zrosenfield/m365-cli/m365-docs

m365-docs — Collaborative Document Editing

Overview

This skill enables a full document co-editing loop entirely in chat:

1. Create a new doc from a topic, or open an existing one
2. Iterate on content with the user (suggest edits, rewrites, tone changes, etc.)
3. Save back to SharePoint as .md, .txt, or .docx
4. Share with someone via a link or permission grant

Workflow

1. Start a session

From a topic (new doc):

User: "Make a new doc on topic Foo"

• Draft the document content in markdown
• Choose a filename: foo.md (slugify the topic, lowercase, hyphens)
• Write content to a temp file, upload to SharePoint, capture the item ID
• Confirm to the user: "Created foo.md — let's work on it. What would you like to change?"

# Write draft to temp file
cat > /tmp/foo.md << 'EOF'
# Foo
 
...content...
EOF
 
# Upload and capture item ID
item_id=$(m365 files upload /tmp/foo.md --remote-path /foo.md | jq -r '.data.id')

From an existing file:

User: "Work with me on bar.md"

• Search for the file, get its item ID
• Read its content into context

item_id=$(m365 files search "bar.md" | jq -r '.data[0].id')
content=$(m365 files read "$item_id")

2. Edit loop

Hold the current document content in context as a markdown string. Each turn:

• Show proposed changes inline (quote the before/after, or describe what changed)
• Ask: "Does this look right, or would you like to adjust anything?"
• On approval, update the in-context content
• Only save back to SharePoint when the user says they're done or explicitly asks to save

Example prompts that trigger edits:

• "Make it more formal"
• "Shorten the intro"
• "Add a section on X"
• "Rewrite the third paragraph"
• "Fix the tone — it sounds too aggressive"

Do NOT save after every turn. Save only when asked, or when the user says "done", "looks good", "save it", etc.

3. Save back

As markdown (default — no conversion needed):

printf '%s' "$content" > /tmp/foo.md
m365 files upload /tmp/foo.md --remote-path /foo.md

As Word document (requires pandoc):

User: "Make it a Word doc"

printf '%s' "$content" > /tmp/foo.md
pandoc /tmp/foo.md -o /tmp/foo.docx
docx_item_id=$(m365 files upload /tmp/foo.docx --remote-path /foo.docx | jq -r '.data.id')

Use the docx item ID for any subsequent sharing steps.

4. Share

Create a shareable link:

User: "Share it with me" / "Get me a link"

# View-only link, org-scoped (default)
m365 permissions create-link "$item_id" | jq -r '.data.link.webUrl'
 
# Editable link
m365 permissions create-link "$item_id" --type edit | jq -r '.data.link.webUrl'
 
# Anonymous link (anyone with the link)
m365 permissions create-link "$item_id" --scope anonymous | jq -r '.data.link.webUrl'

Return the URL to the user in chat.

Grant access to a specific person:

User: "Share it with alice@contoso.com"

m365 permissions grant "$item_id" --emails alice@contoso.com --role read

State to track during a session

Common patterns

Create, iterate, export to Word, and share — full example

# 1. Create
printf '%s' "$content" > /tmp/proposal.md
item_id=$(m365 files upload /tmp/proposal.md --remote-path /proposal.md | jq -r '.data.id')
 
# 2. (iterate in chat — no shell commands needed)
 
# 3. Export to Word
printf '%s' "$content" > /tmp/proposal.md
pandoc /tmp/proposal.md -o /tmp/proposal.docx
docx_id=$(m365 files upload /tmp/proposal.docx --remote-path /proposal.docx | jq -r '.data.id')
 
# 4. Share
m365 permissions create-link "$docx_id" --type edit | jq -r '.data.link.webUrl'

Open an existing .txt or .md and continue editing

item_id=$(m365 files search "meeting-notes.md" | jq -r '.data[0].id')
content=$(m365 files read "$item_id")
# Now edit content in context, save back when done

Notes

• .md and .txt round-trip perfectly — no conversion loss
• .docx via pandoc preserves headings, bold, italics, bullets, and tables; complex Word styles are not preserved
• permissions create-link with --scope anonymous requires the SharePoint tenant to allow anonymous sharing (admin setting)
• Item IDs change if a file is deleted and re-uploaded; prefer overwriting in place with files upload to the same --remote-path