Complete tutorial to automate data analysis, CSV processing, and report generation
This tutorial will show you how to use OpenClaw to automate data analysis, process CSV files, analyze Excel spreadsheets, and generate comprehensive reports. You'll learn to leverage OpenClaw's file system access and AI capabilities for intelligent data processing. Estimated time: 25-35 minutes.
By the end of this tutorial, you'll have:
Before starting:
Place your data files in a location accessible to OpenClaw. For this tutorial, we'll use the workspace directory:
mkdir -p ~/clawd/data
# Copy your CSV/Excel files here
cp ~/Downloads/sales_data.csv ~/clawd/data/
Example Data Structure:
sales_data.csv, customer_data.csvfinancial_report.xlsx, inventory.xlsxOpenClaw can read and analyze CSV files directly. Start by asking it to analyze your data:
You: "Analyze the CSV file at ~/clawd/data/sales_data.csv and give me a summary"
OpenClaw: [Reads CSV, analyzes data, provides summary]
"Analyzed sales_data.csv:
- Total records: 1,234
- Date range: Jan 2024 - Dec 2024
- Total revenue: $456,789
- Top product: Widget A ($123,456)
- Average order value: $370.23"
Request specific insights:
You: "Find trends in the sales data. What are the best performing months?"
You: "Calculate the correlation between product price and sales volume"
You: "Identify any anomalies or outliers in the data"
You: "Group sales by category and calculate totals"
OpenClaw can work with Excel files using Python scripts or by converting them to CSV:
You: "Analyze the Excel file at ~/clawd/data/financial_report.xlsx.
Summarize the key financial metrics from all sheets."
OpenClaw: [Reads Excel, processes all sheets, provides comprehensive summary]
For complex Excel files with multiple sheets:
You: "Compare data across all sheets in the Excel file.
Identify any inconsistencies or discrepancies."
You: "Create a summary report combining data from Sheet1 and Sheet2"
Ask OpenClaw to generate comprehensive reports from your data:
You: "Generate a detailed report analyzing the sales data.
Include trends, top performers, and recommendations."
OpenClaw: [Analyzes data, generates comprehensive report, saves to file]
Generate formatted Markdown reports:
You: "Create a Markdown report with the analysis results.
Save it to ~/clawd/data/analysis_report.md"
OpenClaw: [Creates formatted Markdown report with tables, charts descriptions]
Your reports can include:
Set up automated workflows for regular data analysis:
Create a skill that automates your data analysis workflow:
You: "Create a skill that automatically analyzes all CSV files
in ~/clawd/data/ every Monday and generates a weekly report"
OpenClaw: [Creates skill with automation logic]
Use cron jobs or webhooks to trigger regular analysis:
# Add to crontab for weekly analysis
0 9 * * 1 /path/to/openclaw analyze-weekly-data
# Or use OpenClaw's automation features
You: "Set up a weekly task to analyze new data files and email me the report"
While OpenClaw can't create visual charts directly, it can:
You: "Generate Python code to create a bar chart of sales by month
from the CSV data. Save it as visualize_sales.py"
OpenClaw: [Creates Python script with matplotlib/plotly code]
Ask OpenClaw for visualization suggestions:
You: "What type of chart would best visualize the sales trends?"
You: "Recommend visualizations for comparing product performance"
You: "Suggest the best way to show customer distribution by region"
Leverage OpenClaw for complex data operations:
You: "Clean the CSV file: remove duplicates, fix date formats,
and handle missing values. Save the cleaned version."
You: "Standardize column names and data types across multiple CSV files"
You: "Merge sales_data.csv and customer_data.csv on the customer_id column.
Save the merged result."
You: "Combine data from multiple Excel sheets into a single CSV file"
You: "Transform the data: calculate profit margins, add percentage columns,
and create summary rows"
You: "Pivot the data to show sales by product and month"
You: "Analyze this month's sales data:
1. Calculate total revenue
2. Identify top 10 products
3. Compare to last month
4. Generate insights and recommendations
5. Save report to sales_analysis.md"
You: "Process the quarterly financial report:
- Extract key metrics from all sheets
- Calculate growth rates
- Identify areas of concern
- Create executive summary
- Format as presentation-ready report"
You: "Analyze customer data:
- Segment customers by purchase behavior
- Calculate customer lifetime value
- Identify churn risk factors
- Recommend retention strategies"
Now that you can analyze data with OpenClaw: