Ask your budget
questions YNAB can't answer.
YNAB is great at tracking your money. But it can't compare spending year-over-year, generate custom reports, or catch up on months of uncategorized transactions. This MCP server connects your AI assistant directly to your YNAB data so you can.
❯ Compare my dining out spending: Jan–Mar 2025 vs. Jan–Mar 2026
❯ Break down last month into needs, wants, and savings
❯ I have 47 uncategorized transactions — categorize them based on my payee history
❯ Find subscriptions I'm paying for that I haven't used category budget on
❯ Generate a tax-ready summary of all deductible categories for 2025
Not a replacement for YNAB.
A power tool on top of it.
Clicking through YNAB to categorize 5 transactions is fast. But analyzing spending trends, catching up after a rough month, or building custom reports? That's where your AI assistant earns its keep.
Insights YNAB Can't Show You
Year-over-year spending comparisons, needs vs. wants breakdowns, seasonal patterns — ask complex questions that would require spreadsheet exports to answer.
Catch Up on Months of Transactions
Life happens. If you've fallen behind on categorizing, let AI bulk-process weeks or months of transactions using your existing categories and patterns.
Spot Bad Habits
Find overused "Other" categories, duplicate transactions, subscriptions you forgot about, or spending that crept up without you noticing.
Custom Reports
Weekly spending summaries, monthly budget reviews, tax-time category breakdowns — get reports YNAB doesn't offer, in the format you want.
Import From Anywhere
Paste bank statement text, scratch notes, or CSV data and let AI create properly categorized YNAB transactions from messy real-world input.
Smart Caching
Built-in 4-tier caching with delta sync keeps responses fast without hammering the YNAB API.
This doesn't replace manual budgeting
The hands-on, intentional process that makes YNAB work? Keep doing that. This is for the stuff that's tedious, time-consuming, or simply impossible in YNAB's UI.
Keep doing in YNAB
Assigning dollars to categories
Approving daily transactions
Reconciling accounts
Making intentional spending decisions
Use your AI for
Analyzing trends across months or years
Bulk-categorizing a backlog
Custom reports and breakdowns
Finding patterns you'd miss manually
Setup
Three steps. No server to host. No account to create.
Install uv
uv is a fast Python package runner. It handles everything automatically — no Python install needed.
macOS / Linux:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell):
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
Already have uv? Skip this step.
Get your YNAB API key
Go to YNAB Developer Settings and create a new personal access token.
Your API key stays on your machine — it's never sent anywhere except directly to YNAB's API.
Configure your AI platform
{
"mcpServers": {
"ynab": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mcp-ynab"],
"env": {
"YNAB_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}Config file locations
Claude Desktop (JSON)
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Note: The "Edit Config" button in Claude opens the wrong path on Windows (known bug)
Claude Code (CLI)
User scope: ~/.claude.json
Use claude mcp add-json --scope user for global access
ChatGPT Desktop (JSON)
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ChatGPT/chatgpt_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\ChatGPT\chatgpt_config.json
Gemini CLI (JSON)
All platforms: ~/.gemini/settings.json
Troubleshooting
Windows: MCP server not loading / config not found
Claude Desktop on Windows uses MSIX packaging, which redirects the config file to a different path than what the "Edit Config" button shows. This is a known bug.
Edit the config file at this path instead:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: "Application Control policy has blocked this file"
Update uv by running uv self update in your terminal, then restart Claude Desktop. Newer versions of uv include signed binaries that resolve this.
Your financial data, your machine
This MCP server runs locally on your machine — nothing is hosted
We never see, store, or transmit your financial data
Your YNAB API key stays on your machine — it only connects directly to YNAB's official API
The source code is fully open — audit it yourself
Your AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.) will process the budget data you share in conversations — this is how AI assistants work. Review your provider's data policies.
For commercial Claude users: Your data won't be used for AI training.