---
title: "🛠️ gridcraft, the Rust spreadsheet that hit 7.1k★ in 30 days: a CLI that lets AI agents edit .xlsx directly｜Open Source Daily"
description: "A pure Rust spreadsheet, gridcraft, rocketed to 7.1k★ in 30 days, and the best part isn't its GUI but the bundled headless CLI and MCP server: finally an .xlsx engine that Agents and CI can drive. The same team also shipped cadcraft at 7.5k★, a clean-room rewrite of an AutoCAD-style drafting tool."
canonical_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/open-source-weekly/open-source-weekly-2026-11-03"
author: "Mark Ku"
author_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku"
site: "Mark Ku's Tech Notes"
date_published: "2026-11-03T02:00:00.000Z"
category: "Daily Open Source Gems"
tags: ["open-source", "podcast", "開源工具", "開源", "gridcraft", "cadcraft", "HackerBooks", "Rust", "MCP", "AIAgent", "Excel"]
language: "en"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
attribution: "when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original"
---

# 🛠️ gridcraft, the Rust spreadsheet that hit 7.1k★ in 30 days: a CLI that lets AI agents edit .xlsx directly｜Open Source Daily

## Opening

gridcraft, a pure-Rust spreadsheet that shot to 7.1k★ in 30 days, and the best part isn't the GUI, it's the bundled headless CLI and MCP server: finally an .xlsx engine that agents and CI can actually drive. The same team also shipped cadcraft at 7.5k★, a clean-room rewrite of an AutoCAD-style drafting tool. On top of that, there's a book discovery site that pulled 1,826 points on HN, with a dataset that's borderline absurd in scale. I'll explain in a moment how it tells "mentioned" apart from "recommended." I'm Muyan, and this is the Open Source Daily.

## Today's Picks

### 1. gridcraft: A pure-Rust spreadsheet engine that CLIs and AI agents can drive

- **What it is**: A spreadsheet app written from scratch in Rust, Apache-2.0 licensed. The pain point is very concrete: if you wanted to batch-process .xlsx files in CI, you either hand-rolled formula logic with a library like openpyxl, or spun up a machine with Excel installed and drove it over COM. gridcraft ships a full calculation engine plus a headless CLI, aimed squarely at people who need to automate Excel files without opening a window.
- **Recent traction**: 7,071 ★ on GitHub, a project that blew up within 30 days.
- **Highlights**:
  - `gridcraft-cli eval '=SUM(1,2,3)'` evaluates formulas straight from the terminal; to modify a file, use `gridcraft-cli run --in book.xlsx --cmd 'home.bold={"range":"A1:C1"}' --out book.xlsx`, so the whole pipeline is scriptable.
  - Built-in MCP server: a single `claude mcp add gridcraft -- gridcraft-cli mcp` lets an AI agent operate workbooks directly, and there's a JSON control channel too.
  - The CLI's calc oracle (check) is clever: Excel caches each formula's result next to the formula when saving, so gridcraft recomputes and compares cell by cell: numbers within `--tolerance`, errors by error type, text and booleans matched exactly. It's essentially a built-in regression test suite.
  - The same Rust codebase runs on desktop (macOS / Windows / Linux / BSD) and in the browser via WASM; .xls (BIFF8) import covers values, formulas, number formats, merged cells, column widths and row heights, and defined names.
- **Getting started**: On Linux the fastest route is `sudo snap install gridcraft` (the headless tool is called `gridcraft.cli`), with .deb / .rpm packages also available. To build from source, run `cargo run --release -p gridcraft -- --sample sales`, which requires Rust 1.95 or later.
- **Caveats up front**: The README labels it pre-alpha. It covers roughly 89% of Excel's ribbon/menu commands and about 93% of worksheet functions, but by depth-weighted estimate only about 65% of what heavy Excel users actually need. Fine for automation tasks; do not bet on it replacing the finance department's monster workbook at this stage.
- **Compared to alternatives**: LibreOffice Calc has its own UI and macro system, whereas gridcraft deliberately reuses Excel's ribbon command IDs (home.bold, insert.chart), so your muscle memory carries over. Compared to openpyxl / pandas, it isn't a library but a full app with a complete calculation engine, and it plugs straight into agents as an MCP server.
- **Who it's for**: Engineers who need to read, write, and recalculate .xlsx inside CI or agent workflows without touching Autodesk-style or Excel licensing.
- **Link**: https://github.com/storytold/gridcraft

