YNAB Vault

A simple Go command-line tool to backup all your YNAB (You Need A Budget) budgets by downloading each as JSON files.

Features

• Fetch your complete list of budgets via the YNAB API
• Download each budget's detailed JSON export
• Save each file as BudgetName_BudgetID_Timestamp.json
• Fully configurable via CLI flags or environment variables
• Optional verbose logging for progress feedback

Prerequisites

• Go 1.18+
• A YNAB API access token (Bearer token)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/bad33ndj3/ynabvault.git

2. Build and install:

   cd ynabvault
   go install ./...

3. Or install directly without cloning:

   go install github.com/bad33ndj3/ynabvault@latest

You will need a YNAB API access token. Generate one in your YNAB account as described in the official documentation.

Usage

ynabvault [--token <TOKEN>] [--output <DIR>] [--url <API_URL>] [--verbose]

Flags

• --token — YNAB API bearer token. If omitted, falls back to the YNAB_BEARER_TOKEN environment variable.
• --output —Directory to save the budget JSON files (default: budgets).
• --url — Base API URL for the budgets endpoint (default: https://api.youneedabudget.com/v1/budgets).
• --verbose — Enable verbose logging to stderr.

Environment Variables

• YNAB_BEARER_TOKEN — Alternative to --token flag for providing the API token.

Examples

Backup to the default budgets folder:

ynabvault --token YOUR_TOKEN

Backup with custom folder and verbose output:

ynabvault --token YOUR_TOKEN --output ./my_backups --verbose

Use environment variable for token:

export YNAB_BEARER_TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN
ynabvault --verbose

License

MIT License