Moat Finance
Free, self-hosted personal finance app. Budgeting, investments, retirement planning, and a built-in MCP server so your AI assistant can reason over your real financial data, all running on infrastructure you control.
- Self-host it with Docker on a home server, NAS, VPS, or your own cloud account.
- Or run it locally with the desktop app: a SQLite database on your computer that works fully offline.
- Connect your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any other MCP client) to your own MCP endpoint with scoped, revocable tokens.
Website · Self-hosting guide · Contributing · Security
Features
- Accounts and transactions: checking, savings, credit cards, loans, and manual accounts. Sync banks with your own Plaid keys, or import CSVs.
- Rules engine: auto-categorize, tag, and organize transactions.
- Net worth and forecasts: historical net worth plus conservative, expected, and aggressive projections.
- Investments and retirement: portfolio tracking and retirement plans built on your real numbers.
- Insurance, real estate, goals, and household context: the full financial picture, not just a budget.
- MCP server: give AI assistants structured, audited, read-scoped access to your finances.
- REST API and TypeScript SDK: an OpenAPI spec in
packages/openapi and a client in packages/client-ts.
Self-hosting
Pick whichever fits you. The self-hosting guide walks through both.
-
Option A: Docker (easiest). One machine (home server, NAS, spare Mac, or VPS), one config file, three commands:
git clone https://github.com/tyler16smith/moat-finance.git
cd moat-finance
cp .env.self-host.example .env
./scripts/self-host/generate-secrets.sh
docker compose up -d
Then open http://localhost:3000.
-
Option B: Vercel + Neon (free). Run the web app, API, and MCP server on Vercel's Hobby plan with a free Neon Postgres database (500 MB). It takes more setup (three Vercel projects and their environment variables) and needs your own domain. See Option B.
Anything that runs Node.js and Postgres 16 works too. The iOS app works with either option: build it with your Apple Developer account and install it through TestFlight (iOS setup).
Repository layout
| Path | What it is |
|---|
apps/web | Web app (Next.js App Router, React 19, Tailwind v4, Zustand + React Query) |
apps/api | API routes, services, and Prisma schema (Next.js, Prisma 6, Postgres) |
apps/mcp | MCP server (Express + @modelcontextprotocol/sdk) |
apps/desktop | Desktop app (Electron, local SQLite) |
apps/extension | Browser extension (WXT + React) |
apps/ios | iOS app (SwiftUI) |
apps/marketing | Static marketing site |
packages/* | Shared code: OpenAPI spec, TS client, MCP contracts, UI, logging, utilities |
infra/ | Optional infrastructure for parked or experimental features |
Development
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env # then fill in values; see apps/*/.env.example
./start-database.sh # local Postgres in Docker
pnpm db:migrate:dev
pnpm dev
Common commands:
pnpm dev # Start dev servers (add --ext true for the extension)
pnpm build # Build all apps and packages
pnpm lint:fix # Lint and format
pnpm typecheck # TypeScript checks
pnpm db:studio # Prisma Studio for apps/api
Engineering conventions live in AGENTS.md and docs/patterns. Read them before opening a PR.
License
Moat Finance is licensed under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0. You're free to use, modify, self-host, and share it, for personal use or inside your business. The one restriction: you can't use it to build or offer a product that competes with Moat Finance, such as reselling it as a hosted personal finance service. See the license for the exact terms.
Because of that restriction, Moat Finance is source-available rather than OSI-approved open source.
"Moat Finance" and the Moat logo are trademarks of Moat Finance LLC. Forks should use their own name and branding.
