monarch-mcp: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

monarch-mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from vargahis/monarch-mcp. It costs 578 tokens per session, scanned A, original, from a forked repository, MIT.

Project instructions for the Monarch Money MCP server, which connects coding agents to a personal-finance platform.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when modifying the server, adding MCP tools, updating documentation, or running its quality checks.
Why use it?
They define branching, documentation, testing, linting, and coverage checks required after changes.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md.

This is vargahis/monarch-mcp's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on monarch-mcp itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything monarch-mcp configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to vargahis/monarch-mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vargahis/monarch-mcp/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vargahis/monarch-mcp

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

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README.md
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Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/vargahis/monarch-mcp/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/vargahis/monarch-mcp/claude-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for monarch-mcp CLAUDE.md

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/vargahis/monarch-mcp/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/vargahis/monarch-mcp/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 578 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 578 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin fork From a forked repository.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00578 $0.00578
Opus 5 $0.00289 $0.00289
Sonnet 5 $0.00116 $0.00116
Haiku 4.5 $0.00058 $0.00058

Measured 8d ago against content hash b710e47d8897, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

monarch-mcp CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

CLAUDE.md · 46 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 46 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLAUDE.md — Monarch MCP Server

Branching Policy

Never commit directly to main unless the user explicitly asks for it.

  • If on main, create a new feature branch before committing (e.g., feature/<topic>), or switch to an existing branch.
  • If unsure which branch to use, ask the user.
  • This applies to all commits — fixes, features, refactors, docs, etc.

Documentation Maintenance

Keep README.md up to date whenever:

  • New functionality is added
  • Existing functionality changes
  • Installation instructions change
  • The authentication process changes

Quality Gates — Run After Every Change

Run both checks after every code change. Both must pass before committing.

py -m pytest tests/

All tests must pass.

py -m pylint src/monarch_mcp/

Must score 10.00/10. There is no pylint config file; the project uses pylint defaults.

Test Coverage — Update on Feature Changes

When new MCP tool functionality is added or existing tools are updated, update the relevant test surfaces below. There are three, each with a distinct job:

  1. Mocked unit tests in tests/ — pytest, mocked via conftest.py fixtures. The quality gate; runs in CI. Home for deterministic validation logic (required-field checks, mutual-exclusion, regex/format validation).
  2. Live e2e integration tests in tests/integration/ — pytest against a real Monarch account, opt-in via MONARCH_LIVE_TESTS=1 (deselected by default, never in CI). Home for tool robustness against the live API: adversarial/edge inputs and live error paths (invalid ids, server-side rejections). Self-cleaning (MCP-Test- prefix).
  3. Agent test skill at .claude/skills/test-monarch-mcp/ — drives an AI agent to verify it calls the tools correctly (right tool, right params, correct response interpretation). Keep it to happy paths, agent-judgment cases, and one representative graceful-error case per tool family. Update SKILL.md (including test counts) and the references/ files.

Read the full file on GitHub · 46 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 8d ago First seen · 46 lines · 578 tokens per session scan A b710e47d8897

Subscribe to this mod's changes

monarch-mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository vargahis/monarch-mcp (12 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 578 tokens to every session, about $0.0029 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It comes from a forked repository.

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