Monzo Banking Skill

Access your Monzo bank account to check balances, view transactions, manage savings pots, and send notifications to your Monzo app.

Prerequisites

Before setting up this skill, you need:

• A Monzo account (UK personal, joint, or business account)
• The Monzo app installed on your phone (for SCA approval)
• OpenClaw running with workspace access
• Standard tools: curl, jq, openssl, bc (pre-installed on most Linux systems)

Quick Start (TL;DR)

# 1. Set the MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD env var (see "Setting the Password" below)

# 2. Create OAuth client at https://developers.monzo.com/
#    - Set Confidentiality: Confidential
#    - Set Redirect URL: http://localhost

# 3. Run setup
scripts/setup.sh

# 4. Approve in Monzo app when prompted, then:
scripts/setup.sh --continue

# 5. Test it
scripts/balance.sh

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Detailed Setup Guide

Step 1: Set the Encryption Password

The MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD environment variable is used to encrypt your Monzo credentials at rest. Choose a strong, unique password and don't lose it — you'll need it if you ever move or restore the skill.

There are several ways to provide this variable. Choose whichever fits your setup:

Option A: OpenClaw skill config (simplest)

Add to your OpenClaw config (e.g. openclaw.json):

{
  skills: {
    entries: {
      "monzo": {
        enabled: true,
        env: {
          "MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD": "choose-a-secure-password-here"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart: openclaw gateway restart

Note: This stores the password in plaintext in the config file. Ensure the file has restrictive permissions (chmod 600) and is not checked into version control.

Option B: Shell environment (keeps password out of config files)

Add to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

export MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD="choose-a-secure-password-here"

Then restart your shell and OpenClaw.

Option C: systemd EnvironmentFile (for server deployments)

Create a secrets file (e.g. /etc/openclaw/monzo.env):

MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD=choose-a-secure-password-here

Set permissions: chmod 600 /etc/openclaw/monzo.env

Reference it from your systemd unit with EnvironmentFile=/etc/openclaw/monzo.env.

Option D: Password manager / secrets manager

Use your preferred secrets tool to inject the env var at runtime. Any method that sets MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD in the process environment will work.

Step 2: Create Monzo OAuth Client

1. Go to https://developers.monzo.com/ and sign in with your Monzo account
2. Click "Clients" → "New OAuth Client"
3. Fill in:
   • Name: OpenClaw (or your preferred name)
   • Logo URL: (leave blank)
   • Redirect URLs: http://localhost ← exactly this, no trailing slash
   • Description: (leave blank)
   • Confidentiality: Confidential ← ⚠️ Important! Enables refresh tokens
4. Click Submit
5. Note your Client ID (oauth2client_...) and Client Secret (mnzconf....)

Step 3: Run the Setup Wizard

scripts/setup.sh

The wizard will:

1. Ask for your Client ID and Client Secret
2. Give you an authorization URL to open in your browser
3. Ask you to paste the redirect URL back
4. Exchange the code for access tokens
5. Save encrypted credentials

Alternative: Non-interactive mode (useful for automation or agents):

scripts/setup.sh --non-interactive \
  --client-id oauth2client_xxx \
  --client-secret mnzconf.xxx \
  --auth-code eyJ...

Step 4: Approve in Monzo App (SCA)

⚠️ This step is required! Monzo requires Strong Customer Authentication.

1. Open the Monzo app on your phone
2. Look for a notification about "API access" or a new connection
3. Tap to approve

If you don't see a notification:

• Go to Account → Settings → Privacy & Security → Manage connected apps
• Find and approve your client

After approving, complete setup:

scripts/setup.sh --continue

Step 5: Verify It Works

# Check authentication
scripts/whoami.sh

# Check your balance
scripts/balance.sh

You should see your account info and current balance. You're done! 🎉

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For the Agent

This section tells the agent how to use this skill effectively.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user asks about:

• Balance: "How much money do I have?", "What's my balance?"
• Transactions: "What did I spend on X?", "Show recent transactions"
• Spending analysis: "How much did I spend on coffee this month?"
• Savings: "How much is in my savings?", "Move £X to my holiday pot"
• Notifications: "Send a reminder to my Monzo app"

Common Patterns

# "How much money do I have?"
scripts/balance.sh

# "Show me recent transactions" / "What did I spend?"
scripts/transactions.sh              # All available, newest first

# "Show me my last 5 transactions"
scripts/transactions.sh --limit 5    # 5 most recent

# "What did I spend this week?"
scripts/transactions.sh --since 7d

# "How much did I spend on coffee this month?"
scripts/transactions.sh --search coffee --since 30d

# "What are my savings pots?"
scripts/pots.sh

# "Put £50 in my holiday fund"
scripts/pots.sh deposit pot_XXXXX 5000  # Amount in pence!

# "Send a reminder to my phone"
scripts/feed.sh --title "Don't forget!" --body "Check the gas meter"

Important Notes for Agents

1. Money is in pence: £50 = 5000, £1.50 = 150
2. Dates can be relative: --since 7d means last 7 days
3. Use human-readable output by default (no --json flag)
4. Pot IDs: Use scripts/pots.sh first to get pot IDs before depositing/withdrawing
5. Multiple accounts: User may have personal, joint, and business accounts. Default is personal. Use scripts/whoami.sh to see all accounts.

