Claude and Cursor can read and log your Manilo expenses once you add the Manilo MCP server, https://api.manilo.app/mcp, and approve the sign-in it opens. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is how an AI assistant works with records kept in another app, and Manilo runs this server itself, so you set up no software.
How to add the Manilo MCP server to claude.ai or Claude Desktop
In claude.ai and the Claude Desktop app, Manilo goes in as a custom connector in Settings; Connect Claude and other MCP clients lists each click. Once it is added, a first question such as “What did I spend this week?” is a quick way to see that Claude can reach your account.
How to add Manilo to Cursor or another MCP client
Cursor installs Manilo in one click from the Integrations page and needs no API key: it opens the same Manilo sign-in page and gets access once you approve it. Any other client that accepts a remote MCP server takes the same address. Cursor gets the same Manilo tools as Claude, more than 30 of them, so you can log a purchase from the editor you are already working in.
What you can ask Claude or Cursor about your spending
Questions are answered from the transactions saved in your Manilo account, so “What did I spend on transport in August?” works as typed, and you can narrow one to a single account or tag.
Logging takes one sentence, such as “Add $42 for gas on my Visa, yesterday”, and a few lines pasted from your notes go in together as a batch. Fixing an entry takes one more message, like “Friday’s pizza goes under Food Delivery”, and rent on the first of each month can be set up as a recurring rule.
The assistant can also set a budget and later tell you how the month stands against it, move money between accounts in different currencies at European Central Bank rates, add a missing account or category, and match an account’s balance to your bank’s figure. Every client uses the same server, so the full tool list in Connect ChatGPT applies here too.
To bring in a whole month at once, attach the statement you downloaded from your bank (any file the assistant can open, PDF and CSV included) and ask for an import. Every row is sorted into one of your existing categories and saved in a single pass, and the reply links to the web dashboard. Import a statement by chat has the steps.
What Claude or Cursor can see, and how to disconnect
Connecting does not send your full ledger to Anthropic or OpenAI, and each request fetches only the records it needs; Privacy and your data has the detail. Removing Manilo in the client’s settings ends its access immediately, and your expenses stay in Manilo.
Questions
Do I need a paid plan to connect Claude or Cursor to Manilo?
Claude and Cursor reach your expenses through Manilo Cloud, which costs $5.99/month or $39.99/year after a 7-day free trial; the iPhone and iPad app on its own is free with no ads. If you start in Claude, the trial runs from your first question or import there, not from the day you connect. Plans and pricing sets out what Cloud adds.
Do expenses added in Claude show up in the Manilo app?
Entries Claude or Cursor saves land in the Manilo account you signed in with, so you see them in the iPhone app and on the web dashboard. For which account the assistant uses, see Connect Claude and other MCP clients.
Does Manilo connect Claude to my bank account?
Manilo never logs in to your bank, so new spending reaches Claude only through entries you make or a statement file you attach yourself. Privacy and your data covers the rest of what the assistant can read.