Quickstart

Get YNAB MCP connected to Claude Desktop in under 5 minutes. You'll authenticate with YNAB, configure Claude Desktop, and start analyzing your budget.

Step 1: Authenticate with YNAB

Click the button below to connect your YNAB account. You'll be redirected to YNAB to authorize access, then back here with your user ID.

Step 2: Configure Claude Desktop

Add YNAB MCP to your Claude Desktop configuration. Open your config file:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the YNAB MCP server to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ynab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ynab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "YNAB_USER_ID": "your-user-id-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace your-user-id-here with the user ID you received after authenticating.

Step 3: Restart Claude Desktop

Quit and reopen Claude Desktop. You should see "ynab" in the MCP servers list (click the hammer icon).

Step 4: Start analyzing

Try asking Claude about your budget:

What are my top 5 spending categories this month?

Claude will use the sync_budget tool to load your data, then analyze it with spending_by_category.

Example prompts

Here are some things you can ask:

• "How much did I spend on groceries last month?"
• "What are my recurring subscriptions?"
• "Show me all Amazon purchases over $50"
• "Am I over budget in any categories?"
• "Compare my dining out spending month over month"

What's next?

• Browse the tools reference - See all 13 analysis tools
• Monthly budget review guide - A complete walkthrough
• Custom SQL queries - Advanced analysis techniques