --exit-code model.values.txt

For formulas only:

sh
formulon dump --formulas model.xlsx > model.formulas.txt
git diff --exit-code model.formulas.txt

This catches formula edits without depending on cached calculated values.

Volatiles are not deterministic

NOW, TODAY, RAND, RANDBETWEEN, and a few network functions return different values on each call. Avoid them in CI snapshot fixtures, or stub them at the workbook level.