dbu6

dbu6 is a self-hosted double-entry bookkeeping application for personal finances. Your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, or Pi) can import your bank and credit card statements, convert the rows into balanced journal entries, categorize transactions, and verify every statement against the balances computed in your books before posting anything.

• Import statements from any bank or card. You can import PDF, Excel, CSV, or text statements from any date range and in any order. When dbu6 cannot read a statement layout yet, your coding agent writes a parser for that layout so dbu6 can import future statements without the agent.
• One plan and one round of questions. The agent proposes a plan first and does not change anything until you approve it. After you approve the plan, the agent processes your statements and asks all of its remaining questions in a single message. It offers to turn your answers into rules so it does not ask the same questions again, and adds only the ones you agree to.
• Categorized by your rules and your agent. dbu6 applies your categorization rules first, and then your coding agent categorizes the remaining transactions using your existing AI subscription.
• Checked against statement balances. dbu6 rejects an import if the transaction rows do not add up to the balances printed on the statement, and no entries are posted to your books until the computed balances equal the statement balances.
• Double-entry books with standard reports. dbu6 includes reports for your trial balance, balance sheet, income statement, and net worth over time, and you can also write custom reports.
• Local storage in a single folder. dbu6 stores your data locally in one SQLite database with plain-text configuration files instead of a cloud service. When your agent processes statements, it sends them only to the AI model that it is configured to use.

You need Node.js 22.18 or newer with npm (git is optional). If you plan to import statements, you also need uv and pdftotext (from poppler). You can use a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, or Pi) to do the bookkeeping. If you do not use an agent, you can use the step-by-step screens in dbu6 to import statement layouts that dbu6 already supports, and dbu6 will categorize transactions using only your rules.

To use a coding agent with dbu6, you must install the Sapporta agent skill once per machine by running the npx skills add command in Install dbu6. The sapporta CLI that the skill calls is included with dbu6, and you can run npx dbu6 check to confirm that it is configured.

npm init @dbu6 my-books
cd my-books
npx dbu6 dev

npm init @dbu6 creates the folder, installs dbu6, and initializes the database. npx dbu6 dev starts the local web server so you can open http://localhost:2345 and sign up.

To import your statements with an agent, drop your statement files from any bank, card, or date range onto Let's set up your books, and click Add N files to my books. Your coding agent opens in a terminal and replies with a plan, and it does not change anything until you approve that plan. After you approve it, the agent sets up each bank and card account, imports and categorizes the transactions, tailors the chart of accounts to your spending, and resolves duplicates and failing balance checks. If the agent cannot resolve an item from the statements, it asks you in one round of questions. You can then post the entries to your books on the Review screen, or you can ask the agent to post them. Once your books contain entries, dbu6 opens on the Overview screen, which shows the current month's income, spending, and savings, your net worth, and the date each account's books run until.

If you work without a coding agent, you can complete the same setup one screen at a time to configure your chart of accounts, add a bank or card account with its start date, upload statements, set opening balances, and review the categorized entries.

When dbu6 hands a task to your agent, it writes an agent token to .env.agent if the folder does not already have a valid one. To create a token or check the agent's access yourself, run:

npx dbu6 agent env
npx sapporta api get /api/auth-context

npx dbu6 agent env writes a new token to the gitignored .env.agent file, and npx sapporta api get /api/auth-context prints the user and workspace associated with that token. npx sapporta runs the copy of the Sapporta CLI bundled with dbu6, so you do not need to install a separate package.

See Install dbu6 for complete installation instructions, everyday commands, and backup procedures.

dbu6 is published on npm under the dbu6 organization:

• @dbu6/app contains the web application, the dbu6 CLI, the statement parsers, and the documentation guides, and it is the only dependency in a books folder.
• @dbu6/create is the initializer package that npm init @dbu6 runs. It only runs dbu6 init from the matching version of @dbu6/app. To pin a version when creating a folder, run npm init @dbu6@1.2.3 my-books.

The documentation is available at https://dbu6.com/docs/:

• What dbu6 does — what reports dbu6 provides and how statement imports work from start to finish.
• Bookkeeping basics — definitions of the bookkeeping terms used in dbu6 for anyone new to double-entry accounting.
• Install dbu6 — a prompt you can give your coding agent to install dbu6, along with prerequisites, folder setup, starting the app, connecting the agent, and backups.
• Set up your books with your coding agent — a message-by-message walkthrough of importing your first batch of statements and reviewing the resulting entries.
• Keep your books up to date — how to import new statements each month.
• Things to ask your agent — examples of asking your agent to finish reviewing entries, record cash, deposits, investments and loans, update categories, answer questions about your finances, and write new reports.
• What your agent does on its own — which actions are covered when you approve a plan, which actions require confirmation first, what the agent never changes, and what data is sent to your AI model.
• Your books — how the books folder, accounts, and journal entries are structured, and which files you can edit directly.
• Importing statements — statement parsers, how your agent writes parsers for unsupported layouts, freeform transactions, and balance checks.
• Categorization — how your mapping rules work and how your agent categorizes the remaining transactions.
• Reports — built-in reports, custom reports, and exporting your books to hledger.
• Doing it by hand — the step-by-step screens in the web app, for doing each step yourself instead of the agent run.

In this repository:

• DBU6-BOOKS.md — the guide and CLI commands for coding agents working in a books folder.
• DEPLOYMENT.md — instructions for running dbu6 on a server.
• DEVELOPMENT.md — instructions for developing dbu6.

MIT