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Mannu-Thakur

Expense MCP Server

by Mannu-Thakur
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Python
Hybrid

💸 Expense MCP Server

A production-ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing personal expenses — built with FastMCP, SQLAlchemy, and Pydantic. Deploys as a Docker container on Render with PostgreSQL, and connects to Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, or any MCP-compatible client.

Status

✅ Live on Render — Docker · PostgreSQL · Streamable HTTP

Transport

Streamable HTTP

Database

PostgreSQL (Render managed)

Health endpoint

/health

MCP endpoint

/mcp

Related MCP server: expense-tracker-mcp-server

Architecture

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code MCP
            │
            │  MCP over Streamable HTTP
            ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │  Expense MCP Server │  Docker · Render
   │  FastMCP + Uvicorn  │
   └────────┬────────────┘
            │
            ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │   Expense Service   │  Business logic
   └────────┬────────────┘
            │
            ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │     Repository      │  Data access layer
   └────────┬────────────┘
            │
            ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │  SQLAlchemy ORM     │
   └────────┬────────────┘
            │
            ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │  PostgreSQL / SQLite│  Prod / Dev
   └─────────────────────┘

API Request Flow

Claude  →  MCP Tool  →  FastMCP  →  Expense Service  →  Repository  →  SQLAlchemy  →  PostgreSQL

✨ Features

  • 8 MCP Tools — add, list, update, delete, search expenses, and get monthly/category/merchant summaries

  • Dual transport — STDIO (local Claude Desktop) and Streamable HTTP (remote/Docker/Render)

  • Dual database — SQLite for local development, PostgreSQL for production

  • Production-ready — structured logging, custom exceptions, connection pooling, non-root Docker user

  • 31 tests — full repository, service, and tool coverage with in-memory SQLite isolation

  • One-command deploy — render.yaml Blueprint auto-provisions PostgreSQL + Docker web service

Production Features

Feature

Detail

✓ Docker multi-stage image

Minimal, hardened runtime layer

✓ PostgreSQL

Render-managed with connection pooling

✓ Render Blueprint

Auto-provisions all infrastructure

✓ Health endpoint

/health for Render and load balancer checks

✓ Remote HTTP MCP

Accessible at /mcp from any MCP client

✓ Connection pooling

pool_size=5, max_overflow=10, pool_recycle=1800

✓ Structured logging

ISO timestamps, log levels, logger names

✓ Non-root container

appuser with no escalation

✓ Automatic DB provisioning

Tables created on first startup

Compatible Clients

✅ Claude Desktop
✅ Cursor
✅ VS Code MCP extension
✅ Any MCP client supporting Streamable HTTP

Transport Modes

Transport

When to use

stdio

Local Claude Desktop — server runs as a child process

streamable-http

Remote deployment, Docker, Render — server listens on HTTP

🗂 Project Structure

expense-mcp-server/
├── app/
│   ├── config.py              # Pydantic Settings (reads from .env)
│   ├── exceptions.py          # ExpenseNotFoundError, ExpenseValidationError
│   ├── logging_config.py      # Structured logging setup
│   ├── mcp_instance.py        # FastMCP instance + /health endpoint
│   ├── server.py              # Registers all 8 tools
│   ├── database/
│   │   ├── db.py              # Engine, SessionLocal, validate_connection()
│   │   └── models.py          # Expense SQLAlchemy model
│   ├── schemas/
│   │   └── expense.py         # ExpenseCreate, ExpenseUpdate (Pydantic)
│   ├── repositories/
│   │   └── expense_repository.py
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── expense_service.py
│   ├── tools/
│   │   ├── add_expense.py
│   │   ├── list_expenses.py
│   │   ├── update_expense.py
│   │   ├── delete_expense.py
│   │   ├── search_expenses.py
│   │   ├── monthly_summary.py
│   │   ├── category_summary.py
│   │   └── top_merchants.py
│   └── utils/
│       ├── dates.py
│       └── currency.py
├── tests/
│   ├── conftest.py            # In-memory SQLite fixtures + monkeypatch
│   └── test_expense.py        # 31 tests
├── run.py                     # Entry point
├── requirements.txt
├── Dockerfile                 # Multi-stage Docker build
├── docker-compose.yml         # App + PostgreSQL local stack
├── render.yaml                # Render Blueprint (PostgreSQL + Docker web service)
└── .env                       # Local environment variables

