Connect an AI assistant
Let an AI assistant such as Claude read your budget, and add transactions if you allow it. Part of Plus.
You can connect an AI assistant to your budget. Then you can ask it questions such as “How much is left for groceries?” or “What did I spend on travel in euros this year?”. If you allow it, the assistant can also add transactions, assign money to categories and create categories. This is part of the Plus plan, which is coming soon. During your Plus trial you can use it now. See Free and Plus.
The connection uses MCP (Model Context Protocol), a standard that many assistants support. The address of the server is shown in Settings, under AI assistants. It is the address of the app followed by /mcp.
Connect an assistant
- In your assistant, add a custom connector or MCP server. In Claude, go to Settings, then Connectors, and select Add custom connector. In Claude Code, run
claude mcp add --transport http hedgerow <address>. - Give it the server address from Settings. You do not need a key or a password.
- The assistant opens a page of Hedgerow Money. Select Continue. Sign in if the app asks you to.
- Choose what the assistant can do: Read only or Read and change. Then select Allow.
What an assistant can do
- Read your accounts, balances, Ready to budget, categories and transactions.
- Answer questions about how the app works, and tell you where to do something in the app.
- With Read and change: add an expense, income or transfer, assign money to a category or take it back, create a category, add an account, and set or change its opening balance.
- With Read and change: import a bank file. Give the file to the assistant. It can make the import mapping, check the first rows, choose categories, add category rules, and import the file. It can also undo an import.
It cannot otherwise edit or delete transactions, add conversions, reconcile, close accounts, or change your settings. Do those in the app. It never sees your sign-in details.
Read only or read and change
You choose the access when you connect. To change it, disconnect the assistant and connect it again.
| Access | Tools the assistant gets |
|---|---|
| Read only | get_help, get_budget, list_categories, list_transactions, list_imports, review_import |
| Read and change | All of the above, and add_transaction, categorize_transactions, create_account, set_opening_balance, assign_to_category, set_category_target, create_category, and the import tools: upload_import_file, preview_import_mapping, save_import_mapping, set_import_categories, create_import_rule, commit_import, undo_import, and apply_rules, which runs your category rules over uncategorized expenses |
Limits
To keep the app fast for everyone, each connected assistant can make about 120 requests a minute, and about 20 import steps a minute. If it reaches a limit, it waits a minute and continues. A bank file can have up to 2 MiB and 10,000 rows, the same as in the app.
Help for your assistant
The app has a short description of itself for AI assistants, called a skill file. It explains the words the app uses, where each task is, the plans, and how to use the tools. With it, an assistant can answer your questions about the app and send you to the right page of this guide.
- A connected assistant reads it with the
get_helptool. You do not need to do anything. - An assistant that is not connected can read it at /skills.md. Give it that address, or save the file as a skill in an assistant that supports skills, such as Claude. This works on Free too, because the file has no budget data.
We update the file with each release of the app.
Disconnect an assistant
In Settings, under AI assistants, select Disconnect next to it. It stops working at once. A connection that is not used for 30 days also stops, and you connect it again.
If your Plus trial ends, connected assistants can no longer read or change your budget. They come back when you have Plus again. The skill file stays available.