The latest articles on DEV Community by Andrew Zolotukhin (@andrew_zol). https://dev.to/andrew_zol https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3978662%2Fdb599b79-7beb-4e66-b4d4-5ab770fdcbf1.png https://dev.to/andrew_zol en Andrew Zolotukhin Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:12:05 +0000 https://dev.to/andrew_zol/i-replaced-my-telegram-bot-and-google-sheet-with-my-own-mcp-enabled-open-source-finance-app-5hdi https://dev.to/andrew_zol/i-replaced-my-telegram-bot-and-google-sheet-with-my-own-mcp-enabled-open-source-finance-app-5hdi <p>For a long time, my personal accounting system was a small automation stack: a Telegram bot wizard collected transaction details, wrote rows into Google Sheets, and custom spreadsheet charts handled the statistics.</p> <p>It was a good setup because Telegram made capture fast and Sheets made analysis flexible. But every improvement also meant keeping bot prompts, spreadsheet columns, formulas, and charts aligned.</p> <p>I built xpenser to keep the useful parts of that workflow while moving the repetitive structure into a small web app: transactions, vendors, nested categories, currencies, dashboard periods, reports, Telegram workflows, and email summaries.</p> <p>The project also became a reference app for the stack behind it. The same schema-first TypeScript contracts drive validation, OpenAPI output, typed clients, React forms, auth-aware endpoints, telemetry, Telegram integration, and MCP access.</p> <p>This post walks through what shipped, what I deliberately did not build yet, and why chat/agent-friendly finance data needs careful permission wording.</p> <p>Outline:</p> <ol> <li>The Telegram bot + Google Sheets origin story and the broader expense-tracking problem.</li> <li>Product scope: manual tracking and structured reporting first, not a bank-sync suite.</li> <li>Data model surfaces: transactions, vendors, categories, currencies, periods.</li> <li>App workflows: dashboard, reports, preferences, Telegram capture, email summaries.</li> <li>Developer surfaces: API keys, typed client, OpenAPI, Telegram.</li> <li>MCP access: why it is useful, why it should be treated as full account access.</li> <li>Self-hosting and open-source tradeoffs.</li> <li>Current limitations and what feedback would be useful.</li> </ol> <p><strong>The app is live</strong> at <a href="https://xpenser.cleverbrush.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://xpenser.cleverbrush.com</a> and the source is at <a href="https://github.com/cleverbrush/xpenser" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/cleverbrush/xpenser</a>. I would appreciate feedback on what you use today to track and analyze expenses, whether xpenser could replace or complement it, the README/self-hosting path, and whether MCP access feels useful enough to justify the risk surface.</p> opensource typescript webdev sideprojects