Getting Started
TukeySheets is a native desktop spreadsheet built on a real data engine — no Electron, no browser engine. It opens Excel workbooks, CSVs, and Parquet files, queries them with SQL, and turns the results into plots and typeset reports. This page gets you from download to your first sheet.
Install
Grab a build for your platform from the downloads page. Each is a fully native binary.
macOS
Apple Silicon · arm64
macOS 11 Big Sur or later
Disk image (.dmg)
Windows 10 or later
Installer (.zip)
glibc-based distro
Native package (.deb / .rpm)
Intel macOS and Linux arm64 builds are available on request — email support@tukeysheets.com.
First launch
On first launch TukeySheets writes a settings file with sensible defaults to ~/.config/tukeysheets/config.json and follows your OS light/dark preference. You don't have to touch it — everything below works out of the box. When you're ready to tune themes, keybindings, or the built-in MCP server, see Config.
Open your data
Press ⌘ O (or Ctrl O), or drag a file onto the window. TukeySheets treats these formats as first-class — open, edit, and save any of them:
TukeySheets's own format. Preserves every sheet, plot, pivot, theme, and embedded resource in one file. Opens and saves Excel workbooks with formulas, styling, and named ranges round-tripped. Import dialog detects the delimiter, header row, and column types before loading. Loaded directly through DuckDB — large files page in through a sliding window instead of loading whole. Find your way around
The window is the grid plus a handful of panels you toggle as you need them. The essentials:
The grid
The spreadsheet itself: type values and formulas, select ranges, fill down. Press F2 or Enter to edit the active cell.Formula bar
Shows and edits the active cell's underlying formula or value. Cell references in the bar are clickable.SQL bar
Query the active sheet (and any other sheet) with DuckDB SQL. Results open as a new data-view sheet.File tree
Side panel listing the sheets and embedded resources in the current project. Toggle it to reclaim space.AI panel
The built-in assistant. It drives the spreadsheet through the same MCP tools an external client would use.Quick Info
Context panel with summary stats, suggested plots, and data-quality warnings for the current selection.Keyboard quick start
These get you moving. Every binding is configurable — the full set lives in Config → Keybindings.
ActionmacOSWindows / Linux
Open a file⌘ OCtrl O
New project⌘ ⇧ NCtrl Shift N
New tab⌘ NCtrl N
Save⌘ SCtrl S
Save as…⌘ ⇧ SCtrl Shift S
Edit the cellF2 / EnterF2 / Enter
Undo⌘ ZCtrl Z
Redo⌘ ⇧ ZCtrl Y
Jump to A1Ctrl HomeCtrl Home
Close tab⌘ WCtrl W
Next steps