How do I use mcp-ynab?

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@mcp-ynab show me my budget categories" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

mcp-ynab

FastMCP server that exposes the YNAB API via MCP using YNAB's published OpenAPI spec.

Requirements

Python 3.12+
A YNAB personal access token
uv (recommended) or pip

Configuration

Environment variables:

YNAB_TOKEN (required): your YNAB API token
TRANSPORT (optional): http (default) or stdio

Run Locally

Using uv:

uv sync
export YNAB_TOKEN="your_token_here"
export TRANSPORT="http"   # optional, defaults to http
uv run python main.py

HTTP mode starts the server on 0.0.0.0:8080.

Docker

Use the prebuilt image from GHCR:

docker pull ghcr.io/alexfu/mcp-ynab:latest

Run prebuilt image in HTTP mode:

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 \
  -e YNAB_TOKEN="your_token_here" \
  -e TRANSPORT="http" \
  ghcr.io/alexfu/mcp-ynab:latest

Run prebuilt image in stdio mode:

docker run --rm \
  -e YNAB_TOKEN="your_token_here" \
  -e TRANSPORT="stdio" \
  ghcr.io/alexfu/mcp-ynab:latest

Notes

The server fetches YNAB's OpenAPI spec at startup from https://api.ynab.com/papi/open_api_spec.yaml.
Startup will fail if YNAB_TOKEN is missing, TRANSPORT is invalid, or the spec request fails.