Connect ChatGPT, Claude, or Kimi.
Connecting your chat to Mintro takes about a minute, and you only do it once. In claude.ai or ChatGPT, you add Mintro as a connector and sign in. In any other chat, you create a key in the Mintro app and paste a short setup into the chat. After that you can say “file this week,” and your agent puts each purchase in the right envelope for you. This page is written so you can paste the whole thing into your chat and let it set itself up.
The easy way: add Mintro as a connector.
In claude.ai or ChatGPT, add a custom connector with the address below, and sign in to Mintro when it asks. There is no key to copy, and you choose which budget the chat can reach.
claude.ai · Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
ChatGPT · Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Developer mode → Create
If your chat can’t add a connector, use a key.
There are two ways to connect with a key. Both reach the same budget and can do the same things. If your app lets you add an MCP server with a custom header, add Mintro as tools (the second way below). If it doesn’t, give the chat your key and point it at the setup docs (the first way). Nothing is missing either way.
1. Plain HTTP: any agent that can make a web request
All you need is a key and the address of Mintro’s API. There is no connector, plugin, or install. This is known to work in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex Desktop, Cursor, and anything with a shell or a scripting tool. The one that can’t do it is the built-in code tool in ChatGPT in the browser, because it has no internet access.
That is the whole protocol: every request carries your key as a bearer token. Point your agent at llms.txt below and it will find its own way around.
2. MCP: if your app supports it
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP client that lets you set a header can add Mintro as native tools with a key:
This needs less typing and reaches the same data. If your app can’t add connectors (some business and enterprise accounts don’t allow them), use plain HTTP above instead. You won’t lose anything.
For the agent
https://api.mintro.money/llms.txt: an overview written for agents
https://api.mintro.money/openapi.json: every operation, machine-readable
First jobs
connect my bank
set up envelopes for my life. Ask me questions first.
file this week's inbox
what's cashflow looking like
Your agent can start linking a bank, but only you ever type your bank login, and only on Plaid’s own page, never in a chat.
Connecting your bank
Connect your bank in the Mintro app, on Plaid’s own page. Your login never goes to the chat, and never to us. Nothing from the bank is added to a budget until you tell Mintro what each account is. For a bank Plaid does not cover, download a transaction export from your bank’s website (a CSV file is fine) and give the file to your agent. It imports every transaction, skips any it already has, and sorts them like everything else.
here's my bank export: import it and file everything
Example prompts
Copy these into any connected agent, or say the same thing in your own words. The agent reads the documentation, so you don’t have to.
file everything in the inbox. Split anything that mixes groceries and household.
set monthly targets from my last three months of spending, then tell me the reasoning
every Sunday: file the week, compare each envelope to its target, and message me the three that need attention
build me a one-page screen for my budget that runs on my laptop. My key stays in an env var.
file my Visa like YNAB would: purchases to their envelopes, payments as transfers, refunds back where they came from, then tell me what I owe on the card
set up my recurring bills (mortgage, car, insurance), then enter them each month and reconcile them when the real transactions post
export my whole budget and save it with my backups
The pattern is always the same: you decide what the envelopes are, and ChatGPT puts your transactions into them. Because the budget is kept in Mintro, the next chat picks up where the last one stopped.
Roll your own
The app you sign in to is built on the same calls ChatGPT uses, so whatever the app does, the chat can do. ChatGPT can also build extra screens on those calls, such as a private view, a report, or a display for the kitchen. Start from llms.txt, or give the chat one of the ready-made screen templates to restyle. Keep your key out of any code that runs in a published web page.
Budgets
A budget is the top level: it has its own envelopes and its own entries. Keep as many as you like, such as this year and last year, or the household and a side business. You can start a new one at any time without losing the old one. Budgets are free and unlimited; only bank connections cost money. Each budget holds its own accounts, and nothing in one shows up in another. Group envelopes into categories to keep a long budget readable. Categories are only for display: Mintro never acts on them.
Keys
Give the key to your agent once, then let the agent keep it somewhere other than the chat: an environment variable, a secret store, or the app’s own credential settings. The key opens your budget, so pasting it into every message is the one place it shouldn’t live.
Each key is limited to what you allow (budget:read, budget:write, connections:read, connections:write, webhooks:manage), and you create one key per agent. A key lasts ninety days from its first use. Before it runs out, rotate it in Settings → Agents and give your agent the new one. A key that has expired stops your agent with an authentication error, which can look like a broken connection. Sign in at app.mintro.money to create, rotate, and revoke your own keys.