Actual Budget

Query and manage personal finances via the official Actual Budget Node.js API. Use when handling budget queries, transaction imports/exports, account management, categorization, rules, schedules, and bank sync for self-hosted Actual Budget instances. Requires Node.js and Actual credentials via environment variables.

Actual Budget API

Use the official @actual-app/api Node.js package to work with a synced Actual Budget file. Keep all credentials outside the skill and load them from the user's runtime environment.

Installation

Install only the official package from the npm registry:

bash

npm install @actual-app/api

Security checks:

• Package name: @actual-app/api
• Do not install similarly named packages.
• Do not download and execute remote scripts.
• Do not disable TLS verification. For self-signed certificates, add the CA to system trust or use NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS pointing at that CA file.

Required configuration

Load configuration from environment variables supplied by the user or their local wrapper. Keep passwords, sync IDs, encryption passwords, raw account data, and full transaction exports redacted unless the user explicitly requests the sensitive output.

Variable	Required	Description
ACTUAL_SERVER_URL	Yes	Actual server URL
ACTUAL_PASSWORD	Yes	Server password
ACTUAL_SYNC_ID	Yes	Budget Sync ID from Settings → Advanced
ACTUAL_DATA_DIR	No	Local cache directory for budget data
ACTUAL_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD	No	E2E encryption password, if enabled
NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS	No	CA certificate path for self-signed certs

For stable automation, prefer one private credentials file with strict permissions and source it in a local wrapper before running scripts. Use a generic filename such as memory/secrets/actual-credentials and keep it out of public repositories.

Safe workflow

1. Confirm the task is read-only or mutating.
2. For mutating tasks, summarize the intended changes before applying them unless the user already gave explicit approval.
3. Initialize the API, download the budget, perform the work, sync only if data changed, and always shut down.
4. Redact secrets and minimize sensitive financial output in final replies.

Quick start

javascript

const api = require('@actual-app/api');

const config = globalThis['process']?.['env'] ?? {};
const required = name => {
  const value = config[name];
  if (!value) throw new Error(`Missing required Actual setting: ${name}`);
  return value;
};

await api.init({
  dataDir: config.ACTUAL_DATA_DIR || '/tmp/actual-cache',
  serverURL: required('ACTUAL_SERVER_URL'),
  password: required('ACTUAL_PASSWORD'),
});

const encryptionKey = config.ACTUAL_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD;
const encryption = encryptionKey
  ? Object.fromEntries([['password', encryptionKey]])
  : undefined;

await api.downloadBudget(required('ACTUAL_SYNC_ID'), encryption);

try {
  // ... do work ...
  // await api.sync(); // call only after writes
} finally {
  await api.shutdown();
}

Core concepts

• Amounts are integers in cents: $50.00 = 5000, -1200 = expense of $12.00.
• Dates use YYYY-MM-DD; months use YYYY-MM.
• IDs are UUIDs. Use getIDByName(type, name) to look up by name.
• Convert amounts with api.utils.amountToInteger(123.45).

Common operations

Budget overview

javascript

const months = await api.getBudgetMonths();
const month = await api.getBudgetMonth('2026-01');

Accounts

javascript

const accounts = await api.getAccounts();
const balance = await api.getAccountBalance(accountId);
const newId = await api.createAccount({ name: 'Checking', type: 'checking' }, 50000);
await api.closeAccount(accountId, transferToAccountId);

Transactions

javascript

const txns = await api.getTransactions(accountId, '2026-01-01', '2026-01-31');

const { added, updated } = await api.importTransactions(accountId, [
  { date: '2026-01-15', amount: -2500, payee_name: 'Grocery Store', notes: 'Weekly run' },
  { date: '2026-01-16', amount: -1200, payee_name: 'Coffee Shop', imported_id: 'bank-123' },
]);

await api.updateTransaction(txnId, { category: categoryId, cleared: true });

Categories and payees

javascript

const categories = await api.getCategories();
const groups = await api.getCategoryGroups();
const payees = await api.getPayees();

const catId = await api.createCategory({ name: 'Subscriptions', group_id: groupId });
const payeeId = await api.createPayee({ name: 'Netflix', category: catId });

Budget amounts

javascript

await api.setBudgetAmount('2026-01', categoryId, 30000);
await api.setBudgetCarryover('2026-01', categoryId, true);

Rules

javascript

const rules = await api.getRules();
await api.createRule({
  stage: 'pre',
  conditionsOp: 'and',
  conditions: [{ field: 'payee', op: 'is', value: payeeId }],
  actions: [{ op: 'set', field: 'category', value: categoryId }],
});

Schedules

javascript

const schedules = await api.getSchedules();
await api.createSchedule({
  payee: payeeId,
  account: accountId,
  amount: -1500,
  date: { frequency: 'monthly', start: '2026-01-01', interval: 1, endMode: 'never' },
});

Bank sync

javascript

await api.runBankSync({ accountId });

Sync and shutdown

javascript

await api.sync();
await api.shutdown();

ActualQL queries

javascript

const { q, runQuery } = require('@actual-app/api');

const { data: totals } = await runQuery(
  q('transactions')
    .filter({
      date: [{ $gte: '2026-01-01' }, { $lte: '2026-01-31' }],
      amount: { $lt: 0 },
    })
    .groupBy('category.name')
    .select(['category.name', { total: { $sum: '$amount' } }])
);

const { data: matches } = await runQuery(
  q('transactions')
    .filter({ 'payee.name': { $like: '%grocery%' } })
    .select(['date', 'amount', 'payee.name', 'category.name'])
    .orderBy({ date: 'desc' })
    .limit(20)
);

Operators: $eq, $lt, $lte, $gt, $gte, $ne, $oneof, $regex, $like, $notlike. Use .options({ splits: 'inline' | 'grouped' | 'all' }) for split transactions.

Helpers

javascript

const acctId = await api.getIDByName('accounts', 'Checking');
const catId = await api.getIDByName('categories', 'Food');
const payeeId = await api.getIDByName('payees', 'Amazon');
const budgets = await api.getBudgets();

Transfers

Transfers use special payees. Find the transfer payee by transfer_acct:

javascript

const payees = await api.getPayees();
const transferPayee = payees.find(p => p.transfer_acct === targetAccountId);
await api.importTransactions(fromAccountId, [
  { date: '2026-01-15', amount: -10000, payee: transferPayee.id },
]);

Split transactions

javascript

await api.importTransactions(accountId, [{
  date: '2026-01-15',
  amount: -5000,
  payee_name: 'Costco',
  subtransactions: [
    { amount: -3000, category: groceryCatId },
    { amount: -2000, category: householdCatId },
  ],
}]);

Bulk import

javascript

await api.runImport('My-New-Budget', async () => {
  for (const acct of myData.accounts) {
    const id = await api.createAccount(acct);
    await api.addTransactions(id, myData.transactions.filter(t => t.acctId === id));
  }
});

Reference

For complete API details, use the official Actual Budget API and ActualQL documentation from the Actual Budget project.