spreadsheet-or-database
Decide honestly when a spreadsheet should become a database or app — the five outgrowth signals (concurrent editing, relational strain, permission needs, scale, process-in-comments), what staying costs vs what migrating costs, and the incremental escape paths. Use when asked should this be a database, our spreadsheet is breaking, is it time to move off sheets, or what should replace this monster workbook. Produces the signal assessment on the actual workbook, the stay-vs-move verdict with costs both ways, and the migration path sized to the team.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill spreadsheet-or-database --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Spreadsheet Or Database Skill Every important spreadsheet is either the right tool or a database wearing a costume — and both errors are expensive: migrating a perfectly good sheet to an app nobody needed (months of building, adoption never comes), or riding a sheet years past its limits (the tab named `Sheet1 (Recovered)`, the row someone sorted into the wrong customer, the formula civilization one intern away from collapse). The decision has real signals, and honest cost accounting on *both* sides — because "we should build an app" and "the sheet is fine" are both usually said by whoever pays neither cost. ## What This Skill Produces - **The signal assessment** — the five outgrowth signals scored against the actual workbook - **The verdict** — stay / stay-with-hardening / move — with the costs of each stated, not implied - **The hardening list** (when staying) — the protections that buy years: input isolation, validation, protection, the audit pass - **The migration path** (when moving) — sized honestly: low-code table tools before custom apps, one workflow at a time before big-bang ## Required Inputs Ask for these if not provided: - **The workbook and its job** — what process
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Framework: The Five Signals
- Output Format
- Signal Assessment
- The Costs, Both Ways
- The Path
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
What does the spreadsheet-or-database skill do?
Decide honestly when a spreadsheet should become a database or app — the five outgrowth signals (concurrent editing, relational strain, permission needs, scale, process-in-comments), what staying costs vs what migrating costs, and the incremental escape paths. Use when asked should this be a database, our spreadsheet is breaking, is it time to move off sheets, or what should replace this monster workbook. Produces the signal assessment on the actual workbook, the stay-vs-move verdict with costs both ways, and the migration path sized to the team.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill spreadsheet-or-database --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.