---
name: excel-tracker-base-capability
description: "PowerShell + Excel COM automation as the only approved access method (genuinely fast in practice, the real reason it's default), pre-edit backup convention, five-step verification discipline, priming-vs-transfer guidance, and a project-cache markdown sidecar convention — the base capability domain-specific Excel trackers (e.g. legal discovery) build on. Use when a person asks to install or apply \"Excel Tracker (Base Capability)\" (FTR-36) in a project, or when working in a project that has it installed."
---

# Excel Tracker (Base Capability) (FTR-36, version 1.1)

> Generated from library record FTR-36 version 1.1, publish 20261102a. Review status: unreviewed. The complete specification is in references/spec.md and is the authority; this file is the operating procedure drawn from it.

## What this does

PowerShell + Excel COM automation as the only approved access method (genuinely fast in practice, the real reason it's default), pre-edit backup convention, five-step verification discipline, priming-vs-transfer guidance, and a project-cache markdown sidecar convention — the base capability domain-specific Excel trackers (e.g. legal discovery) build on

## When to use this skill

- A person asks to install, apply or update "Excel Tracker (Base Capability)" (FTR-36) in a project.
- A project's agent instructions list excel-tracker-base-capability as installed and the task touches what it covers.
- No other feature is required first.
- Works better with, if installed: FTR-12 (skill markdown-sidecars).
- Required by: FTR-13 (skill document-tracker-system), FTR-14 (skill active-flags-tracker), FTR-37 (skill legal-discovery-tracking).

## Install procedure

Steps run in order. Assess comes first, every question in the Ask step is answered by the person before anything is written, and every write merges additively into the existing project files (read the file first, update an existing section in place, never overwrite).

### Assess first
- Confirm whether the data genuinely fits a row-per-item model (see above) before defaulting to Excel just because the source data happens to include a table.
- If installing this alongside a domain-dependent feature (e.g., legal discovery tracking) in the same session, install this feature's section first — the domain feature nests under it, not beside it (see Write below).

### Ask, only if needed
Nothing to ask before installing this base capability itself — it has no user-facing configuration of its own. A dependent domain feature may have its own Ask step.

### Write

The full Write payload is in references/write-payload.md. It is applied exactly as written, with the merge rule above.

### Confirm
Confirm: Excel Tracker (Base Capability) is installed — an EXCEL TRACKER section now exists in admin\AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md covering access method, backup convention, and verification discipline. Any domain-dependent tracker feature installed later nests under this section rather than creating its own. Want to install another, or is that everything for now?
## Other sections in the specification

- What this doesn't cover

These are in references/spec.md.

## Files in this skill

- references/spec.md: the complete specification, unabridged.
- references/write-payload.md: the Write step on its own.