Import Transactions

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/tools/ImportTransactionsTool.ts:23-55 (handler)

  The execute() function that runs the import. Calls the YNAB API's importTransactions method with the budget ID and returns the result (success/failure with transaction IDs).

  export async function execute(input: ImportTransactionsInput, api: ynab.API) {
    try {
      const budgetId = getBudgetId(input.budgetId);
  
      console.error(`Importing transactions for budget ${budgetId}`);
      const response = await api.transactions.importTransactions(budgetId);
  
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text" as const,
          text: JSON.stringify({
            success: true,
            transaction_ids: response.data.transaction_ids,
            imported_count: response.data.transaction_ids.length,
            message: response.data.transaction_ids.length > 0
              ? `Successfully imported ${response.data.transaction_ids.length} transaction(s)`
              : "No new transactions to import",
          }, null, 2),
        }],
      };
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("Error importing transactions:", error);
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text" as const,
          text: JSON.stringify({
            success: false,
            error: getErrorMessage(error),
          }, null, 2),
        }],
      };
    }
  }

• src/tools/ImportTransactionsTool.ts:7-9 (schema)

  Input schema definition using Zod. Accepts an optional budgetId string (defaults to YNAB_BUDGET_ID env var).

  export const inputSchema = {
    budgetId: z.string().optional().describe("The ID of the budget (optional, defaults to YNAB_BUDGET_ID environment variable)"),
  };

• src/index.ts:117-121 (registration)

  Registration of the tool with the MCP server using server.registerTool(), binding the name, description, inputSchema, and execute handler.

  server.registerTool(ImportTransactionsTool.name, {
    title: "Import Transactions",
    description: ImportTransactionsTool.description,
    inputSchema: ImportTransactionsTool.inputSchema,
  }, async (input) => ImportTransactionsTool.execute(input, api));

• src/tools/ImportTransactionsTool.ts:15-21 (helper)

  Helper function getBudgetId() that resolves the budget ID from input or environment variable.

  function getBudgetId(inputBudgetId?: string): string {
    const budgetId = inputBudgetId || process.env.YNAB_BUDGET_ID || "";
    if (!budgetId) {
      throw new Error("No budget ID provided. Please provide a budget ID or set the YNAB_BUDGET_ID environment variable.");
    }
    return budgetId;
  }

• src/tools/errorUtils.ts:5-39 (helper)

  getErrorMessage helper used to extract meaningful error messages from various error types including YNAB API errors.

  export function getErrorMessage(error: unknown): string {
    // Handle standard Error objects
    if (error instanceof Error) {
      return error.message;
    }
  
    // Handle YNAB API error responses which have the structure:
    // { error: { id: '...', name: '...', detail: '...' } }
    if (
      typeof error === 'object' &&
      error !== null &&
      'error' in error &&
      typeof (error as any).error === 'object'
    ) {
      const ynabError = (error as any).error;
      if (ynabError.detail) {
        return ynabError.detail;
      }
      if (ynabError.name) {
        return ynabError.name;
      }
    }
  
    // Fallback: try to stringify the error
    try {
      const stringified = JSON.stringify(error);
      if (stringified !== '{}') {
        return stringified;
      }
    } catch {
      // Ignore stringify errors
    }
  
    return 'Unknown error occurred';
  }