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mattweg/ynab-mcp

YNAB Budget Management Server

    Server Summary

    • Manage budgets

    • Track transactions

    • Gain financial insights

    • OAuth-secured access

YNAB MCP

YNAB Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Claude Code integration with You Need A Budget (YNAB).

Overview

This repository contains a Docker-based MCP server that enables Claude Code to interact with YNAB (You Need A Budget) accounts. It implements the OAuth flow and provides a comprehensive API for budget management, transaction tracking, and financial insights.

Known Issues

MCP Tool Availability

The following issues have been identified:

  1. Transactions API - The list_transactions endpoint fails with "invalid date" errors when using the sinceDate parameter
  2. Missing API Tools - Several endpoints that are defined in the source code are not available in the MCP integration
  3. Inconsistent Behavior - Some tools work in testing with test-mcp.js but fail in the actual MCP integration

Issue Tracking

We're actively working on the following fixes:

  • fix-transactions-api branch: Addressing the date format handling in the transactions API
  • fix-mcp-registration branch: Ensuring all API tools are properly registered and available

Features

  • OAuth-based authentication with YNAB API
  • Complete budget and account management
  • Transaction creation and categorization
  • Advanced category management with bulk allocation and recommendations
  • Support for multiple budgets (personal and family)
  • Rate limit handling (YNAB API limit: 200 requests/hour)
  • Caching for improved performance

New Category Management Features

This MCP includes advanced category management capabilities:

  • Assign to Categories: Allocate funds from Ready to Assign to multiple categories in one operation
  • Recommended Allocations: Get AI-powered suggestions for budget distribution based on goals and spending patterns

See Category Management Documentation for details.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Docker
  • Node.js v18+ (for development)
  • Claude Code CLI
  • YNAB account

Installation

  1. Clone this repository
  2. Copy config/config.example.js to config/config.js and add your YNAB API credentials
  3. Build the Docker image: docker build -t ynab-mcp:latest .
  4. Create a JSON configuration for Claude: 
    {
  "command": "docker",
  "args": [
    "run",
    "--rm",
    "-i",
    "-v",
    "/path/to/data:/app/data",
    "-v",
    "/path/to/config:/app/config",
    "-e",
    "NODE_ENV=production",
    "ynab-mcp:latest"
  ]
}
  5. Register the MCP with Claude Code CLI: 
    claude mcp add-json ynab '{"command": "docker", "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "-v", "/path/to/data:/app/data", "-v", "/path/to/config:/app/config", "-e", "NODE_ENV=production", "ynab-mcp:latest"]}'
    You can also save the JSON to a file and use: 
    claude mcp add-json ynab "$(cat config.json)"
  6. Authenticate with your YNAB account when prompted by Claude

Integration with Claude

This MCP integrates seamlessly with Claude, allowing:

  • Viewing budgets and transactions
  • Getting financial insights
  • Managing your budget through natural conversation

Security

  • Tokens are stored securely in a mounted Docker volume
  • No sensitive data is logged
  • Authentication uses OAuth 2.0 standards
  • Support for read-only mode

Implementation Details

The implementation follows the Model Context Protocol standard using:

  • Node.js and the official MCP SDK
  • Docker for containerization and deployment
  • YNAB JavaScript SDK for API operations
  • OAuth 2.0 for authentication

License

MIT

Acknowledgements