volo

building - a coding agent for your personal finances

[volo @machula]

Been building exactly this as an open source app based on @pidotdev. Drop in bank statements and receipts, the agent sorts them into a plain text ledger, then you just ask it questions. Every change is versioned, so you can undo anything.

https://t.co/m9JUFE6DjP

[@levelsio @levelsio]

A very fun exercise is to export all your bank accounts (as CSV) both personal and business and stock broker

And dump it all into Claude Code and ask it to make a little dashboard showing your spending

It's hard to know how much you actually spend over lots of accounts so this can help you understand that

You'll spend some time merging transactions (like company names change or their statement label changes), and categorizing, you can just do this by talking to Claude Code btw very easy, I also hooked it up to @xai Grok so it can use that to categorize mass transactions (very cheap)

The best part isn't the dashboard it makes but that once you have all the data collected, you can ask Claude Code lots of questions directly about your finances and learn stuff, like I learned:
- I was paying for some subscriptions for 2 years I forgot about ($$$)
- My US stocks charge me withholding tax (30%) on dividends, which I knew but never realized how much $$$ it was (which is why non-US citizens should buy UCITS ETFs not US stocks!)
- My pool remodeling was ridiculously expensive compared to the rest of the home remodeling and we got fleeced hard (that's life!), then the pool company caused a €9000 water leak that they won't pay (funny)
- I spent $400K on domains over the years, I should probably stop spending money on them, it's an addiction @marckohlbrugge gave me and it's way more than my gf's shopping
- My biggest monthly cost by far is AI at about $24K/month in GPU costs for Photo AI, but that's just how it is, I already got the cheapest rates possible, AI is pricey!
- My 2nd biggest cost is taxes, who would have thought???
- Travel is quite expensive, flying business class, getting nice hotels and regularly traveling adds up a lot!
- My business costs without AI (!) are extremely low, about $5K/month on revenue which is about 98% profit margin (!), with AI it goes up to $28K/mo or about 86% profit margin (still good!)
- Lawyers become quite an expense in this part of my life, you buy a house you pay a lawyer and notary, you register trademarks for your business you pay a lawyer, but they're a great thing to spend money on I think because they protect you from losing much more money than they cost!
- I started spending much more money since 2022 because of AI costs but also making much more money because of AI, so it's good
- My spending has remained remarkably consistent as a percentage of my net worth at "just" 5%/year, which is close to FIRE which is always my goal (don't spend over 3%/year of your net worth), in my case it's different cause I actually have company income, so it's more of a fun goal to be responsible with my money
- Around 2024 my life definitely switched from barely spending money and living as a digital nomad to buying a house and spending on that a lot, I knew a house was a money pit, but it's also a nice money pit and it helps me sleep better (great AC and bedroom), live healthier (home gym), and work better (coworking), so it's worth it
- I barely have any personal subscriptions except Netflix, YouTube and Spotify, I asked it to built a "Recurring subscriptions" box too so I can see what subs I have and cancel them

Try it!

[volo @machula]

@cloneisjun for sure! what is your setup?

[volo @machula]

I moved my personal finances from YNAB to plain text files, and a coding agent does the bookkeeping now. It remembers my preferences, and categorizing a month takes a couple of messages instead of an evening. Every change is a git commit, so I can see what it did and revert. Three months in, not going back. Anyone else using a coding agent for personal finances?

[volo @machula]

This is exactly why we migrated Accountant24 from a pi plugin to a proper desktop app, and it was worth it!

[Patrick Collison @patrickc]

I love agentic coding harnesses, but they shouldn't be primarily terminal-based. The terminal is great for quick and precise commands, but information density is extremely low and UI affordances are minimal. Maybe provision of TUIs is worthwhile for occasional use (when establishing a tunnel is too annoying, or something), but it feels very strange for this to be the default modality. It took a long time for dynamic language REPLs to break out of the terminal (Jupyter notebooks and similar); I hope we don't have to wait as long for the harnesses.

[volo @machula]

@patrickc This is exactly why we migrated Accountant24 from a pi plugin to a proper desktop app, and it was worth it! Give it a try

https://t.co/VwjvUDfSq7

[volo @machula]

Been building exactly this as an open source app based on @pidotdev. Drop in bank statements and receipts, the agent sorts them into a plain text ledger, then you just ask it questions. Every change is versioned, so you can undo anything.

https://t.co/m9JUFE6DjP

[volo @machula]

It also supports skills

[volo @machula]

Been building exactly this as an open source app based on @pidotdev. Drop in bank statements and receipts, the agent sorts them into a plain text ledger, then you just ask it questions. Every change is versioned, so you can undo anything.

https://t.co/m9JUFE6DjP

[@levelsio @levelsio]

A very fun exercise is to export all your bank accounts (as CSV) both personal and business and stock broker

And dump it all into Claude Code and ask it to make a little dashboard showing your spending

It's hard to know how much you actually spend over lots of accounts so this can help you understand that

You'll spend some time merging transactions (like company names change or their statement label changes), and categorizing, you can just do this by talking to Claude Code btw very easy, I also hooked it up to @xai Grok so it can use that to categorize mass transactions (very cheap)