🛠 MCP Tools

Tool

Description

add_expense

Add a new expense with amount, category, date, merchant, currency

list_expenses

List all expenses sorted by date descending

update_expense

Update any field of an existing expense by ID

delete_expense

Delete an expense by ID

search_expenses

Search by category, description, or merchant

monthly_summary

Total, count, average, and max for the current month

category_summary

Spending totals grouped by category

top_merchants

Top merchants by total spending

⚙️ Environment Variables

Variable

Default

Description

APP_ENV

development

development or production

LOG_LEVEL

INFO

Python log level

MCP_SERVER_NAME

Expense Tracker

Name shown in Claude Desktop

TRANSPORT

stdio

stdio or streamable-http

HOST

0.0.0.0

Bind host (HTTP mode only)

PORT

8000

Bind port for local/Docker. Render injects PORT=10000 automatically — no manual configuration needed.

DATABASE_URL

sqlite:///./expenses.db

SQLite or PostgreSQL connection string

🚀 Getting Started

Option A — Local Development (STDIO + SQLite)

1. Clone and create a virtual environment

git clone https://github.com/your-username/expense-mcp-server.git
cd expense-mcp-server
python -m venv .venv

2. Activate the virtual environment

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate

# macOS / Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure .env

APP_ENV=development
LOG_LEVEL=INFO
MCP_SERVER_NAME=Expense Tracker
TRANSPORT=stdio
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8000
DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./expenses.db

5. Run the server

python run.py

The server starts in STDIO mode — ready to be used with Claude Desktop.

Option B — Local Docker + PostgreSQL (HTTP)

1. Start the full stack

docker-compose up --build

This starts:

  • expense_postgres — PostgreSQL 16 on port 5432

  • expense_mcp — MCP server on port 8000 (Streamable HTTP transport)

The app waits for PostgreSQL to pass its health check before starting.

2. Verify it's running

curl http://localhost:8000/health

Option C — Deploy to Render (Docker + PostgreSQL)

The project deploys as a Docker multi-stage image on Render.

1. Push your repo to GitHub

2. Go to render.com → New → Blueprint

3. Connect your GitHub repo — Render auto-detects render.yaml and automatically creates:

  • A managed PostgreSQL database

  • A Docker web service running run.py

  • All required environment variables

  • Database connection wired via fromDatabase.connectionString

4. Your server will be live at:

https://<your-render-service>.onrender.com

Replace <your-render-service> with your actual Render service name (shown in the dashboard after deployment).

🔍 Health Check

The server exposes /health for Render and load balancer health checks.

curl https://<your-render-service>.onrender.com/health

Response:

{"status": "ok"}

🔌 Verify the MCP Endpoint

GET https://<your-render-service>.onrender.com/mcp

Note: A browser will show 405 Method Not Allowed. This is expected — /mcp speaks the MCP protocol (not plain HTTP GET). Use an MCP client to connect.

🖥 Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) or
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS).

Option A — Local STDIO

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expense-tracker": {
      "command": "C:\\path\\to\\expense-mcp-server\\.venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\expense-mcp-server\\run.py"]
    }
  }
}

Option B — Render (Remote HTTP)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expense-tracker": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://<your-render-service>.onrender.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Option C — Docker (Local HTTP)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expense-tracker": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

You can include all three entries simultaneously — just give each a unique key.

🧪 Running Tests

python -m pytest tests/ -v

Expected output:

31 passed in ~1s

The test suite covers:

  • TestExpenseRepository — 13 tests (CRUD + search + summaries)

  • TestExpenseService — 10 tests (business logic + error handling)

  • TestTools — 8 tests (MCP tool integration)

Tests use an in-memory SQLite database with full transaction rollback isolation between each test.

🗃 Database

SQLite (Local)

Zero configuration. The expenses.db file is created automatically on first run.

DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./expenses.db

PostgreSQL (Docker / Production)

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://expense_user:expense_pass@localhost:5432/expense_db

The Expense table is created automatically via Base.metadata.create_all() on startup.

Column

Type

Notes

id

Integer

Primary key

amount

Float

Required, must be > 0

category

String

Required

description

String

Optional

merchant

String

Optional

payment_method

String

Optional

currency

String

Default: INR

expense_date

Date

Required

created_at

DateTime

Auto-set to UTC now

📦 Tech Stack

Layer

Library

Version

MCP Framework

mcp (FastMCP)

1.28.1

Settings

pydantic-settings

2.14.2

ORM

SQLAlchemy

2.0.51

Validation

pydantic

2.13.4

PostgreSQL driver

psycopg2-binary

2.9.10

HTTP server

uvicorn + starlette

—

Testing

pytest

9.1.1

📄 License

MIT

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