Connect Claude Code to your finances
Self-hosted · runs on your machine
Claude Code reads MCP servers from ~/.claude.json. Add Pare under mcpServers at user scope and it's available in every project.
Pare's MCP server exposes 24 tools — 13 that read (spending summaries, category breakdowns, cash-flow, subscriptions, budget status) and 11 that write (set goals, add categorisation rules, tag transactions). So you can ask about your own money in plain language instead of clicking through dashboards.
Steps
- 01Clone and install Pare, then run it once so the database exists.
- 02Open ~/.claude.json and add the server under mcpServers (create the key if it isn't there).
- 03Replace the placeholder paths with real absolute ones — Pare's /connect page prints them filled in for your machine.
- 04Restart Claude Code. Run /mcp and pare-finance should be listed.
Configuration
~/.claude.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"pare-finance": {
"command": "/path/to/node",
"args": ["/path/to/pare/node_modules/tsx/dist/cli.mjs", "/path/to/pare/mcp/server.ts"],
"cwd": "/path/to/pare",
"env": { "PARE_DB_PATH": "/path/to/pare/data/pare.db" }
}
}
}Paths above are placeholders. Once Pare is running, its /connect page prints this same snippet with the real absolute paths for your machine, ready to copy.
Worth knowing
cwd must stay the repo root — database migrations resolve relative to the working directory, so a server started elsewhere will look for a database that isn't there.
What to ask once it's connected
- “Is my grocery spending trending up over the last six months?”
- “Which subscriptions have I paid for over a year without the amount changing?”
- “Everything from this merchant is groceries — make that a rule and re-run it.”
- “If I keep spending at this rate, what's my balance on the 15th?”