Compare online in seconds, or run the CLI from the correct terminal command.

Using WorkbookLens Online

1. Open the comparison page.
2. Choose the older workbook and the newer workbook.
3. Optionally enter a keyed specification such as Products:A.
4. Select Compare, inspect the changes, and download HTML or JSON if needed.

Choosing a file is not uploading it. The comparison runs in a background worker on your device.

Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt

1. Right-click the downloaded ZIP and choose Extract All.
2. Open the extracted folder.
3. Right-click an empty area and choose Open in Terminal, or type powershell in the File Explorer address bar.
4. Run:

.\workbooklens.exe "C:\path\to\first.xlsx" "C:\path\to\second.xlsx" --html ".\report.html"

PowerShell does not search the current directory for commands by default. The leading .\ is required. Use .\workbooklens.exe --help to see all options.

macOS or Linux

chmod +x ./workbooklens
./workbooklens "/path/to/first.xlsx" "/path/to/second.xlsx" --html "./report.html"

Use the arm64 download on Apple-silicon Macs and x64 on Intel Macs. If macOS blocks the currently unsigned executable, verify that it came from the official site and use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Keyed-row comparison

If a table has a stable ID, use --keyed "Products:A". WorkbookLens then matches rows by the value in column A of the Products sheet instead of by physical row number.

.\workbooklens.exe "before.xlsx" "after.xlsx" --keyed "Products:A" --html ".\report.html" --json ".\report.json"

Exit codes

0

The workbooks are identical for the selected comparison.

1

Differences were found. This is expected and useful in CI; it is not a crash.

2

An input, option or processing error occurred.

Common errors

“workbooklens is not recognized”

Extract the ZIP, open the terminal in that folder, and use .\workbooklens.exe on Windows or ./workbooklens on macOS/Linux.

The window immediately disappears

Do not double-click the executable. It requires two workbook arguments, so run it from a terminal using the examples above.

The workbook path is not found

Use the complete path and surround it with quotation marks. You can drag a file into many terminal windows to insert its full path.

“Permission denied” on macOS/Linux

Run chmod +x ./workbooklens once, then retry.

Exit code 1

Open the generated report. Exit code 1 only means differences were detected.