Local Finance Desktop App (Tauri + React)

This project is a local-first personal finance desktop app.

MVP Features

• Import card transactions from CSV.
• Store transactions and merchant rules in local SQLite.
• Categorize new merchants with Ollama + Llama and cache the result.
• Detect likely subscriptions with heuristics plus an LLM verification pass.
• Show spending breakdown by category.
• Manual category edits apply to every transaction from the same merchant.
• Sync button to re-run categorization/subscription detection.
• Plaid API connection + multi-Item support (credentials and tokens stored in OS keychain).
• Rule management panel to edit or delete merchant-level category rules.

Prerequisites

• Node.js + npm
• Rust toolchain
• Ollama installed locally
• A local model pulled, for example:

ollama pull llama3.1:8b

Run

npm install
npm run tauri dev

On app launch:

• If Plaid is connected, the app pulls transactions first.
• Then it runs category/subscription sync and refreshes the dashboard.

Plaid Workflow (Trial-Friendly)

1. Connect Plaid API keys in the app:
   • Client ID
   • Secret
   • Environment (sandbox, development, or production)
2. Add one or more Item Access Tokens (one token per connected institution login).
3. Use the in-app item counter to stay under trial cap.
4. Click Sync Provider or Sync Now to pull all configured Items.

Notes:

• Item count is tracked in the UI as used/limit.
• The app enforces a safety limit of 10 Items for Plaid trial usage.

CSV Import Format

Use a CSV with at least these columns:

• date (or posted)
• description
• amount

Optional merchant column aliases:

• merchant
• payee
• vendor

Supported date formats include:

• YYYY-MM-DD
• MM/DD/YYYY
• MM/DD/YY

Notes

• This MVP is fully local and has no cloud backend.
• CSV import works immediately.
• Plaid sync requires API credentials plus Item access tokens.

Rule Behavior

• Editing a transaction category updates every transaction with the same merchant key.
• Saving a rule in the Rule Manager also updates all matching transactions.
• Deleting a rule resets matching transactions to Uncategorized.