Automate Recurring Venmo Payments with Github Actions and IFTTT

Like so many tinkerers, I love to automate small parts of my life, while ignoring any actual work I should be doing. After stumbling on Joe’s Venmo automation, I immediately swept all the important things off my plate to have some fun. Now let’s set up automatic payments on Venmo in less than an hour — with email notifications for peace of mind!

Why not Nocode (Zapier, IFTTT, etc.)

You’ll need to know how to code a small amount for this guide. This setup is an alternative to the Zapier Venmo integration and IFTTT Venmo integration, which don’t seem to exist anymore (if they ever did). Venmo shut down their developer APIs and have had them in maintenance mode since 2016, so unlikely for anything to change on that front. Normally I look to nocode tools first for projects, but unfortunately in this case, you’ll need to know how to run code online.

Ingredients

The 3 pieces you will need to set this up (in <1 hour):

• A scheduled trigger (GitHub actions, AWS Cloudwatch, etc.)
• A place to run a Python script + it’s dependency (GitHub actions, PythonAnywhere, Node.js with Autocode is in exploration)
• A free or cheap notification service (IFTTT, AWS SNS, etc.)

I use GitHub Actions + Python script + IFTTT for sending emails, but feel free to step off the beaten path if you have other ideas.

How to set up automatic payments on Venmo

Diving into the meat & potatoes you came for, how to actually get this dang thing running.

1. (Optional) 💌 Set up IFTTT notifications

   ℹ️ If you don’t care about being notified, skip this step and remove the notify() code in script.

   

   IFTTT allows a variety of target services, I originally used SMS, then converted to email since it’s not an urgent alert.

   • Sign up for IFTTT account (might require downloading of the app).
   • Configure the Webhooks service in IFTTT.

   • Then set up your chosen notification service. My example script sends metadata about the Venmo request sent in the value1 field IFTTT provides. If you use the same, you'll have to make sure that is mapped correctly to your chosen notification service.

     

• ✅ Use cURL or your favorite web request tool to test your webhook and ensure notifications are sending correctly.
• Save your webhook URL as a Secret so the workflow can access it. In the browser, go to GitHub Repo -> Settings -> Secrets -> New Repository Secret.

1. 🔐 Get Venmo access token

   ⚠️🚨
   This token has the same power with your Venmo account as you do, so be very careful with it! It will never expire unless you logout manually, as explained in the docs.

   I plan to update this guide to use Payment Links (a deeplink into the Venmo app that doesn’t require account access) in the near future, but for now, you are forewarned.
   ⚠️🚨

   You’ll have to be comfortable working with Python dependencies to run these scripts locally.

   • Install the Venmo client library venmo-api.
   • Run this Python script to pull your access token. You may need to handle MFA.

   from venmo_api import Client
   # https://github.com/mmohades/Venmo
   
   print("Login using account to get an access token for the API.")
   email = input('Venmo Email:')
   if '@' not in email:
       print('! yo what the heck you sure thats an email')
       raise SystemExit
   password = input('Venmo Password:')
   
   Client.get_access_token(username=email, password=password)
   

• Save the token as the Secret VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN by going to GitHub Repo -> Settings -> Secrets -> New Repository Secret.

1. (Optional) 🗺 Map Venmo usernames to IDs

   Then Venmo API requires payment requests to be tied to an ID, rather than the @username we humans use in the app. I did the mapping of usernames during setup and added them as environment secrets, but you can just as easily add 1 extra LOC to convert during regular runs.
   

   user = venmo_client.user.get_user_by_username(username)
   # Key is the 'user.id' part
   venmo_client.payment.request_money(amount, note, target_user_id=user.id, privacy_setting=PaymentPrivacy.PRIVATE)
   

2. 🐍 Modify the Python script

   The script I use has a simple entry point, then defines a separate function for each Venmo request I want it to make, YMMV. You’ll need to make some small adjustments based on how many requests you need it to make & how you fetch Venmo user IDs. The most important bits can be boiled down to this main.py:
   

   # main.py
   
   import os
   from venmo_api import Client, PaymentPrivacy
   # requests is pulled in by venmo_api
   import requests
   
   TOKEN_KEY = 'VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN'
   IFTTT_WEBHOOK_KEY = 'IFTTT_WEBHOOK'
   
   def main():
       # load the access token from environ
       access_token = os.environ.get(TOKEN_KEY)
       if access_token is None:
           raise ValueError('[!] EVERYTHING IS BROKEN WE CANT GET ACCESSS AHHHHHH')
   
       venmo_client = Client(access_token=access_token)
   
   ....
           # <venmo user id from mapping step>
           c_user_id = os.environ.get('C_USER_ID') 
           amount = 20.0
           note = f'Monthly Internet'
           try:
           venmo_client.payment.request_money(amount, note, target_user_id=c_user_id, privacy_setting=PaymentPrivacy.PRIVATE)
               print('Successfully requested for internet $$')
             msg = f'Requested ${amount} Internet from C.'
           except Exception as e:
               print(e)
               msg = '[!] Failed to request $$ for internet from C.'
           notify(msg)
   
   ....
   
   def notify(msg):
       # notify with IFTTT webhook
       ifttt_webhook_url = os.environ.get(IFTTT_WEBHOOK_KEY)
       if ifttt_webhook_url is None:
           raise ValueError('[!] Dang, no webhook so cant notify myself :(')
   
       json_data = {
           'value1': msg
       }
       resp = requests.post(ifttt_webhook_url, json=json_data)
       print(resp.status_code)
       if resp.status_code >= 300:
           raise ValueError(f'Webhook resp was {resp.status_code}; not a success. Body: {resp.text}')
   
   main()
   

3. 👨‍💻 Configure GitHub Secrets & Actions

   ℹ️ Cron actions get disabled after 60 days of no activity on the repository - so either plan to push a commit every 50 days, or follow my approach and just wait until GitHub emails you.

   ✋ At this point you should have your VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN saved in Secrets, along with the optional IFTTT_WEBHOOK or USER_IDs values. if you didn’t, go back and do it.

   Now create your workflow definition at .github/workflows/<workflow-name>.yml . This is where you will define your schedule in cron. My example shows monthly Venmo requests.
   

   # <workflow-name>.yml
   
   name: Run Recurring Venmo
   
   on:
     schedule:
       # 5/6pm EDT on the 10th of the month.
       - cron: "0 10 10 * *"
     workflow_dispatch:
   
   jobs:
     run:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v2
         - name: Set up Python 3.7
           uses: actions/setup-python@v2
           with:
             python-version: 3.7
         - name: Install dependencies
           run: |
             pip install pipenv
             pipenv install
         - name: Run script 
           # https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/latest/advanced/#automatic-loading-of-env; this is somewhat silly but I wanted to finish quick
           run: |
             echo VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN=$VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN >> .env
             echo GF_VENMO_USER_ID=$GF_VENMO_USER_ID >> .env
             echo C_USER_ID=$C_USER_ID >> .env
             echo IFTTT_WEBHOOK=$IFTTT_WEBHOOK >> .env
             pipenv run python main.py
           env:
             VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VENMO_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
             GF_VENMO_USER_ID: ${{ secrets.GF_VENMO_USER_ID }}
             C_USER_ID: ${{ secrets.C_USER_ID }}
             IFTTT_WEBHOOK: ${{ secrets.IFTTT_WEBHOOK }}
   

4. 🏖️ Sit back and relax - with your automation in place, you’re now saving MINUTES each month! 🤣

   But hey, we learned something neat and learned some new automation tricks. Time well spent.

   

🧪 Experiments & potential improvements

• Writing Node.js function on Autocode after switching to Payment Links.