Can I connect Claude Desktop or other AI assistants to ExpenseBot?

Yes! ExpenseBot publishes two Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that let Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, and any MCP-compatible AI assistant work directly with your ExpenseBot account.

🤖 What you can do from your AI assistant:

• "Show me my Amazon receipts over $50 from last month" → searches your spreadsheet
• "Submit this photo as a receipt" → uploads and AI-processes the image
• "Scan my Gmail for receipts from the last 90 days" → triggers a background scan
• "Create a Q1 travel report and share it with my accountant" → builds and shares
• "Why did my spending increase this quarter?" → runs deep analytics with comparisons
• "Add a $15 cash lunch at Chipotle today" → writes to your spreadsheet
• "Find every Uber receipt I expensed last quarter" → searches your spreadsheet
• "Find any compliance issues in my March report" → flags expenses needing attention

21 tools total across categories: search expenses, run analytics, create/list/share reports, submit receipts (photo, PDF, cash), add mileage, add manual income, list categories/tags, scan/process Gmail, check compliance, check tax deductibility, search the knowledge base.

📦 Two servers, one for each use case:

🔧 How to connect (3 minutes):

1. Get your token. Sign in at expensebot.ai → Settings → "AI Assistant Tokens" → click Generate. Copy the token (shown once).

2. Add to Claude Desktop config. Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Mac) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expensebot": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@expensebot/mcp-server-auth", "--token=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop. Try asking: "What expenses do I have from Amazon this year?"

📦 Other MCP clients — same package, different config location:

Claude Code (CLI):

claude mcp add expensebot -- npx -y @expensebot/mcp-server-auth --token=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

Add --scope user to make it available across all your projects.

Cursor — edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "expensebot": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@expensebot/mcp-server-auth", "--token=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"]
    }
  }
}

Then in Cursor: Settings → Tools & Integrations → click the green dot next to "expensebot" to confirm tools loaded.

Continue, Cline, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible client — use the same npx command in the client's config file.

ChatGPT — currently requires a remote HTTPS MCP server. Native ChatGPT support is on the roadmap; until then, ChatGPT users should use Claude Desktop or Cursor.

🔒 Security model:

• Personal Access Tokens are scoped to your account only — they cannot access other users' data
• Configurable expiry, revokable instantly from Settings → AI Assistant Tokens
• Max 5 active tokens per user — generate one per device/AI assistant
• All actions audit-logged in our internal Firestore for security review
• Tokens stored as SHA-256 hashes server-side, never in plaintext
• Your data stays in YOUR Google Drive — the MCP server reads from your spreadsheet, never stores anything
• CASA Tier 2 certification applies to the entire data path

🌐 Where to find it:

• Official MCP Registry: registry.modelcontextprotocol.io — search "ExpenseBot"
• npm: @expensebot/mcp-server-auth and @expensebot/mcp-server

ExpenseBot is listed on the official MCP Registry, making us natively discoverable by every MCP-compatible AI assistant. See the full landing page at /mcp.

💡 Common use cases:

• Power users who live in Claude Desktop or Cursor and want to log expenses without app-switching
• Submitting receipts conversationally — drop a photo into your AI chat and say "log this expense"
• Complex analytics in natural language ("compare Q1 vs Q2 by category", "what's my P&L this year", "profit by client")
• Workflow automation — trigger Gmail scans on demand instead of waiting for the nightly run

Free for all ExpenseBot users — no add-on charge.