Monarch Money

CLI and TypeScript library for Monarch Money budget automation.

Prerequisites

Environment Variables (Required)

Variable	Required	Description
MONARCH_EMAIL	Yes	Monarch Money account email
MONARCH_PASSWORD	Yes	Monarch Money account password
MONARCH_MFA_SECRET	Yes	TOTP secret for MFA (see below)

Getting Your MFA Secret

Monarch Money requires MFA. Generate the TOTP secret:

1. Login to https://app.monarchmoney.com
2. Go to Settings > Security > Two-Factor Authentication
3. If MFA is already enabled: disable and re-enable to get a new secret
4. When shown the QR code: click "Can't scan? View setup key"
5. Copy the secret key (base32 string like JBSWY3DPEHPK3PXP)
6. Complete MFA setup in Monarch Money with an authenticator app
7. Set the secret: export MONARCH_MFA_SECRET="YOUR_SECRET"

Quick Start

# Check setup
monarch-money doctor

# Login (uses env vars by default)
monarch-money auth login

# List transactions
monarch-money tx list --limit 10

# List categories
monarch-money cat list

CLI Commands

Authentication

# Login with environment variables
monarch-money auth login

# Login with explicit credentials
monarch-money auth login -e [email protected] -p password --mfa-secret SECRET

# Check auth status
monarch-money auth status

# Logout
monarch-money auth logout

Transactions

# List recent transactions
monarch-money tx list --limit 20

# Search by date
monarch-money tx list --start-date 2026-01-01 --end-date 2026-01-31

# Search by merchant
monarch-money tx list --merchant "Walmart"

# Get transaction by ID
monarch-money tx get <transaction_id>

# Update category
monarch-money tx update <id> --category <category_id>

# Update merchant name
monarch-money tx update <id> --merchant "New Name"

# Add notes
monarch-money tx update <id> --notes "My notes here"

Categories

# List all categories
monarch-money cat list

# List with IDs (for updates)
monarch-money cat list --show-ids

Accounts

# List accounts
monarch-money acc list

# Show account details
monarch-money acc get <account_id>

Doctor (Diagnostics)

# Run diagnostic checks
monarch-money doctor

Checks:

• Environment variables set
• API connectivity
• Session validity
• Node.js version

Library Usage

Import and use the TypeScript library directly:

import { MonarchClient } from 'monarch-money';

const client = new MonarchClient({ baseURL: 'https://api.monarch.com' });

// Login
await client.login({
  email: process.env.MONARCH_EMAIL,
  password: process.env.MONARCH_PASSWORD,
  mfaSecretKey: process.env.MONARCH_MFA_SECRET
});

// Get transactions
const transactions = await client.transactions.getTransactions({ limit: 10 });

// Get categories
const categories = await client.categories.getCategories();

// Get accounts
const accounts = await client.accounts.getAll();

Common Workflows

Find and Update a Transaction

# 1. Find the transaction
monarch-money tx list --date 2026-01-15 --merchant "Target"

# 2. Get category ID
monarch-money cat list --show-ids

# 3. Update the transaction
monarch-money tx update <transaction_id> --category <category_id>

Search Transactions by Date Range

monarch-money tx list --start-date 2026-01-01 --end-date 2026-01-31 --limit 100

Check Budget Status

monarch-money acc list

Error Handling

Error	Solution
"Not logged in"	Run monarch-money auth login
"MFA code required"	Set MONARCH_MFA_SECRET environment variable
"Invalid credentials"	Verify email/password work at app.monarchmoney.com
"Session expired"	Run monarch-money auth login again

Session Management

Sessions are cached locally at ~/.mm/session.json. After initial login, subsequent commands reuse the saved session for faster execution.

To clear the session: monarch-money auth logout

References

• API.md - GraphQL API details and advanced usage
• TROUBLESHOOTING.md - Common issues and solutions