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Talk to your money

Every other finance app shows you what you spent. Ray tells you what to do about it—using your real bank data, running locally on your machine.

1,757 installs this month

Loved by users

Open Source

MIT Licensed · Fully Auditable

ray — zsh

~ $ ray status

friday, may 8

net worth $255,870 +$133

gold card -$1,830 · chase savings $12,500 · total checking $4,200 · 401(k) $67,000 · individual $34,000

spending $3,608 this month · $1,728 more than last month

shopping +$850 · food & drink +$396 · services +$145 · personal care +$130

████████████░░░░ shopping 75%

███████░░░░░░░░░ food & drink 44%

score 76/100 · 3d no dining

ray · synced 1h ago · ctrl+c to exit

What makes Ray different

Tell Ray once. It remembers everything.

Ray keeps a persistent profile of your life — family, income, goals, strategy, and key decisions. That’s why it can tell you what to do, not just show you what you spent. The advice you get on day 30 is nothing like day one, because Ray remembers everything that happened on days 1 through 29.

Family situation

Married, two kids, one income

Career stage

Just started a new job at $95k

Financial goals

Pay off student loans by 2027

Risk tolerance

Conservative — no crypto

Life events

Baby due in March, buying a house

Past decisions

We cut DoorDash last month

generic AI vs ray

❯ how should I deal with my debt?

chatgpt

You should aim to save 15–20% of your income. Consider building a 3–6 month emergency fund, then focus on paying off high-interest debt.

ray

You've got $34,200 in debt across two cards and a car loan. At $95k with two kids and a baby coming in March, I'd pause the Japan fund and throw that $440/mo at the Chase card — it's at 24.9%. That clears it by September and frees up $340/mo before the baby arrives.

❯ can I take this trip to Tahoe?

chatgpt

A weekend trip can cost $500–$2,000 depending on the destination. Make sure it fits your budget and doesn't derail your savings goals.

ray

Tahoe would run about $1,200 with the Airbnb and gas. You can swing it, but it'll push your 401k contribution below the $23,000 max this year — you'd need to bump it back to 18% in May to catch up. Want me to map that out?

❯ is my rent too high?

chatgpt

It depends on your income, expenses, and financial goals. Generally, you should avoid spending more than 30% of income on housing.

ray

Your rent is $2,400 against $6,100 take-home — that's 39%, which is high. But you told me last week you're planning to move in with your partner in June. Once you split rent, housing drops to 22% and frees up $900/mo for the student loan blitz.

You know what you spent.
Now what?

Every finance tool ever built is great at showing you the past. None of them tell you what to do next. That’s the gap Ray fills.

The Apps

Dashboards show. They don't tell.

Monarch, Copilot, YNAB, Mint — they sort your transactions into pie charts and send you notifications. They're great at showing you what you spent. Then they stop. What to do about it is still your job. And when your subscription expires, so does your data.

The Spreadsheets

Powerful, but you still do all the work.

You built the perfect spreadsheet once. Formulas, projections, a debt payoff timeline. Even with Tiller syncing your data, you're still the one analyzing rows, updating formulas, and deciding what any of it means. The spreadsheet never tells you what to do next, either.

Then there’s Ray

The only one that actually tells you what to do.

Ask “can I afford this?” and you don’t get another chart — you get a yes, a no, or a “not yet, and here’s what would change that.” Ray factors in your real situation, queries your actual bank data, and hands you a decision. It remembers your goals, your family, your strategy, and every call you’ve made together. Every conversation ends with a next move.

How it works

01

Install in seconds

One npm command. No accounts, no sign-ups, no app store.

$npm install -g ray-finance
02

Connect your bank

Securely link your accounts through Plaid. Bank-level encryption.

$ray link
03

Ask anything

Get instant, AI-powered answers about your spending, savings goals, subscriptions, and financial health.

$Am I on track to save $10k?

What Ray can do

Not a dashboard. Not a chatbot. An advisor that tells you what to do.

Ray has 30+ tools that query your real bank data, run the math, and hand you the next move — not another chart.

"Can I afford to take this trip?"

Ray projects your balance forward based on actual income and spending patterns. See the impact before you commit.

"How's my score today?"

A daily 0-100 behavior score with streaks and unlockable achievements. No restaurants for a week? That's Kitchen Hero. Five zero-spend days? Monk Mode. It turns financial discipline into a game you actually want to play.

"What did we decide last time?"

Ray remembers your goals, preferences, life events, and past decisions. Every conversation builds on the last one.

"What's my net worth right now?"

Ray pulls balances across every linked account — checking, savings, credit cards, loans — and gives you one number. Updated every time you ask.

"Did anything unusual hit my account this week?"

Ray scans recent transactions for anomalies — unexpected charges, duplicate payments, amounts that don't match your patterns. Like a financial advisor who actually checks.

"Can you audit to make sure my tenants have paid for the past 12 months?"

Ray searches your real transaction history, flags gaps, and gives you a straight answer. Landlord, freelancer, whatever — if the data is in your bank, Ray can check it.

Privacy

Your financial data is never stored outside your machine.

