Lunchmoney MCP server

This MCP server enables seamless interaction with your Lunchmoney financial data through Claude and other AI assistants. You can analyze transactions, search spending history, review category spending, and check budget summaries through natural conversation while maintaining privacy and security.

Installation

Prerequisites: Node.js

To run the server, you'll need Node.js installed on your computer:

• Windows/Mac: Download and install from the official Node.js website
• Mac with Homebrew: Run brew install node in Terminal
• Linux: Use your package manager (e.g., sudo apt install nodejs for Ubuntu)

Setting Up with Claude Desktop

1. Obtain your Lunchmoney API token from your Lunchmoney developer settings
2. Open Claude Desktop
3. Navigate to Settings → Developer → Edit Config
4. Add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lunchmoney": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "lunchmoney-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "LUNCHMONEY_TOKEN": "your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace your_token_here with your actual Lunchmoney API token.

Note: You may need to restart Claude Desktop after changing the configuration.

Using the MCP Server

The server provides four main tools you can access through natural language in Claude:

Querying Transactions

You can ask questions like:

• "Show me my recent transactions from the past week"
• "Search for all transactions at Amazon"
• "How much did I spend on restaurants last month?"
• "Find transactions tagged as business expenses"

Checking Budget Information

Try requests such as:

• "Show me my budget summary for this month"
• "What's my budget status from January to March 2024?"
• "How much of my food budget is remaining?"
• "Show me categories where I'm over budget"

Tool Capabilities

The server offers these specific functions:

1. get-recent-transactions: View transactions from the past N days
2. search-transactions: Find transactions by keyword in payee names or notes
3. get-category-spending: Analyze spending in specific categories
4. get-budget-summary: Get detailed budget information including spending, remaining amounts, and recurring items

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

If Claude can't connect to your MCP server:

• Verify the configuration in Claude's Developer settings
• Restart Claude Desktop after configuration changes
• Confirm your Lunchmoney API token is valid

Command Recognition

If Claude doesn't recognize Lunchmoney commands:

• Start a new conversation
• Explicitly mention Lunchmoney in your query (e.g., "Show me my recent Lunchmoney transactions")

API Usage Notes

• Budget data must use month boundaries (e.g., 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31)
• Transactions can use any date range
• All monetary values are returned in their original currency

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "lunchmoney" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","lunchmoney-mcp-server"],"env":{"LUNCHMONEY_TOKEN":"your_token_here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "lunchmoney": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "lunchmoney-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "LUNCHMONEY_TOKEN": "your_token_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "lunchmoney": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "lunchmoney-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "LUNCHMONEY_TOKEN": "your_token_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect