Connecting an AI assistant (MCP)

KakePhooa has built-in MCP, so AI assistants like Claude can look up your budget and spending patterns on your behalf, add Expenses, and fix wrong amounts.

This chapter explains how to connect an AI assistant to your account, what it can do, and how to take access away again.

How to connect

An AI assistant accesses your data with an Access Credential. There are two ways to get one.

Option 1: authorize from the AI assistant

For AI assistants that offer "connectors", such as Claude or ChatGPT. You don't copy anything yourself.

In the AI assistant's connector settings, add a custom connector with the URL https://kakephooa.com/mcp.
The assistant takes you to KakePhooa's authorization page. If you aren't logged in, log in first; you come back to the authorization page afterwards.
The authorization page lists the access the assistant is asking for:
- access to all of your Households, not just one
- read all data, including budgets, Expenses and debts
- add, edit and void Expenses when you ask it to
The authorization page is currently shown in Traditional Chinese: press "同意" (Allow) to authorize, or "拒絕" (Deny) if you don't want to.

Once you allow it, an Access Credential is issued and handed to the assistant automatically; you don't need to keep it anywhere.

Option 2: create an Access Credential yourself

For tools where you can set request headers yourself, such as Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code.

Tap the round account button at the top right and choose "Settings". This is your account's settings, not the "Settings" tab at the bottom.
In the "Access Credentials" section, press "Manage Access Credentials".
Enter a name you'll recognize in "Name", for example "My Claude Code", and press "Create".
The page shows "New Access Credential". It's only shown this once and can't be displayed again after you leave the page, so copy it and store it safely right away.
In your tool, set the server URL to https://kakephooa.com/mcp and send the header Authorization: Bearer <your credential> with every request.

Managing and revoking Access Credentials

Under "Settings" → "Manage Access Credentials", "Existing Access Credentials" lists every Access Credential you have. Each one shows:

its name, and how it was obtained: "Created manually" or "Authorized by an AI connector";
when it was created and when it stops being valid. An Access Credential is valid for 365 days; after that, authorize again or create a new one;
when it was last used, or "Never used".

If you no longer want an assistant to have access, or suspect an Access Credential has leaked, press "Revoke" on it; it stops working immediately. After revoking, the assistant has to be authorized again to keep working.

What an Access Credential allows

It acts as you. An assistant holding it sees exactly what you see when you log in, with the same Member restrictions.
It covers all your Households. It isn't tied to any one Household; the assistant lists your Households first and then looks at the one you ask about.
Never paste one you created yourself anywhere public, such as public code or a group chat.
If too many requests arrive in a short time, they're temporarily refused; just try again a bit later.

What an AI assistant can do

Look things up

What it can do	Details
List your Households	Every other lookup needs a Household first.
Look up Expenses	For a given month, optionally only Special Expenses or only one Category. Includes the count and total.
Look up Categories	Lists all of the Household's Categories, with "Uncategorized" first.
Look up debts	Each Debt Obligation's payment this Budget Period, Remaining Balance, and the month it will be paid off.
Look up a Budget Period	For a given month: the Living Allowance, Fixed Outgoings, each Category's Budget Line and actual Expenses, and the period's Windfalls.
Check the current pace	What's been spent today and this week, the Projection for the end of the period, and the system's Observations.

Every amount comes with the Household's currency, so the assistant reports it in that currency.

Record Expenses

What it can do	Details
Add an Expense	Can set the Category, date, note and Expense Items, or mark it as a Special Expense.
Add several Expenses	Up to 20 at a time. If one of them is wrong, none are recorded.
Edit an Expense	Fields you don't mention keep their values.
Void an Expense	The entry is voided and kept, not erased.

Before any of these, the assistant should check with you first, for example "Should it go under the 'Dining' Category?". After adding or editing, it repeats the result back to you, so mistakes are caught early.

When you record several Expenses at once, the assistant lists the whole batch and checks with you once, not one by one. You can also tell it "just record them, don't ask me". It then picks the Category itself, adds the Expenses right away and repeats the result afterwards. This applies to adding only; it still checks with you before editing or voiding.

When you give the assistant a photo of a receipt, it can record the receipt's items as Expense Items, with discounts as items with negative amounts. When it checks with you, the items are listed together with the Category, so you confirm once. If the items belong to different Categories, it records several Expenses, each with its own Expense Items. When you edit an Expense without mentioning its Expense Items, they stay as they are. The rules are the same as on screen; see the "Expenses" chapter.

Expenses written by an assistant are exactly like the ones you record yourself:

"Edit" voids the old entry and records a new one that replaces it, the same as pressing "Edit" on screen.
"Void" voids the entry. The assistant can't restore it, but you can find its row in "Change log" on the web and press "Restore"; see the "Expenses" chapter.
Every entry keeps who recorded it and when, visible in "Change log".

Troubleshooting

The assistant says it has no access or can't connect: check under "Manage Access Credentials" whether the Access Credential was revoked or is more than 365 days old. If so, authorize again or create a new one.
You lost an Access Credential you created yourself: it can't be shown again or recovered. Revoke the old one and create a new one.