Using finkpr from Claude — the plugin

This is the second way in. Most people start in Telegram or WhatsApp, where there is nothing to install. The plugin is for people who already work in Claude: your model, your context, your cost, nothing metered here.

The plugin’s commands still carry the product’s old name (countbean:). They are the commands you type, so they are shown exactly as they are.

1. Have a book

Sign up, confirm your email and create a book — steps 1 to 3 of getting started. On the last screen, open Advanced instead of connecting a phone, or choose Skip for now — open my book.

2. Connect Claude

In Claude, run /countbean:init. It shows you a short code and a link, you open the link, choose which book to connect, and approve. Nothing is pasted and no key is ever shown.

If your browser is on another computer, /countbean:connect takes a key instead: open your book, Connect Claude → Create key, and paste the line it gives you. The key is shown once.

Do not pass a control_url. connect_book rejects an explicit one even when it is the correct /v1/books/<id>/api URL printed on the book page. Let the plugin resolve the endpoint.

Either path stores the connection in ~/.countbean/credentials.json, readable only by you, and takes effect on the next tool call — no restart, no environment variables.

After a period of inactivity the first request can briefly answer “starting up”. That is your book loading, not a broken connection — the usual mistake at this point is to go and replace a key that was perfectly good.

3. Open accounts before you record anything

Your book will not accept an entry to an account that was not opened first. A book created through the four questions already has a starter set; add to it the same way.

2026-01-01 open Assets:Bank:Checking USD
2026-01-01 open Liabilities:CreditCard USD
2026-01-01 open Income:Consulting
2026-01-01 open Expenses:Software

Ask the agent to set up a starter chart and it will compose exactly this and send it through open_accounts. Read accounts before you accept the suggestion — the currency on an open line cannot be changed later.

4. Put something real in it

/countbean:ingest ~/Downloads/statement-january.csv

The agent reads the file, maps rows to accounts, shows you a table, and only then writes. Every entry is checked before it is recorded, and every change is kept in the book’s history. A refused entry comes back as REJECTED with the reason, and nothing lands — there is no half-saved state to clean up.

5. Look at it

/countbean:status for balances and the last few changes. /countbean:report for a styled HTML page or an Excel workbook. Or open the book in your browser to see all of it — balance sheet, income statement, journals.

Plugin and chat together

They reach the same book. A chat connected in Telegram or WhatsApp keeps working alongside the plugin, and every change from either one lands in the same history. Only the chat spends credits.