gridcraft/docs/macros.md

Macros

Last updated: 2026-10-24 · Change: major (created: the macro format and storage)

GridCraft macros are typed, declarative lists of commands, not VBA. Every step runs a GridCraft command (the same ids the ribbon, CLI and MCP use) or one of three bounded control steps. A macro declares the inputs it works on.

This page describes the macro format and how macros are saved in a workbook. Step parameters can hold tokens such as Input and Output; the engine does not resolve or run them in this version.

A macro

{
  "name": "Totals",
  "description": "Adds a total next to the amounts",
  "inputs": [{"name": "Input", "header": true, "cols": [2, 2], "colTypes": ["text", "number"]}],
  "output": {"anchor": "Input.right(2).cell(1,2)", "onConflict": "ask"},
  "steps": [
    {"type": "command", "id": "cell.set", "params": {"cell": "Output", "input": "Total"}},
    {"type": "command", "id": "cell.set", "params": {"cell": "Output.offset(1,0)", "input": "=SUM({{Input.data.col(2)}})"}},
    {"type": "repeat", "over": "Input.data", "of": "rows", "max": 1000, "body": [
      {"type": "if", "cell": "Row.cell(1,2)", "op": "gt", "value": 100,
       "then": [{"type": "command", "id": "home.bold", "params": {"range": "Row"}}]}
    ]},
    {"type": "stop", "message": "Done."}
  ],
  "permissions": []
}

• Steps: command (id, params), repeat (each row or column of over, at most max times), if (cell compared with value by eq, ne, gt, ge, lt, le, empty, notEmpty or contains; then and else lists) and stop (message; rollback: true undoes the run). Every step can carry enabled, breakpoint and note. The short form {"command": "cell.set", "params": {…}} is accepted for a command step.
• Inputs: kind (cell or range), rows and cols as [min, max] (0 for no maximum; rows exclude the header), header, colTypes (number, text, date, bool, any), nonEmpty and defaultRef. These declare what a range must look like for the macro to work on it. An input's name is letters, digits and _, starting with a letter, and is neither a token of its own (Output, Row, Column, Name) nor something that reads as a cell reference (Q1), so a step written with plain A1 text keeps meaning the cell. The declaration is checked as a whole: neither rows nor cols may have a least above its most, a cell input has one row and one column ([1, 1], or the default [1, 0]), no header and at most one column type, and no input lists more column types than it allows columns. This version stores and checks the declaration; it does not bind inputs or run macros.
• Limits: 1,000 macros a workbook, 10,000 steps a macro, Repeat and If nested 4 deep, and 64 inputs a macro. Names (of macros and inputs) and command ids are at most 255 characters; descriptions, step notes, Stop messages and If values (as JSON) 4,096; references and tokens (output.anchor, defaultRef, a Repeat's over, an If's cell) 1,024; a shortcut 64. A macro lists at most 256 permissions, each a command id, and an input at most 16,384 column types. One-line fields hold no line breaks or other control characters, and a command id is letters, digits, . and _. A command step's params are bounded only by the size of the whole macro (4,194,304 characters of JSON). How many times a Repeat runs (max) is the runner's to bound. A macro read from a file that breaks any of these is left out with a warning; it is never changed to fit.

Storage

Macros are saved in the workbook: as a field in GridCraft's JSON format, and in xlsx as hidden defined names (_gc_macro_<n>_<k>, the macro's JSON split into string literals within Excel's limits), which other spreadsheet applications keep but do not run. A visible name of that shape is someone's own name: opening a file leaves it alone, and saving stores the macros under indices it does not use.

Each macro carries its format version, v (1 in this version; a missing v reads as 1). When a file is opened, a macro in a newer format (a v above 1) is kept unread, with a warning: this version can't show or run it, and saving writes it back exactly as the file held it, so the newer version gets it back whole. It is never read in part. Kept macros count toward the 1,000-macro limit after the readable ones, and one too large for an xlsx file is left out. A macro that is damaged or over the limits is left out with one warning, and the rest of the workbook and its other macros open; a macro that was left out is not in the saved file.

Automate scripts and VBA

Automate scripts (automate.recordActions, newScript, allScripts, runScript, deleteScript) are an older, separate feature. They keep their commands, parameters, storage (_sc_scripts) and results, and View › Macros (view.macros) still lists them. Macros neither read nor change them; a workbook can hold a script and a macro with the same name.

A VBA project in an .xlsm or .xltm file is preserved on save and never run. GridCraft macros are stored apart from it.