YNAB MCP Server

MCP server for YNAB. Use it from Claude Desktop to validate transactions against bank statements and manage budget recommendations.

Setup

1. Get your YNAB Personal Access Token

Go to YNAB Developer Settings → "New Token".

2. Build

npm install
npm run build

3. Configure Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ynab": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/Users/juan/Documents/ScriptsLocal/ynab-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "YNAB_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see the YNAB tools available.

Available Tools

Budget & Accounts

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | list_budgets | Lists all budgets with their IDs | | get_budget_summary | Income / budgeted / activity for a month | | list_accounts | Accounts with current balances |

Transactions

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | get_transactions | Fetch transactions (by account, date, or type) | | create_transaction | Create a new transaction | | update_transaction | Update an existing transaction | | approve_transactions | Bulk-approve a list of transaction IDs | | flag_transaction | Set/clear flag color on a transaction |

Categories

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | get_categories | All categories with budgeted/activity/balance for a month | | get_category | Single category detail | | update_category_budget | Change the budgeted amount for a category | | get_overspent_categories | Categories with negative balance |

Payees

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | get_payees | List payees (with optional name search) |

Reconciliation (Bank Statement Validation)

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | reconcile_transactions | Compare bank statement entries vs YNAB — finds matched, mismatched, missing | | import_bank_transactions | Create YNAB transactions from bank statement entries missing in YNAB |

Budget Recommendations

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | analyze_spending_trends | Analyzes N months of history and returns recommendations | | get_monthly_spending_summary | High-level income vs spending per month | | get_uncategorized_transactions | Unapproved/uncategorized transactions needing attention |

Usage Examples

Validate a bank statement

Ask Claude:

"Compare these transactions from my bank statement against my YNAB checking account for May:

• 2025-05-01, -50.00, Supermarket
• 2025-05-03, -120.00, Electric Company
• 2025-05-05, 1500.00, Employer Payroll"

Claude will call reconcile_transactions and return which are matched, which are missing, and any discrepancies.

Budget recommendations

"Analyze my last 3 months of spending and recommend budget adjustments."

Claude will call analyze_spending_trends and suggest specific category budget changes.

Review unapproved transactions

"Show me all unapproved transactions this month and help me categorize them."

Claude will call get_uncategorized_transactions and help you bulk-update categories.

Development

npm run dev        # watch mode
npm run inspector  # open MCP inspector UI for testing