mcp-buchhaltungsbutler

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An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes the BuchhaltungsButler API (v1) — a German bookkeeping/accounting SaaS — as a set of curated, token-efficient tools for LLM agents.

Unofficial, community project. Not affiliated with or endorsed by BuchhaltungsButler.

Built for agents, not just wrapped from the API

• 30 tools covering all 48 endpoints — batch, list, and singular variants of the same action are merged into one tool, so your context window isn't full of near-duplicate tool definitions.
• Lean by default — list tools return trimmed, LLM-friendly fields out of the box; pass full: true whenever you need the complete record.
• No array-juggling — invoice line items, posting splits, and other API quirks are exposed as clean, ordinary objects. No more keeping five parallel arrays in sync by hand.
• Always in sync with the spec — endpoint definitions are generated straight from BuchhaltungsButler's official API spec, not hand-maintained.

Setup

1. npm install
2. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in BB_API_CLIENT, BB_API_SECRET, BB_API_KEY (BuchhaltungsButler → Settings → API).
3. npm test — runs against mocked HTTP responses, no live credentials needed.
4. npm run build && npm start — or npm run dev for a quick local run without building first.

npm run generate regenerates src/bb-client/generated/endpoints.ts from the vendored spec (spec/buchhaltungsbutler-v1.json); the output is already committed, so this is only needed after updating the spec file itself.

Using with an MCP client

.env only covers local npm run dev/npm start runs. A real MCP client (e.g. Claude Desktop) launches the server itself and won't read .env — pass credentials via the client's own env config instead. Example claude_desktop_config.json entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buchhaltungsbutler": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-buchhaltungsbutler/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "BB_API_CLIENT": "your-api-client",
        "BB_API_SECRET": "your-api-secret",
        "BB_API_KEY": "your-customer-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run npm run build first so dist/index.js exists.

Tools

Category	Tools
Accounts	list_accounts, create_account
Comments	add_comment
Cost Locations	list_cost_locations, manage_cost_location
Contacts (Debtors/Creditors)	list_contacts, create_contacts, update_contact
Posting Accounts	list_posting_accounts, manage_posting_account
Receipts	list_receipts, get_receipt, create_receipts, upload_receipt, set_receipt_deleted, get_receipt_transactions
Transactions	list_transactions, get_transaction, create_transactions, assign_receipts_to_transactions, unassign_receipt, get_transaction_receipts
Postings	list_postings, add_receipt_postings, add_transaction_postings, add_free_postings, unconfirm_posting, assign_receipt_to_free_posting
Invoices	create_invoice, create_einvoice

Architecture

src/
  config.ts              # env var loading, fail-fast validation
  bb-client/
    generated/            # spec-derived endpoint metadata (regenerate with npm run generate)
    client.ts              # generic HTTP client: auth, api_key injection, error mapping
  formatting/trim.ts       # trims list responses to LLM-friendly fields
  tools/                   # one file per category, curated MCP tools on top of the client
  server.ts, index.ts      # MCP server bootstrap (stdio)
scripts/generate-client.ts # parses spec/buchhaltungsbutler-v1.json into src/bb-client/generated/

Single-tenant, local stdio transport only — no remote hosting, no multi-tenant support, no OAuth. Credentials never reach the model; they're injected into requests by the client layer from env vars.

Status

All 48 BuchhaltungsButler endpoints are covered by the 30 tools above, tested against mocked HTTP responses. Not yet verified against a live account — if you hit an unexpected error, especially on the four *_id_by_customer-suffixed endpoints (get_receipt, set_receipt_deleted, get_transaction) or on add_receipt_postings/add_transaction_postings with a mixed-presence cost-location batch, please open an issue.

Development

git clone https://github.com/si0nDE/mcp-buchhaltungsbutler.git && cd mcp-buchhaltungsbutler
npm install
npm test           # vitest run
npm run build       # tsc, strict mode

License

MIT + Commons Clause — free to use (including commercially, e.g. for your own bookkeeping), modify, and contribute to. The one thing it doesn't permit is reselling this software or offering it as a paid hosted/managed service. If you find it useful, consider supporting development instead of building a rival funding page around it.