---
title: "Use the In Parallel MCP with Excel in Claude - In Parallel help"
description: "Use the In Parallel MCP with Excel in Claude: In Parallel help center."
url: https://www.in-parallel.com/help/use-in-parallel-mcp-with-excel
---

# Use the In Parallel MCP with Excel in Claude

Updated 29 June 2026

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With In Parallel connected to Claude, a single chat can refresh an entire Excel project plan against reality — revise statuses and due dates, add new workstreams, mark shipped and cancelled work, refresh the goals and risks, and log every change to a Changelog sheet — all while keeping In Parallel as the source of truth and your original baseline untouched.

In Parallel holds the **execution layer**: what actually happened, captured as decisions, drift, goals, and accountable actions. Excel holds the **plan artifact** your stakeholders read. This flow reconciles reality _into_ the artifact — Claude reads In Parallel and rewrites the spreadsheet; it does not change your In Parallel data.

> **First time?** Set the pairing up once first — see [Set up the In Parallel + Excel project workflow in Claude](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/set-up-in-parallel-excel-workflow). This guide assumes the Project, connector, instructions, and your `.xlsx` are already in place.

## At a glance

The flow is always the same:

1. **Ask** the assistant to reconcile the plan.
2. **Answer** a couple of scope questions about how you want changes represented.
3. **Let it read In Parallel and preview every proposed cell change.**
4. **Review** the preview and explicitly approve the write.
5. **Open** the newly generated workbook and verify what changed.
6. _(Optional)_ **Schedule** a recurring read-and-compare reminder, not an unattended workbook write.

The rest of this guide expands each step.

## 1. Ask the assistant to reconcile the plan

Open a chat in your Project and ask in plain language. Name the **file and its sheets**, the **In Parallel Workspace** (and any sub-projects), and **what you want done** — for example:

> _“I manage my Growth Project plan in `Growth Project Plan – Baseline.xlsx` (sheets: Project Plan, Goals, Risks). It’s a baseline from early April and is out of date. The source of truth is the In Parallel ‘Growth Projects’ Workspace and its Back-to-School and Holiday Peak sub-projects. Check the live In Parallel tool list, then pull goals, action items, decisions, risks, open questions, and relevant observations. If `get_drift_report` is available, include its execution-health signals; otherwise summarise overdue, stale, and unresolved items from the available reads. Ask me any clarifying questions first. Then reconcile the results and show every proposed cell change, including the old value, new value, and In Parallel source. Pause for my explicit approval before writing or saving anything. After I approve, update the file: revise statuses and due dates, add new workstreams, mark completed/cancelled items, and refresh goals and risks. Add a Changelog sheet listing every approved change. Keep the baseline intact and save the result as a new file.”_

The preview-and-approval instruction matters: scope questions alone do not authorize a workbook write.

A Claude chat with the reconcile prompt sent, the assistant's first step running, and In Parallel MCP listed under Context → Connectors

## 2. Answer the scope questions

Reconciling is a judgement call, so the assistant checks how you want changes represented before it writes anything. Typical questions:

- **How to lay out new sub-projects** — one combined sheet (tagged), or a separate sheet per sub-project.
- **How to mark changed cells** — highlight them in place, or keep cells clean and record changes in the Changelog only.
- **What happens to completed or cancelled tasks** — keep them, marked _Done_ / _Cancelled_ , or move them to a separate section.

Pick the options that match how your stakeholders read the file. This is the human-in-the-loop step — nothing is written until you answer.

The assistant's three answered scope questions: a separate sheet per sub-project, highlight changed cells, and keep completed/cancelled tasks marked

## 3. Let it read In Parallel and prepare the preview

Once you’ve answered, the assistant reads your Workspace using the current tools for goals, decisions, action items, open questions, risks, and relevant observations across the program and each sub-project. If the live tool list also includes `get_drift_report`, it adds those health signals. It then reconciles the results against your sheets and shows every proposed cell change, including the old value, proposed value, and In Parallel source. It must not change or save the workbook yet.

The first time it uses each In Parallel read you’ll be asked to allow it. Approve the reads for the first few runs, and switch to **Always allow** only once you’re confident the workflow is behaving as expected.

