Expense Tracker -- Local MCP Server

A simple local MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for tracking personal expenses using SQLite. This server exposes expense-related tools (add, list, summarize) that can be consumed by MCP-compatible clients such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, or other LLM hosts.

No HTTP server. No frontend. Just a clean local tool backend for LLMs.

Features

• Add expense entries with date, amount, category, subcategory, and notes

• List expenses within a date range

• Summarize expenses by category

• Local SQLite database (auto-created)

• Categories exposed as an MCP resource (expense://categories)

• Zero configuration beyond Python

Related MCP server: Expense Tracker MCP

Project Structure

expense_tracker/
│
├── server.py          # MCP server code
├── categories.json    # Expense categories (editable at runtime)
└── expenses.db        # SQLite database (auto-created)

Requirements

• Python 3.9+

• uv (recommended)

• fastmcp

Setup

1. Install uv (once)

pip install uv

Verify installation:

uv --version

2. Create a virtual environment

From the project directory:

uv venv

Activate it:

• Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

• macOS / Linux: source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

uv pip install fastmcp

Running the MCP Server

Start the server using:

uv run python server.py

Note: You will see no output. This is expected behavior as the server runs silently and waits for a compatible client (like Claude) to connect.

To stop the server: CTRL + C

Database Behavior

• The expenses.db file is automatically created on first run.

• Tables are created using CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS.

• No manual database setup is required.

Available MCP Tools

add_expense

Adds a new expense entry to the database.

• date: string (format: YYYY-MM-DD)

• amount: number

• category: string

• subcategory: string (optional)

• note: string (optional)

list_expenses

Lists all expenses within a given date range.

• start_date: string (YYYY-MM-DD)

• end_date: string (YYYY-MM-DD)

summarize

Summarizes expenses by category.

• start_date: string (YYYY-MM-DD)

• end_date: string (YYYY-MM-DD)

• category: string (optional)

MCP Resources

expense://categories

Returns the contents of categories.json. The file is read fresh on every request, allowing category updates without restarting the server.

Using with Claude Desktop

Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json (found in %APPDATA%\Claude on Windows or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expense-tracker": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--path",
        "C:/absolute/path/to/expense_tracker",
        "python",
        "server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: Ensure you use absolute paths and forward slashes / even on Windows.

License

MIT License --- free to use, modify, and distribute.