"Use this skill for service operations only. DO NOT use this skill for CLI implementation lifecycle work such as creating, testing, updating, troubleshooting, validating, removing, or documenting the CLI tool itself; delegate those tasks to cli-tool-expert. MANDATORY: Execute monarch operations using the `monarch` CLI tool. CLI for Monarch Money personal finance -- accounts, transactions, budgets, cashflow, categories, tags, institutions, merchants, and transaction rules. Triggers: monarch, monarch cli, monarch money, monarch accounts, monarch transactions, monarch budget, check my finances, my accounts, my transactions, monarch cashflow, monarch categories, monarch rules, monarch transaction rules, create monarch rule, delete monarch rule, list monarch rules"
Resources
6Install
npx skillscat add adbertram/cli-tools/monarch-cli Install via the SkillsCat registry.
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Check auth status | monarch auth status |
| List accounts | monarch accounts list --table |
| List transactions (last 30d) | monarch transactions list --days 30 --table |
| Search transactions | monarch transactions list --search "Amazon" --table |
| Needs-review transactions | monarch transactions list --needs-review --days 30 --table |
| Already-reviewed transactions | monarch transactions list --reviewed --days 30 --table |
| View budgets this month | monarch budgets list --month 2024-01 --table |
| View cashflow summary | monarch cashflow summary --table |
| Annual/range income + expense totals | monarch cashflow summary --start 2025-01-01 --end 2025-12-31 --table |
| Per-category-group totals for a range | monarch cashflow list --start 2025-01-01 --end 2025-12-31 --table |
| Income group total only | monarch cashflow list --start 2025-01-01 --end 2025-12-31 --filter "group:Income" |
| List categories | monarch categories list --table |
| Sync accounts | monarch accounts sync --wait |
| List transaction rules | monarch rules list --table |
| Get one rule | monarch rules get <rule-id> |
| Create a rule (merchant -> category) | monarch rules create --merchant contains:amazon --set-category <cat-id> |
| Update a rule | monarch rules update <rule-id> --set-category <new-cat-id> |
| Delete a rule | monarch rules delete <rule-id> --force |
| Clear response cache | monarch cache clear |
| </quick_start> |
The reviewer agent is project-scoped to /Users/adam/Dropbox/GitRepos/Agents/Accountant. It is defined at .claude/agents/monarch-transaction-reviewer.md and .codex/agents/monarch-transaction-reviewer.toml inside that project, and its domain skill is symlinked into that project's skill roots. Start a Monarch review or audit session from the Accountant project. A session started elsewhere cannot spawn the agent, and the Skill tool returns Unknown skill for its domain skill.
For these review workflows, do not read usage.json, run monarch commands, list transactions, load categories, or perform setup in the parent session before spawning the reviewer. The reviewer agent owns those steps.
The subagent prompt must be complete and self-contained, must not use fork_context, and must explicitly reference /Users/adam/Dropbox/.agents/skills/agent-expert/references/global-standards.md.
| Renderer | Use it when | Columns |
|---|---|---|
scripts/build-output.sh |
The run proposes per-row category changes and Adam approves rows for write-back through apply-approved-updates.sh. |
# / Vendor / Amount / Description / Current Category / Suggested Category / Needs Input / Recommended Rule |
scripts/build-audit-output.sh |
The run is a report-only transaction audit (--audit) or recurring-expense audit (--recurring-audit). It validates every source ID and reconciliation count and writes nothing back to Monarch. |
Transaction audit: # / Date / Account / Merchant / Amount / Current Category / Bucket / Recommended Category / Confidence / Evidence; recurring audit: stable name, aliases, cadence, observations, projection, evidence, status |
Choose the audit renderer when the request asks for an audit, a classification report, a business-versus-personal split, or a bucket breakdown with evidence. Choose the review renderer when the request asks to review, categorize, recategorize, or clean up transactions for approval.
The two renderers are exclusive. Do not merge their columns, and do not run the audit renderer to collect approvals; it emits no rule commands and drives no write-back path.
If a run needs a column that neither renderer supports, extend the matching script in this repo-owned bundle and add a test under tests/. Do not render that run by hand.
WRITE ON FEEDBACK. Whenever Adam gives feedback that generalizes — phrased as "always", "never", "from now on", "stop doing X", "don't recommend a rule for Y", or a correction with reasoning that applies beyond the single transaction — append or update the relevant section of /Users/adam/Dropbox/GitRepos/cli-tools/_repo/skills/monarch-cli/rules.md BEFORE ending the review. The repo-owned cli-tools skill bundle is the source of truth for Monarch reviewer scripts and policy. Do not create or edit runtime-projected Monarch skill copies for reviewer policy. Mention each rule added or changed in the work summary.
Do not invent rules from a single category change. Only persist what Adam has explicitly stated or unmistakably framed as a durable preference.
- PRIMARY -- totals:
monarch cashflow summary --start <YYYY-MM-DD> --end <YYYY-MM-DD>returnssumIncome,sumExpense,savings, andsavingsRatefor the range. With no dates it summarizes the current month. - PRIMARY -- per-group breakdown:
monarch cashflow list --start <d> --end <d>returns one row per category group withid,group, andsum. Add--filter "group:Income"to isolate the Income group total (income groups are positive; expense groups are negative). - FALLBACK / cross-check: sum
monarch transactions list --category <id> --start <d> --end <d> --limit 5000across the Income-group categories (Paychecks, Interest, Business Income, Other Income). Use this only to validate the cashflow figure; the cashflow aggregates are the primary source.
Caveat (self-employed): the "Business Income" category is gross business deposits, not Schedule C net income. Do not treat the cashflow income total as taxable/net income for a self-employed user -- business expenses are tracked separately and are not netted out here.