bank-mcp

bank-mcp

Unofficial, read-only MCP server for your own UK bank and card data, via TrueLayer Open Banking. It can read accounts, cards, balances and transactions. It cannot move money: only read scopes are ever requested.

Not affiliated with TrueLayer or any bank. See SECURITY.md before linking real accounts.

Setup

Requires Python 3.11+ and uv (or pip).

git clone https://github.com/pritch56/bank-mcp.git
cd bank-mcp
uv sync
uv run bank-mcp-link --help

Or install the package into any environment with pip install .; this provides the bank-mcp (server) and bank-mcp-link (bank linking) commands.

Get TrueLayer credentials

1. Create a free account at the TrueLayer Console.
2. Create an application and note its client ID and client secret. Start with the sandbox, then switch to live.
3. In the application's settings, add this redirect URI: http://localhost:3000/callback (use the same port as --port if you change it).
4. Make sure the Data API is enabled with these scopes: info accounts cards balance transactions offline_access.
5. Export the credentials in the shell you run bank-mcp-link from:

export TRUELAYER_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
export TRUELAYER_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
export TRUELAYER_ENV=sandbox   # or "live" (the default)

Never commit these values. .env files are git-ignored.

Link a bank

bank-mcp-link opens your bank's sign-in page in the browser and stores the resulting tokens under a nickname of your choice. You can link several banks.

# Sandbox (no real bank needed)
uv run bank-mcp-link --provider mock --name test --sandbox

# A real bank: use its TrueLayer provider id, for example ob-nationwide
uv run bank-mcp-link --provider ob-nationwide --name nationwide

uv run bank-mcp-link --list               # linked banks and consent expiry
uv run bank-mcp-link --remove nationwide  # forget a bank

If the browser does not open, copy the URL printed in the terminal. Linking waits five minutes for the redirect.

UK Open Banking consent lasts 90 days. When it lapses, tools return Reconnect required for '<bank>'; run bank-mcp-link again for that bank.

Tokens are stored in ~/.bank-mcp/tokens.json, readable only by you.

Configure your MCP client

Replace /path/to/bank-mcp with your checkout. The server reads the same TRUELAYER_* credentials from its environment, and uses the provider id and environment recorded when each bank was linked.

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings > Developer > Edit Config), then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bank": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/bank-mcp", "bank-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TRUELAYER_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "TRUELAYER_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
        "TRUELAYER_ENV": "live"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add bank \
  --env TRUELAYER_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  --env TRUELAYER_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
  --env TRUELAYER_ENV=live \
  -- uv run --directory /path/to/bank-mcp bank-mcp

Tools

bank-mcp (stdio) exposes five read-only tools. Each except list_connections takes an optional bank nickname; leave it out to query every linked bank.

Tool	Returns
list_connections	Linked banks and consent expiry
list_accounts	Accounts and cards
get_balance	Balances (optionally one account_id)
list_transactions	since/before dates, limit/offset paging, include_pending
list_pending	Pending transactions

When all banks are queried, the working banks are still returned and the failing ones are listed under errors.

Configuration

Variable	Meaning
TRUELAYER_CLIENT_ID / TRUELAYER_CLIENT_SECRET	TrueLayer Console credentials (required)
TRUELAYER_ENV	live (default) or sandbox
TRUELAYER_PROVIDER_ID	Provider id; set automatically per bank by bank-mcp-link
BANK_TOKEN_FILE	Token file path (default ~/.bank-mcp/tokens.json)
BANK_MAX_RANGE_DAYS	Longest date range a single transaction query may span
BANK_TRUELAYER_REFRESH_TOKEN	Optional refresh-token seed

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Release history is in CHANGELOG.md.

Licence

MIT