Ray runs entirely on your computer. There’s no cloud, no account, no server storing your data. Your financial history lives in an encrypted database on your hard drive, and your name is scrubbed before anything reaches the AI.

Raw financial data

Sarah Chen earns $85k at Acme Corp.

James manages the household budget.

Checking balance: $4,802

Visa balance: -$1,200 @ 22.99% APR

PII in local databaseWhat the AI receives

Encrypted at rest

Your data is encrypted on disk with the same standard used by banks. No one else can read it.

view source

No cloud storage

Everything stays in ~/.ray on your machine. No servers or security breaches to worry about.

Fully auditable

Every AI tool call is logged locally. You can see exactly what data was accessed and when.

view source

Two outbound calls

Plaid for bank sync, your AI provider for chat (PII-masked). That's it. No telemetry. No analytics.

view source

Integrations

Works with your bank, brokerage, and lender.

Ray connects to 12,000+ financial institutions through Plaid — from major banks to local credit unions.

Chase
Bank of America
Wells Fargo
Capital One
American Express
Fidelity
Charles Schwab
Robinhood
Vanguard
SoFi
Ally
PayPal
Venmo
Discover

And 12,000+ more institutions supported via Plaid

Pricing

Free forever. Or skip the setup.

Two ways to run Ray. Both keep your data local.

full control

Bring Your Own Keys

Free and open source forever

$0/forever

  • Open source, MIT licensed
  • Your own AI key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, etc.)
  • Your own Plaid (US/Canada) or Bridge (Europe) credentials
  • Full model selection
  • All features included
View source on GitHub
Steps to self-host~2 weeks

Get an AI API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or run Ollama locally)

~5 min

Create Plaid developer account

~5 min

Apply for Plaid production access

1-2 weeks

Run ray setup, paste keys

~5 min

Run ray link to connect bank

~2 min

~20 min of work + 1-2 week wait for Plaid approval

most popular

Ray Pro

Just install and go

$10/month

  • AI and bank connection included
  • Connect your accounts in seconds
  • Your data stays on your machine
  • All features, no limits
  • Cancel anytime
Steps to sign up~5 min

Run ray setup to get your key

~2 min

Run ray link to connect bank

~1 min

Total: ~3 minutes

FAQ

Common questions about Ray

What does Ray do?

Every other finance app shows you what you spent. Ray tells you what to do about it. It's an AI financial advisor that connects to your bank via Plaid and learns your full situation — family, income, goals, strategy, and key decisions. Ask "can I afford this trip?" or "should I pay off debt or invest?" and Ray gives you a real recommendation grounded in your actual numbers, not generic advice. Every answer ends with a next move, not another chart.

How does Ray keep my financial data private?

Ray runs entirely on your computer. Your financial data is stored in an encrypted SQLite database on your machine — there's no cloud account, no server, and no company storing your bank data. When Ray uses AI, it strips personally identifiable information before sending anything to the AI model. It's open source (MIT licensed) so you can verify this yourself.

How is Ray different from Monarch, Copilot, or YNAB?

Those apps show you what happened. They sort your transactions into pie charts and send you notifications — and the work of figuring out what to do with that information is still yours. Ray closes that loop. Ask "how should I tackle my debt?" and instead of a chart of your minimum payments, Ray says "throw $440/mo at the Chase card first — it's at 24.9% — that clears it by September." Ray also keeps all data local on your machine instead of on cloud servers, and can be self-hosted for free.

What can I ask Ray?

Anything about your finances. Example questions: "Can I afford to take this trip?", "Am I on track to save $10k by December?", "What's my monthly burn rate?", "Did anything unusual hit my account this week?", and "How much should I set aside for quarterly taxes?" Ray has 30+ tools that query your real financial data to give accurate answers. See more example prompts →

How much does Ray cost?

Ray has two plans. The free plan is fully open source (MIT licensed) — you install it with npm, bring your own AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint) and your own Plaid credentials for bank access. You pay your provider directly for AI usage, which is typically $1–3/month. The tradeoff is setup: Plaid production access requires a business entity, isn't guaranteed, and takes 1–2 weeks if approved. Ray Pro is $10/month and includes everything — AI and bank connectivity are built in, so you just install and connect your accounts in minutes. Both plans are the same app with the same features, and both keep all your financial data local on your machine. The only difference is whether you manage your own API keys or let Ray handle it.

Which banks does Ray work with?

Ray connects to 12,000+ financial institutions through Plaid — including Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Capital One, American Express, Fidelity, Schwab, Robinhood, Vanguard, SoFi, Ally, and thousands more. If your bank works with Plaid, it works with Ray.

Stop tracking.
Start deciding.

Every other finance app shows you what you spent. Ray tells you what to do. Free, open source, and takes five minutes to set up.

View on GitHubCompare plans

“I tried every finance app, built every spreadsheet, and talked to a financial advisor who charged $200/hr to tell me things I already knew. Nothing actually helped me make better decisions with my own money. So I built the thing I wanted — an advisor that knows my real numbers, runs locally, and is honest enough to open‑source.”

— Clark Dinnison, creator of Ray