Power Query Rescue Now Asks Before It Acts — Clean Client Data Exactly the Way You Need It (Patreon)

Your Power Query skill now stops and asks what you actually want before it touches a single file.

In the original training, we pointed Claude at a pile of messy Excel files and got back one big M code export, whether or not that was what you needed. When a client sends you a hundred broken files, you don't always need the same thing. Sometimes you want the M query. Sometimes you want the original files fixed. And sometimes you just want to know what's wrong so you can quote the job or hand it off. I wanted you to have that choice, so I rebuilt the skill.

You no longer have to upload anything. You can now point Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever LLM you use straight at a folder, and it inspects everything inside. It then gives you four options: refresh the Power Query folder setup, generate the M code, merge every file into a single clean workbook, or create corrected copies of the originals. If you only want the diagnosis, it can give you a full report of every issue in your files, which is a useful thing to put in front of a client before you start the work. It also fixes messy values, not just messy headers. That means "CC" and "credit card" become the same thing, and capitalized and lowercase entries are made consistent. And you choose which fixes it applies: regional variations, category abbreviations, card payments, bank payments. You get to make each call yourself instead of accepting whatever it guesses.

The part I'm most happy with is what happens after the first run. Every refresh now goes through a new refresh guard that checks its own work. It reports single-row files, messy columns, dropped extras, and anything that wouldn't convert. It also catches the silent problems, like a supplier quietly renaming a column, before they break a report your client depends on. One thing I've noticed is that no two clients' data is messy in the same way. So think of this skill as a starting point. If the M code ever runs into a problem on your data, tell Claude what went wrong and ask it to update the skill. Over time it adapts to the files you actually work with.

To get started, download the updated Power Query Rescue skill below. In Claude, go to Customize, then Skills, and upload it. If you already have the original version, just let it replace the old one. Then watch the walkthrough to see the full run, from the four options through to refreshing new data straight into Excel.

📥Your updated training and the new Power Query Rescue skill are below. Jump in and see the difference yourself.