The assistant pulling In Parallel data with an Always allow or Deny approval prompt for the connector

> The reads are one-way: the assistant reads In Parallel without changing it. A later, separately approved step writes Excel. Your execution layer stays the source of truth — keep editing reality in In Parallel itself, and let the spreadsheet follow.

## 4. Review the proposed changes and approve

Review the proposed-cell table before anything is written. Check that every row targets the right sheet and cell, that new and cancelled work is represented correctly, and that the cited In Parallel source supports the change. Ask for corrections if needed, then explicitly approve only the final set.

After approval, the assistant applies those changes, adds the Changelog, and saves the result as a **new file**, leaving your baseline untouched. It then summarises the applied changes sheet by sheet.

A split view: the assistant's what-changed summary on the left and a live preview of the updated Excel workbook on the right

## 5. Open and verify the updated workbook

Open the new file. Your original sheets keep their exact formatting; changed cells carry the marking you chose (for example an orange border and a hover note with _old → new_ and the In Parallel source). New sub-projects appear as their own sheets, the goals and risks are refreshed, and a **Changelog** sheet lists every change with its source.

The updated Project Plan sheet: changed cells outlined in orange, with a hover note on one cell showing the old → new value and the In Parallel source, a new program-review row, a recalculated status summary, and new Back-to-School, Holiday Peak, and Changelog tabs

### Every change traces back to In Parallel

This is what makes the refresh trustworthy: each changed cell’s note and each Changelog row name the In Parallel record behind the change — a decision, a drift signal, a linked delivery ticket. Anyone reading the file can see _why_ a cell moved, rather than the plan appearing to change on its own.

## Surface execution risk from the available reads

The assistant can flag execution risk a static spreadsheet would not show—an overdue task, an unresolved decision, or an open risk—using the current read tools. Older accounts may also expose `get_drift_report`; trust the live tool list rather than requiring that legacy health tool. Treat the results as prompts to act in In Parallel, not just cells to recolour.

## 6. Schedule a recurring comparison reminder

The result is saved as a new, dated file, so your baseline stays intact and the Changelog gives you a full audit trail of how the plan evolved.

If you want a weekly cadence, schedule a recurring task that reads In Parallel and prepares the proposed-cell comparison. Do not authorize it to rewrite or save the workbook unattended. Open each result, review the proposed changes, and explicitly approve before the assistant generates a new dated file.

> **Note:** Claude Desktop scheduled tasks only run while the desktop app is open. If the app is closed at the scheduled time, the run happens the next time you open it. Run it manually once after creating it to confirm it behaves the way you expect.

## Keep the refresh healthy

- **Name the file, sheets, and Workspace explicitly** in your prompt (or your Project instructions) so the assistant reconciles the right pair.
- **Keep In Parallel high-signal.** It’s the source of truth — edit reality there and let the spreadsheet follow. If the file and In Parallel disagree, In Parallel wins.
- **Preview and approve every write.** Scope answers are not approval; review the proposed-cell table before generating a workbook.
- **Always save a new file.** Never overwrite the baseline; the Changelog sheet is your record of every approved change.
- **Keep scheduled runs read-only.** Let them prepare comparisons, then approve each workbook write in the chat.
- **Keep In Parallel reads on Needs approval** for the first few runs, then switch to **Always allow** if you want later refreshes to continue without stopping at each read.

## What’s next

- [Set up the In Parallel + Excel project workflow in Claude](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/set-up-in-parallel-excel-workflow) — the one-time setup behind this flow.
- [Use the In Parallel MCP with Jira in Claude](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/use-in-parallel-mcp-with-jira) — the same reconcile pattern for a Jira delivery board.
- [In Parallel MCP tools reference](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/in-parallel-mcp-tools-reference) — the In Parallel tools the assistant uses to read your plan.
- [MCP privacy: mask people in AI responses](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/mcp-privacy-mask-people) — mask names and emails before they reach a connected assistant.
- [Troubleshooting: Integrations](https://www.in-parallel.com/help/troubleshooting-integrations)

[All help articles](https://www.in-parallel.com/help)