The best part isn't the dashboard it makes but that once you have all the data collected, you can ask Claude Code lots of questions directly about your finances and learn stuff, like I learned:
- I was paying for some subscriptions for 2 years I forgot about ($$$)
- My US stocks charge me withholding tax (30%) on dividends, which I knew but never realized how much $$$ it was (which is why non-US citizens should buy UCITS ETFs not US stocks!)
- My pool remodeling was ridiculously expensive compared to the rest of the home remodeling and we got fleeced hard (that's life!), then the pool company caused a €9000 water leak that they won't pay (funny)
- I spent $400K on domains over the years, I should probably stop spending money on them, it's an addiction @marckohlbrugge gave me and it's way more than my gf's shopping
- My biggest monthly cost by far is AI at about $24K/month in GPU costs for Photo AI, but that's just how it is, I already got the cheapest rates possible, AI is pricey!
- My 2nd biggest cost is taxes, who would have thought???
- Travel is quite expensive, flying business class, getting nice hotels and regularly traveling adds up a lot!
- My business costs without AI (!) are extremely low, about $5K/month on revenue which is about 98% profit margin (!), with AI it goes up to $28K/mo or about 86% profit margin (still good!)
- Lawyers become quite an expense in this part of my life, you buy a house you pay a lawyer and notary, you register trademarks for your business you pay a lawyer, but they're a great thing to spend money on I think because they protect you from losing much more money than they cost!
- I started spending much more money since 2022 because of AI costs but also making much more money because of AI, so it's good
- My spending has remained remarkably consistent as a percentage of my net worth at "just" 5%/year, which is close to FIRE which is always my goal (don't spend over 3%/year of your net worth), in my case it's different cause I actually have company income, so it's more of a fun goal to be responsible with my money
- Around 2024 my life definitely switched from barely spending money and living as a digital nomad to buying a house and spending on that a lot, I knew a house was a money pit, but it's also a nice money pit and it helps me sleep better (great AC and bedroom), live healthier (home gym), and work better (coworking), so it's worth it
- I barely have any personal subscriptions except Netflix, YouTube and Spotify, I asked it to built a "Recurring subscriptions" box too so I can see what subs I have and cancel them

Try it!

[volo @machula]

@levelsio @pidotdev It also supports skills

[volo @machula]

Been building exactly this as an open source app based on @pidotdev. Same loop: drop in bank statements and receipts, the agent sorts them into a plain text ledger, then you just ask it questions. Every change is versioned with git, so you can undo anything.

https://t.co/bouH5ABLCY

[volo @machula]

@andrewchen I’ve been working on a similar idea with Accountant24, an open-source personal accounting agent.

https://t.co/m9JUFE6DjP

It lets you manage personal accounting in natural language, keeps the ledger as plain-text hledger files, tracks changes with git, and has persistent memory

[volo @machula]

@bentlegen Nice one! Doing the same thing with Pi for accounting. Built a focused agent that wraps hledger CLI and helps manage personal budget. Went with no skills on mine - just tools and a fat system prompt. Do you find the skill layer helpful?

[volo @machula]

@jameesy @kepano This is exactly why I didn't start using Obsidian on the first and second try - too many things at once. On the third attempt, the first thing I did was hide the ribbon

[volo @machula]

@LiebmannMichael how it is comparing to o1/o3?

[volo @machula]

@LiebmannMichael @SlackHQ @connery_io Game-changer!

[Michael Liebmann @LiebmannMichael]

Who dares to have an AI make DB changes based on a Slack chat?

We built the AI assistant '@connery_io’ for Slack that lets you chat with your database – and it also WRITES changes into it.

You can now define AI-powered database actions from @SlackHQ that allow controlled READ/WRITE access for – so AI can update data, but only within the boundaries you set.

Why This Matters
🚯 No more manual SQL edits for routine updates.
♻️ Business teams can self-serve without risking unintended DB changes.
👀 Automation with human-in-the-loop — keep humans in control while speeding up workflows.

How It Works
1️⃣ Query: Ask AI assistant a question in Slack (“Show me all customers on a free plan.”)

2️⃣ Action: Request AI to make a change to your DB, like:
- Update customer addresses based on CRM records
- Change subscription plans for a segment of users
- Mark unpaid invoices as reviewed after approval

3️⃣ Human-in-the-Loop Approval: Approve AI-detected changes to identified record(s).

Key Features
✅ Scoped Permissions – You define what data AI can read or edit.

🔄 Self-Correcting SQL – AI adjusts queries if they fail.

🛠️ Customizable Actions – Create safe, repeatable workflows inside Slack.

📊 Drill-Downs & Reports – Combine read + write actions for deeper insights.

We’re looking for beta testers to explore AI-assisted DB updates in Slack. If this sounds useful, join the beta here:
👉 https://t.co/JMnLCQmZDv

What database actions would save your team the most time? 🚀

[volo @machula]

@LiebmannMichael Awesome stuff!

[Michael Liebmann @LiebmannMichael]

Two AI models working together in Slack to chat with your database
- Connery AI assistant: plans and interprets results like a co-pilot and calls AI actions
- SQL generating AI: gets DB schema, creates SQL and runs it
- Self-correction mechanism
- Data drill-downs with chat memory
- Open and extensible
- 100% @SlackHQ, no new tools

More details: https://t.co/JMnLCQmZDv

Signup to our beta waitlist for early access. Love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

[Андрій Садовий @AndriySadovyi]

After today’s 🇷🇺 attack, the only person in this photo who survived is the man.
Mother Yevheniya and her three daughters — Yaryna, Daryna, and Emiliya — were killed.
Standing in the back is Yaryna Bazylevych. She was 21 y.o. Yaryna worked in our office for “Youth Capital 2025”

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Because Russia bombed the kids with cancer.

[Ihor Lachenkov @igorlachenkov]

Today russia hit "Ohmatdyt" children’s hospital with a rocket.

The National Children's Specialized Hospital "Ohmatdyt" is the largest children's hospital in Ukraine, where more than 20,000 children from all over the country are treated every year.

[Ihor Lachenkov @igorlachenkov]

This is a recording from a home improvement hypermarket in Kharkiv during a Russian air strike on Saturday afternoon.

At least 14 people were killed. The bodies of 7 people are still being searched for.