reckoner

Reckoner

OpenAI just launched a $200/mo, US-only, bank-linked finance assistant. Reckoner does the same job — free, open-source, and yours to run on your own machine.

Reckoner itself is free and open-source (MIT). It runs through an agentic coding assistant that you bring — Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or a local-model agent (e.g. an open-weight model run via Ollama). The agent is the only piece with its own cost or setup; a local model makes the whole thing free and fully offline. No Plaid, no account linking, no Reckoner subscription. Works with any bank, any country, any statement format. You own the output — a plain Excel file with live formulas, plus a plain-text profile that is your financial brain.

Reckoner does two things:

1. Tracks — turn messy bank/card/brokerage statements into one clean, formula-driven money tracker (.xlsx).
2. Advises — act as a grounded financial planning copilot: emergency fund, house down payment, debt vs investing, budget reviews — anchored to your goals and risk tolerance, explaining the tradeoffs so you actually learn.

Disclaimer: Reckoner is an educational planning tool, not a licensed financial, tax, or legal advisor. Verify big decisions with a qualified professional.

---

Why it's different

	OpenAI's finance assistant	Reckoner
Cost	Paid subscription tier	Free & open-source (MIT) — you bring your own AI agent
AI engine	Their model only	Any agent: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or a local open-weight model
Where your data goes	Linked via a third party (Plaid)	No bank linking; fully offline if you run a local model
Banks	A fixed integration list	Any bank, any country, any format
Region	US only (at launch)	Anywhere
Output	Hosted dashboard	An .xlsx you own + a profile you control
Customizable	Limited	Fully — categories, plan, goals, constraints are all yours

The real magic is correct classification: Reckoner does not double-count a purchase and the credit-card payment that later pays it off, and it keeps transfers between your own accounts out of your "spending" total. That one thing is what makes most DIY trackers lie to you.

How it works

your statements  ──►  your agent reads + classifies each line  ──►  build_tracker.py  ──►  Money_Tracker.xlsx
   (CSV/PDF/                (the AI does the hard part)             (deterministic)        (Summary +
    screenshot/                                                                          All Payments +
    pasted text)                                                                         Monthly Plan)

your profile.md  ──►  reckoner-advisor reads your goals + the tracker  ──►  grounded planning answers

• reckoner-tracker — reads statements, classifies every transaction, runs the Python builder.
• reckoner-advisor — reads your profile.md (and the latest tracker) and helps you plan, grounded in your real numbers.
• Everything personal lives in two files you own and edit: config.json (tracker settings) and profile.md (your goals). Both are gitignored.

Install

Requires Python 3 and an agentic coding assistant — Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or a local-model agent.

Claude Code (recommended) — as a plugin

Reckoner ships as a Claude Code plugin. Add the marketplace and install it:

/plugin marketplace add Khizar2004/Reckoner
/plugin install reckoner@reckoner

That registers both skills (reckoner-tracker, reckoner-advisor). Then clone the repo so your statements, config, and output live in one place, and install the one Python dependency:

git clone https://github.com/Khizar2004/Reckoner.git
cd Reckoner
pip install -r requirements.txt

Other agents (Codex, Cursor, local models)

Clone and pip install -r requirements.txt as above, then point your agent at the repo — it reads AGENTS.md, which directs it to the SKILL.md files under skills/. Nothing is Claude-specific; build_tracker.py is plain Python that needs no AI at all.

Fallback — manual skill install

No plugin manager? ./install.sh symlinks both skills into ~/.claude/skills/ (re-run with --force to replace).

First run — guided setup

You don't have to edit any config by hand. The first time you use Reckoner, open your agent in the repo folder and just say:

"Set me up" — or drop in your statements, or ask a money question.

The assistant runs a short setup interview (currency, accounts, categories, then your income, goals, and risk tolerance) and writes your config.json and profile.md for you. Everything it creates stays on your machine and is gitignored — it never gets committed or uploaded.

Prefer to fill them in yourself? Copy the templates and edit: