Adobe reverse-engineering developer launches free Office alternatives with MCP servers
WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft offer free alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, each with its own MCP server for AI assistants.
The developer who previously created reverse-engineered Adobe products has now applied the same approach to Microsoft Office. The new set includes free alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint: WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft.
All three projects are currently in alpha. According to the author, they are roughly halfway to replacing Office.
Each tool has its own MCP server. The Word alternative can even let Claude edit drafts with track changes enabled.
The author shares an example prompt for Claude Code:
Install the WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft command-line tools from their latest GitHub releases (https://github.com/storytold) into ~/.local/bin, then add each of them as a user-level MCP server using:
claude mcp add --scope user <name> -- ~/.local/bin/<name>-cli mcpTell me when Claude Code needs to be restarted.
The project is available on GitHub.
Why it matters
AnalysisIt matters because MCP integration turns office documents into a practical surface for AI agents, while free Office alternatives could reduce dependence on proprietary suites.
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