### 2. cadcraft: A clean-room rewrite of an AutoCAD-style 2D drafting tool

- **What it is**: Another hard problem tackled by the same team (storytold): a pure-Rust, clean-room AutoCAD-style drafting tool, Apache-2.0. The pain point is even blunter: you just want to open a DXF/DWG, tweak a couple of entities, and batch-convert files, yet you're stuck paying for an Autodesk subscription. The backstory is good too: the README says most of it was written by AI coding agents over a few weeks.
- **Recent traction**: 7,517 ★ on GitHub, also a project launched within the last 30 days.
- **Highlights**:
  - Native DXF read/write (ASCII and binary, R12 through 2018); DWG (R13 through 2018) open/save goes through the open source acadrust library.
  - Preserves AutoCAD muscle memory: command line, object snaps, layers, dimensions, hatch patterns, blocks, and layout plotting.
  - The same automation trio as gridcraft: MCP server, JSON control channel, plus cadcraft-cli (info, convert, run, commands, mcp), so agents can draw or batch-convert directly.
  - Cross-platform across macOS / Windows / Linux / FreeBSD, and it compiles to WebAssembly to run in the browser.
- **Getting started**: If you don't want to install anything, try the browser build at cadcraft.org/online first. Locally: `git clone https://github.com/storytold/cadcraft && cd cadcraft && cargo run --release -p cadcraft -- --sample` (requires Rust 1.95+), or grab the .deb / .rpm from releases.
- **Caveats up front**: The README states plainly that it's in early development, and there's an admirably honest section on file-format parity: entities CADCraft hasn't modeled yet are not preserved on save. In other words, round-tripping someone else's DWG can silently drop data, so back up important drawings and don't overwrite in place. It also explicitly states it has no affiliation with Autodesk.
- **Compared to alternatives**: Versus established open source 2D CAD like LibreCAD and QCAD, cadcraft is pure Rust with GPU rendering, native DWG support (via acadrust), and MCP/CLI automation; it's licensed MIT OR Apache-2.0, unlike QCAD, which locks some features behind the Professional paywall.
- **Who it's for**: Engineers who occasionally need to open DXF/DWG files or automate batch conversions, without carrying an Autodesk subscription for it.
- **Link**: https://github.com/storytold/cadcraft

### 3. HackerBooks: Compressing 2007-2026 HN comments into a sortable book index

- **What it is**: The books equivalent of Karpathy's HackerTube. The pain point: "I know tons of great books get recommended on HN, but those discussions are buried across a decade-plus of comment threads." It turns the whole corpus into a sortable, downloadable index you can use immediately, no account required.
- **Recent traction**: 1,826 points and 302 comments on Hacker News, the week's biggest hit.
- **Highlights**:
  - The scale is serious: HN comments from 2007 through 2026, covering 15,766 books, 281,363 mentions, 225,861 comments, and 57,773 distinct commenters.
  - It deliberately separates "mentioned" from "recommended": rankings are based on the number of distinct commenters, which prevents one person from repeatedly boosting the same book and keeps widely panned books off the top. This design choice is the single most worth-stealing idea on the site.
  - The build pipeline is documented clearly: HN public dataset → regex plus lightweight NLP to extract candidates → match against Open Library for stable IDs, authors, first publication year, covers, and subjects → full-corpus rescan for counts → small language models used only for ambiguous titles like Dune, Influence, and Range.
  - Every book links back to the original comments that mentioned it, and the dataset is downloadable straight from the about page.
- **Getting started**: Just open hackerbooks.org. The homepage reshuffles a fresh batch of books daily; you can switch to the all-time ranking or browse by category (Programming 1,279 books, Software Engineering 328, and so on). If you want to run your own analysis, grab the dataset from the about page.
- **Compared to alternatives**: Unlike Goodreads/Amazon algorithmic recommendations, its signal comes 100% from HN community comments. Compared to searching HN yourself, it compresses a decade-plus of scattered discussion into a single sortable, downloadable index.
- **Who it's for**: Anyone looking for books that engineers actually recommend, or wanting a clean corpus for data analysis.
- **Link**: https://hackerbooks.org

## Closing

There's a common thread across today's three picks: gridcraft and cadcraft are both doing the same thing, carving CLIs and MCP servers out of heavyweight desktop software that used to be GUI-only, so agents and CI can drive them directly. That's probably going to be table stakes for desktop tools over the next year or two. If I had to pick one to install first, I'd go with gridcraft, because "evaluating Excel formulas in CI" is such a common pain point and a single snap command gets you there. But both are still early: fine for automation, just keep backups of anything important. I'm Muyan, this has been the Open Source Daily, see you tomorrow.