Error Handling

If you see forbidden.insufficient_permissions:

• Tell the user to check their Monzo app and approve API access
• Then run scripts/setup.sh --continue

If you see MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD not set:

• The env var isn't available in the process environment
• Guide user to set it using one of the methods in Step 1 of the setup guide

---

Script Reference

balance - Check Account Balance

scripts/balance.sh                 # Default account
scripts/balance.sh acc_...         # Specific account
scripts/balance.sh --json          # JSON output

Output:

Current Balance: £1,234.56
Total (with pots): £2,500.00
Spent today: £12.34

transactions - Transaction History

Fetches all available transactions (paginated), displayed newest first.

scripts/transactions.sh                         # All transactions, newest first
scripts/transactions.sh --limit 10              # 10 most recent
scripts/transactions.sh --since 7d              # Last 7 days only
scripts/transactions.sh --since 2026-01-01      # Since specific date
scripts/transactions.sh --search coffee         # Search by merchant/description/notes
scripts/transactions.sh --search "Pret" --since 30d  # Combined filters
scripts/transactions.sh --id tx_...             # Get specific transaction
scripts/transactions.sh --json                  # JSON output

Output:

DATE         AMOUNT     DESCRIPTION                          CATEGORY
============ ========== =================================== ===============
2026-01-29  -£3.50     Pret A Manger                       eating_out
2026-01-29  -£12.00    TfL                                 transport
2026-01-28  -£45.23    Tesco                               groceries

Total: 3 transaction(s)

pots - Savings Management

scripts/pots.sh                              # List all pots
scripts/pots.sh list --json                  # JSON output
scripts/pots.sh deposit pot_... 5000         # Deposit £50 (5000 pence)
scripts/pots.sh withdraw pot_... 2000        # Withdraw £20 (2000 pence)

Output (list):

NAME                      BALANCE      GOAL         ID
========================= ============ ============ ====================
Holiday Fund              £450.00      £1,000.00    pot_0000...
Emergency                 £2,000.00    £3,000.00    pot_0001...

feed - Send App Notifications

scripts/feed.sh --title "Reminder"                        # Simple notification
scripts/feed.sh --title "Alert" --body "Details here"    # With body
scripts/feed.sh --title "Link" --url "https://..."       # With tap action

whoami - Check Authentication

scripts/whoami.sh                  # Show auth status and accounts
scripts/whoami.sh --account-id     # Just the default account ID
scripts/whoami.sh --json           # JSON output

receipt - Attach Receipts to Transactions

scripts/receipt.sh create tx_... --merchant "Shop" --total 1234 --item "Thing:1234"
scripts/receipt.sh get ext_...
scripts/receipt.sh delete ext_...

webhooks - Manage Webhooks (Advanced)

scripts/webhooks.sh list
scripts/webhooks.sh create https://your-server.com/webhook
scripts/webhooks.sh delete webhook_...

---

Troubleshooting

"forbidden.insufficient_permissions"

Most common issue! Monzo requires app approval (SCA).

Fix:

1. Open Monzo app → check for notification → approve
2. Or: Account → Settings → Privacy & Security → Manage connected apps → approve
3. Run: scripts/setup.sh --continue

"MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD not set"

The env var isn't available in the process environment.

Fix: Set MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD using any of the methods described in Step 1 of the setup guide, then restart OpenClaw.

"Authorization code has been used"

Each auth code is single-use. Start fresh:

scripts/setup.sh --reset

"No refresh token received"

Your OAuth client isn't set to "Confidential". Create a new client with Confidentiality = Confidential, then:

scripts/setup.sh --reset

"Credentials file not found"

Run setup first:

scripts/setup.sh

"Failed to decrypt credentials"

Wrong MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD. Check your config matches what you used during setup.

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Security Notes

• Credentials are encrypted at rest (AES-256-CBC)
• Encryption key is your MONZO_KEYRING_PASSWORD
• Access tokens auto-refresh (no manual intervention needed)
• File permissions are set to 600 (owner only)
• All API calls use HTTPS
• No sensitive data is logged

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Files

skills/monzo/
├── SKILL.md              # This documentation
└── scripts/
    ├── lib/monzo.sh      # Shared library
    ├── setup             # OAuth setup wizard
    ├── whoami            # Validate authentication
    ├── balance           # Check balance
    ├── transactions      # Transaction history
    ├── pots              # Savings pots
    ├── feed              # App notifications
    ├── receipt           # Receipt management
    └── webhooks          # Webhook management

Credentials: ~/.openclaw/credentials/monzo.json (encrypted, or ~/.clawdbot/credentials/monzo.json on older installs)

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API Coverage

Feature	Scripts
Authentication	setup, whoami
Balance	balance
Transactions	transactions
Pots (Savings)	pots
Feed (Notifications)	feed
Receipts	receipt
Webhooks	webhooks