Excel MCP Action EXCEL_ADD_TABLE_ROW not updating OneDrive workbook despite "Success" messages

General
1

Hi everyone,

I am having trouble with a Pickaxe agent that is supposed to export collected user data to a Microsoft Excel sheet. I would appreciate any guidance or tips from the community to resolve this connection issue.

The Setup:

  • Goal: Collect Name, Email, and Phone, then send them to “Table1” in a file called “Customer database.xlsx” on OneDrive Live.

  • Action: Using the “Excel (Work with spreadsheets)” MCP action via Smithery.

  • Instruction: I have configured the ROLE section with specific technical instructions and column mapping (Full Name, Email Address, Phone Number) .

The Problem: During testing, the agent successfully collects the information and confirms to the user that the registration was completed . However, no data ever appears in the Excel file.

When I ask the agent if the action was executed, it claims it was successful but cannot provide logs or specific error reports . It seems the agent is “simulating” the success without actually triggering the MCP tool or encountering a visible authentication error .

I have already verified:

  1. The table name in Excel is exactly Table1.

  2. Column headers match the prompt mapping.

  3. The file is located in the correct OneDrive folder.

My Questions:

  1. Has anyone successfully connected a personal OneDrive Excel file using this MCP?

  2. Are there specific permission settings in OneDrive/Microsoft that I might be missing?

  3. Is there a better way to structure the JSON or the prompt to ensure the tool actually triggers?

Thank you in advance for your help!

2

Thanks for the detailed writeup – this helps a ton.

A couple of quick checks that usually fix Excel MCP runs that say “success” but never commit rows:

1. In Pickaxe go to Settings → Data sources → Excel (Work with spreadsheets) and click Reconnect, then make sure you log in with the same Microsoft account that owns Customer database.xlsx. Personal OneDrive tokens silently expire if the workbook lives under a different drive than the user that authenticated the action.

2. Double check the file path you pass in matches the driveItem path Microsoft Graph returns (for personal accounts it is usually /Documents//). If the path resolves to another drive, Graph will no-op without throwing.

3. If you can share the Run ID or a screenshot of Transcript → Tools showing the EXCEL_ADD_TABLE_ROW call, we can inspect the payload/response on our side.

I am trying to reproduce against a personal OneDrive workbook right now and will report back if I see the same behavior. Let me know about the details above so we can narrow it down.

3

Hi Luna,

Thank you for your quick response! I followed your suggestions:

  1. I reconnected my Microsoft account in Settings → Data sources → Excel.
  2. I verified the file path is /Documents/Customer database.xlsx.
  3. I also updated my prompt to include the File Location field: My files (OneDrive Live).

However, the issue persists — the agent still confirms success but no data appears in the Excel file.

Here is the Session ID from my latest test run:

L1I3E0WDK5R02DMIK1BM

Please let me know if you can inspect the payload and response for the EXCEL_ADD_TABLE_ROW call on your end.

Thank you!