actual-budget

What This Skill Does

The actual-budget skill provides an interface for interacting with your personal financial data stored in a self-hosted Actual Budget instance. By leveraging the official Node.js API, this skill allows the OpenClaw agent to programmatically manage accounts, track transactions, perform category-based budgeting, and automate the ingestion of bank data. It enables users to bridge the gap between their raw financial data and AI-driven insights, supporting both daily management and long-term financial planning.

Installation

To integrate this capability into your agent, use the OpenClaw package manager: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/thisisjeron/actual-budget

Ensure your environment variables are configured with the correct ACTUAL_SERVER_URL, ACTUAL_PASSWORD, and ACTUAL_SYNC_ID to grant the agent authenticated access to your secure budget database. If you use a self-signed SSL certificate, define the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS variable to maintain a secure connection without disabling TLS.

Use Cases

• Automated Reconciliation: Sync transactions from CSV or bank exports with smart deduplication and automated rule application.
• Budget Analysis: Query historical spending trends or current-month availability to provide personalized financial advice.
• Asset Management: Manage account balances, initialize new tracking or budget accounts, and close accounts with automated transfer processes.
• Scheduled Reporting: Generate summaries of monthly spending by category to help stay within defined budget constraints.

Example Prompts

1. "Check my spending in the 'Groceries' category for January and tell me if I'm under budget."
2. "Import these new transactions from my CSV file into my Checking account and run the automatic categorization rules."
3. "Show me the current balance of all my active accounts and summarize how much I have left to spend in my 'Entertainment' envelope."

Tips & Limitations

• Data Integrity: Always use api.utils.amountToInteger when calculating transaction amounts to prevent floating-point errors, as the API strictly handles values in cents.
• Security: Since this skill handles sensitive financial credentials, always use environment variables rather than hardcoding credentials in your configuration files.
• Sync Requirements: The skill operates on a headless basis; ensure your local data directory has write permissions if you are running it in a constrained environment. The agent maintains a local cache to speed up queries, which syncs back to your server periodically.