---

## About this article and its author

Originally published on [Mark Ku's Tech Notes](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/open-source-weekly/open-source-weekly-2026-11-03)

License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original

### About the author

**[Mark Ku](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku)** — Software engineer

- 10+ years as a software engineer
- Built North-American e-commerce and AI SaaS subscription billing

### Free tools built by the author

All of these are free to use:

- [Free PDF Sign Tool](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/pdf-sign): Online PDF sign tool — draw, type, or upload a signature, then drag, resize, and download. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
- [VS Code Refactory](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/refactory): Refactory is a VS Code refactoring extension: 34 actions plus a 37-rule code-smell inspection layer with a Code Health dashboard, across 18 languages, backed by 534 tests. It learns your repo's conventions: where interfaces live, where DI is registered, whether 'use client' belongs. It ranks files by git churn × complexity so you know what to fix first, and hands any smell to the Claude Code already on your machine. Free to use, and your source never leaves your computer.
- [DB-Kit Database Manager](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/db-kit): DB-Kit is a lightweight, cross-platform database manager built with Tauri + Rust + React. Manage MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch and RabbitMQ from one consistent interface: passwords encrypted in the OS keychain, SSH tunnels, full CRUD, a visual query builder, stacked multi-statement result sets, cross-connection data transfer, schema & data compare with sync SQL and schema snapshots, Excel / CSV import & export, visualized execution plans, ER diagrams, scheduled backups, SQL stress testing with p50–p99 latency percentiles, a 15-rule SQL review engine, Review & Run (AI review plus per-statement backups and an auto-generated rollback script), Kafka message browsing with monitoring & alerts, an SSH terminal with SFTP / FTP, Docker / Kubernetes, remote desktop (RDP / VNC / RustDesk), file / folder compare, stored procedure integration tests, six UI languages, a built-in AI assistant (a local CLI or any Anthropic / OpenAI-compatible API; natural-language SQL, AI review and tuning advice) and the dbk CLI. Free and open source (MIT), with installers for Windows, macOS and Linux.
- [VS Code Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/super-mermaid): Super Mermaid is a VS Code extension for beautiful Mermaid diagrams out of the box: auto-colored live preview, mouse pan & zoom, high-res PNG / SVG export, 21 templates and multiple themes. Free and open source (MIT).
- [React Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-super-mermaid): react-super-mermaid is an open-source React component library: render beautiful Mermaid diagrams with a single <MermaidViewer>, with built-in colorful / sketch themes, pan & zoom, in-diagram search, and high-res SVG / PNG export. Lightweight, SSR-safe, fully typed. Free and open source (MIT).
- [Jira / Confluence Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/jira-super-mermaid): An Atlassian Forge app: write Mermaid syntax directly inside a Jira issue or a Confluence page and get flowcharts, sequence diagrams, state machines and Gantt charts. 11 diagram types, SVG / PNG export, light and dark themes, full CJK support. Runs on Atlassian: your diagrams live in your own site and the app calls no third-party service. Free, coming soon to the Atlassian Marketplace.
- [Mermaid Live Preview](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/mermaid-preview): Write Mermaid in your browser, see it render instantly, and share the whole diagram as a single link. No sign-up, nothing uploaded to a server, and mermaid.live share links work as-is.
- [React Intl Phone Number](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-intl-phone-number): react-intl-phone-number is an open-source React component: framework-agnostic and antd-free, with E.164 in/out, a searchable flag / country-code dropdown, configurable validation levels (strict / mobile-strict / loose), themeable CSS, and i18n — phone logic powered by google-libphonenumber. Lightweight and fully typed. Free and open source (MIT).
- [Uptime Kuma Cluster](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/uptime-kuma-cluster): Turn single-node Uptime Kuma into a highly available cluster: OpenResty + Lua smart load balancing, shared MariaDB state, health checks and automatic failover, plus cluster-management REST APIs. One Docker Compose command to start. Free and open source (MIT).
- [AI Podcast Cut](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/ai-podcast-cut): Drop in a recording and it removes fillers and stutters, levels loudness segment by segment, and sends a second agent to review every cut. Cut points snap to word boundaries and zero crossings, every splice gets a fade, and sentence-end breaths are preserved. Desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux. MIT licensed; the Windows installer bundles ffmpeg.
- [AI Video Cut](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/ai-video-cut): Pick something in your video: type it (face, license plate, phone screen, logo), click points or drag a box, or let Claude Code / Codex pick it. AI Video Cut tracks it frame by frame, then mosaics or blurs it, recolors it, pins stickers and text to it, swaps a screen or poster for your own image or video, or removes it using background that other frames actually captured. Plus sequence editing, local captions and an AI assistant. Free, open-source (MIT) Windows desktop app (macOS / Linux experimental) that runs locally, nothing uploaded.
- [open-pos restaurant POS](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/open-pos): One computer and one receipt printer is enough to open the shop. Your data lives on your own disk, no subscription, no lock-in, MIT licensed. Money is integer New Taiwan dollars with tax split by the statutory formula, so sales + tax always equals the total. Printing goes straight over ESC/POS on TCP 9100, with no vendor driver. Tauri + Rust + SQLite desktop app, v1.0 in development.
- [.NET e-commerce API template](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/dotnet-ecommerce-api): An e-commerce backend API template built on .NET 10: Controller → Service → Repository layering, Autofac convention-based registration, SqlSugar for MySQL / MariaDB and SQL Server, Redis cache and message queue, Hangfire jobs, JWT auth, and an extensible payment provider module (ECPay, Newebpay). Apache 2.0.
- [Open Token Monitor team AI usage](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/open-token-monitor): Collect token usage and equivalent cost from every employee's AI coding tools into a hub you host yourself: PostgreSQL, org roster, dashboards compared by company and department, and a reports API. Electron and Rust/Tauri clients upload every 30 minutes. MIT licensed, one Docker command.
- [ai-security-monitor defensive security](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/ai-security-monitor): Your website is live. Who checks its certificates, security settings and known vulnerabilities? A self-hosted Security Hub brings website scans and host monitoring together, deduplicates findings and compares scans after fixes.

