---
title: "Verify exports preserve formula-like text safely"
description: "Inspect a sandbox spreadsheet-oriented export with formula-like user text, checking the product escaping contract and unchanged source record values."
canonical_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/reporting-exports/spreadsheet-formula-like-text.md"
md_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/reporting-exports/spreadsheet-formula-like-text.md"
content_kind: "recipe"
topic: "reporting-exports"
---

# Verify exports preserve formula-like text safely

Inspect a sandbox spreadsheet-oriented export with formula-like user text, checking the product escaping contract and unchanged source record values.

## Risk

Strings beginning with spreadsheet formula characters need a deliberate export policy. Verify the generated representation using an independent parser and an approved safe inspection workflow; do not execute arbitrary fixture formulas to prove handling.

## Fixtures

- An owned sandbox report containing harmless synthetic text beginning with equals, plus, minus, and at-sign characters.
- A product export specification defining literal-text handling for the chosen format and a manifest of exact original strings.
- A project-owned artifact parser that inspects cell type or CSV encoding without executing formulas, plus a read-only source-record oracle.

## Steps

1. Open the report and verify the four fixture strings are associated with their intended identifiers.
2. Export in the chosen spreadsheet-compatible format and verify the job format and scope match the fixture.
3. Inspect the artifact through the nonexecuting parser and verify each formula-like value uses the product prescribed literal-text representation.
4. Read the source-record oracle and verify the original values remain unchanged; compare ordinary text control rows and verify the escaping policy has not corrupted unaffected data.

## Expected results

- Every formula-like fixture is represented according to the explicit literal-text export policy.
- Source values are not modified merely to make the exported artifact safe.
- Ordinary text controls retain their expected cell values and types.

## False-pass traps

- Opening the file in a spreadsheet and observing no visible error does not establish that formulas were never evaluated.
- Blindly adding an escape prefix to source records changes user data instead of only its export representation.

## Cleanup

- Delete the sandbox artifact and remove the harmless formula-like fixture records.

## Use with agent-qa

Adapt this test design to your application's acceptance criteria and configured target using the [recipe execution guide](/agent-library/software-factory/turn-a-recipe-into-an-agent-qa-test.md). External fixture setup and non-UI checks require your own supported hooks or test tooling. Validate the authored test, execute it, and inspect the completed evidence; this recipe is not a recorded test result.

## References

- [agent-qa first test](/docs/agent-qa/guides/first-test.md)
- [agent-qa hooks](/docs/agent-qa/guides/hooks.md)
- [agent-qa test](/docs/agent-qa/configuration/test.md)

- [Reporting and export QA recipes](/agent-library/reporting-exports.md)
- [Software factory QA library](/agent-library.md)