Firefly III

What it does

Firefly III is a personal money manager. You record your bank accounts, spending and income, and it shows where your money goes with budgets, categories, charts and reports. Rules can sort your spending for you, and "piggy banks" help you save towards a goal. It runs on your own computer or server, so your bank data never has to go to the cloud.

• Budgets, bills, categories and savings goals
• Rules that sort your spending automatically
• Lots of charts and income and expense reports
• Any currency, many languages and a full REST API

Great for: People who want a clear, private picture of their spending and are happy to type in or import their transactions.

Make it yours: ideas

Pick an idea to start from, or describe your own.

• Settings, no code Sort spending into categories automatically “Every time I add a Tesco, Sainsbury's or Aldi payment, put it under 'Groceries'. Anything from TfL goes under 'Travel'.” Start with this idea
• Settings, no code Monthly budgets for the household “Set up monthly budgets: £400 food, £150 eating out, £100 fun money each. Show me how much is left on the home screen.” Start with this idea
• Extend: themes, plugins, API Message me when a big payment goes out “When any payment over £200 is added, send a message to my phone with what it was and what's left in my budget.” Start with this idea
• Settings, no code Saving towards a holiday “We want £2,000 for a holiday next August. Set up a savings pot and tell me how much to put in each month.” Start with this idea
• Extend: themes, plugins, API Add a cash payment from your phone in two taps “I want a button on my iPhone home screen that asks 'how much and what for?' and adds it to Firefly as a cash expense.” Start with this idea
• Code changes Simple pocket money page for the children “Make a simple page for my two kids that shows only their pocket money account, with big numbers and a savings bar.” Start with this idea

How easy is it to adapt?

A large Laravel app (PHP 8.5) with a strict double-entry bookkeeping model, a big REST API and many tests. Most personal changes are better done through rules, webhooks or the API than in the code. Your AI always tries the gentlest step first, so your version stays easy to update.

1. 1

   Settings 4 options

   No code. Change it in the app or its config.

   • Main currency, language, date format, first day of the financial year and which home-screen boxes to show.
   • Automatically set the category, budget or tags of a transaction based on its description, amount or account.
   • Monthly budgets with auto-budget, expected bills with reminders, and savings goals.
   • Bill reminders and security alerts by email, Slack or Pushover.
2. 2

   Extend 2 options

   Themes, plugins, webhooks and the API. Still no fork.

   • Send new or changed transactions to another service such as n8n, Home Assistant or your own script.
   • Scripts, phone shortcuts, spreadsheets and third-party apps that read or add transactions.
3. 3

   Code 2 options

   Your AI edits the source for anything else.

   • New screens, changed layouts and styling.
   • New reports, new calculations or new kinds of data.

Can I trust it?

• AGPL-3.0-or-later. Free to use and change. If you run a changed version that other people use over the internet (not just you or your household), you must offer them your source code under the same licence. Private use has no extra obligations.
• Your data: stores personal data, on your own device or server. MySQL/MariaDB (default Docker setup), PostgreSQL or SQLite; uploaded files in the firefly_iii_upload volume.
• Other services: Firefly III Data Importer (separate app) (optional, free (self-hosted)); Email (SMTP or Mailgun, Mailersend and similar) (optional, free with most providers); Slack or Pushover (optional, free tier)
• Pinned version b9c3100. Every handover uses exactly this code, which we've reviewed.
• Holds detailed financial records. Use a strong password, turn on two-factor authentication and put it behind HTTPS before exposing it to the internet.
• APP_KEY, database passwords, STATIC_CRON_TOKEN and API tokens are secrets. Never paste them into an AI chat.
• Firefly III makes no outside connections until you turn on a feature that needs one (such as webhooks or notifications).

Did it work for people?

Tell us how it went

For your AI

The project pack has the pinned version, how to run it, and where to customise it. Your prompt links to it automatically.

https://handoff.bespokeai.software/p/firefly-iii/b9c3100/pack.md

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