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CSV Exports

Files.com generates CSV exports for reports, activity history, notifications, and tables. These exports are intended primarily for automated processing, including ingestion by applications and AI agents. They preserve recorded text values, including names and paths beginning with =, +, -, or @. CSV output written by the CLI to a file or pipe preserves those values too.

Adding a spreadsheet-specific prefix, such as an apostrophe, would change those values and can break automated workflows that need to match them to source records. Normal CSV quoting still handles commas, quotation marks, and line breaks.

Spreadsheet Applications

Microsoft Excel and some other spreadsheet applications may interpret these text values as formulas and evaluate them when opening the CSV. We consider automatic formula evaluation an unsafe default for imported data, especially when values are supplied by other people or systems.

For spreadsheet review, use the application's CSV import controls to load names, paths, and other text columns as Text before loading the data. In Excel's Text Import WizardExternal LinkThis link leads to an external website and will open in a new tab, select Text under Column data format for each text column before finishing the import. In LibreOffice CalcExternal LinkThis link leads to an external website and will open in a new tab, disable Evaluate formulas.