ynab-mcp

An MCP server that connects Claude to YNAB (You Need A Budget) — enabling financial analysis, guided reconciliation, and budget management through natural conversation.

• Deno v2+
• A YNAB Personal Access Token

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ynab": {
      "command": "deno",
      "args": ["run", "--allow-net", "--allow-env", "jsr:@jsclayton/ynab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "YNAB_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Ask _"Show me my budget overview"_ to get started.

> From source: Replace the JSR specifier with the path to src/stdio.ts if running from a local clone.

YNAB_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token-here deno run --allow-net --allow-env jsr:@jsclayton/ynab-mcp

YNAB_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token-here deno run --allow-net --allow-env jsr:@jsclayton/ynab-mcp/http
# → http://localhost:8080/mcp

Analyze spending — Break down spending by category, track trends over time, find your top payees, and spot over-budget categories.

Reconcile accounts — Walk through uncleared transactions one by one, compare against your bank balance, and batch-clear confirmed transactions.

Categorize transactions — Review uncategorized transactions with AI-suggested categories based on payee patterns, then batch-update with approval.

Manage your budget — Create transactions, adjust budget amounts, update goals, rename payees, and manage scheduled transactions.

| Variable | Required | Default | Description | | ---------------------- | -------- | ------- | -------------