### Daily podcasts

- [Mark's Tech Insights — Daily AI News](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/tech-news): Daily curated AI and tech trends. Catch the latest developments via audio summaries — covering AI applications, software architecture, DevOps, and engineering practice. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/feed.xml
- [AI股市蝦聊](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/ai-stock-chat): Every trading day, an AI-analyzed take on the Taiwan stock market, delivered as a two-host conversation covering the session and the next-day outlook. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/ai-stock-chat/feed.xml
- [開源好物日報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/open-source-weekly): A daily two-host pick of free open-source tools surfaced from real Hacker News, GitHub, and Reddit buzz — what pain they solve and the fastest way to get started. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/open-source-weekly/feed.xml
- [AI 運動日報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/sports-weekly): Two hosts talk NBA, MLB and world sport every day — scores, records and the stories behind them, from a Taiwanese fan perspective. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/sports-weekly/feed.xml
- [AI 國際新聞快報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/world-news): A daily two-host briefing that makes sense of the past 24 hours in world news — geopolitics, the global economy, conflict and security, disasters and climate — from a Taiwanese perspective, neutral and fully sourced. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/world-news/feed.xml
- [地端 AI 實驗室](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/local-ai-lab): Every day, a two-host look at open-weight models and LoRAs you can actually run on your own machine: what they are for, whether your GPU can handle them, and how they compare — sourced from official model cards. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/local-ai-lab/feed.xml
- [AI 行銷日報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/ai-marketing): Every day, two hosts break down the latest in AI for marketing, advertising, SEO/GEO and content marketing: practical, never sponsored, every story sourced. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/ai-marketing/feed.xml
- [AI 資安日報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/ai-security): Every day, two hosts cover the latest where AI meets cybersecurity: LLM and AI agent vulnerabilities, prompt injection, model supply-chain risks and AI-powered attacks, from a defense-first angle with every story sourced. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/ai-security/feed.xml

### Newsletter

[Subscribe to the newsletter](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/subscribe) — Be the first to know about new posts. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.