About

Basic HTTP Api wrapping the Actual Budget NodeJS api.

actual-http-api

Lightweight HTTP wrapper around the Actual Budget Node.js API. Exposes a simple REST interface so non-Node apps can interact with an Actual server.

Quick Start — Run the public Docker image

Use the publicly published Docker image (replace the tag with the desired version):

docker run -d --name actualhttpapi \
  -v "$PWD/data:/data:rw" \
  -p 5007:5007 \
  -e ACTUAL_SERVER_URL="http://actual-server:5006/" \
  -e ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD="your-actual-password" \
  -e API_KEY="your-api-key" \
  jhonderson/actual-http-api:26.2.0

• Replace jhonderson/actual-http-api:26.2.0 with the specific tag you want.
• The service exposes the Swagger UI at http://localhost:5007/api-docs/ by default (see swagger env vars below if you need to change how docs are served).

Tip: For secrets you can also mount files and use the _PATH variant of the environment variables (see API_KEY_PATH / ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD_PATH).

Local development (two options)

1. Run with Docker Compose

docker-compose up -d

This will start the service using the docker-compose.yml configuration in this repo. Adjust envs in the compose file or override with an .env file.

2. Run directly with Node.js

npm install
npm start
# or
node server.js

Create a .env file in the project root for local development environment variables (the project loads .env when NODE_ENV !== 'production').

Environment variables

The service reads several environment variables (from src/config/config.js). Defaults are shown where applicable.

• API_KEY (required) or API_KEY_PATH — SECRET API key string used by clients to authenticate to this wrapper.
  • Important: API_KEY must be generated and kept secret by the person deploying this service (for example with a random generator). It authenticates callers of the HTTP wrapper only — it is NOT a credential from the Actual Budget server.
  • You can provide the key directly via API_KEY or place it in a file and point to it with API_KEY_PATH (useful for Docker secrets).
• ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD (required) or ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD_PATH — Password for the Actual server. Can be provided directly or via a file path.
• ACTUAL_SERVER_URL (required) — Base URL of your Actual server (e.g. http://actual-server:5006/).
• ACTUAL_DATA_DIR (optional) — Path to the Actual server data directory (used if you need to point at local data).
• PORT (optional) — Port this service listens on. Default: 5007.
• NODE_ENV (optional) — Node environment (e.g. production, development). If not production, .env will be loaded by dotenv.

Swagger / API docs configuration (defaults used to build the docs URL shown in the UI):

• SWAGGER_PROTOCOL — Default: https
• SWAGGER_HOST — Default: localhost
• SWAGGER_PORT — Default: 443
• SWAGGER_BASE_PATH — Default: v1

Notes:

• API_KEY and ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD are loaded using a helper that accepts either the value itself or a path to a file by appending _PATH to the variable name (useful for Docker secrets).
• If you run the container mapping port 5007 to the host (common for local runs), set SWAGGER_PROTOCOL=http and SWAGGER_PORT=5007 if you want the Swagger UI links to reflect your local address.

Experimental / unofficial operations

• EXPERIMENTAL_OPERATIONS_ENABLED (optional) — Toggle to enable experimental endpoints that rely on Actual internals. Defaults to enabled (true). Set to false to disable these endpoints; when disabled the HTTP server will respond with 501 Not Implemented for those operations and they will be hidden from the Swagger UI.

Documentation

When running locally with default port mapping, open:

http://localhost:5007/api-docs/

Troubleshooting

• If the server fails to start due to missing secrets, ensure API_KEY and ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD (or their _PATH equivalents) are provided.
• For production, run with NODE_ENV=production and provide secrets via a secrets manager or the _PATH pattern.

Development

• Run unit tests:

npm test

Usage Examples

See USAGE_EXAMPLES.md for ready-to-use use cases:

• budget_backup.sh: Backup your Actual Budget using a bash script
• fly.toml: Configuration file to deploy actual-http-api to Fly.io
• update_account_balances.py: Script to update your investment account balances in Actual Budget (this script can only be used with actual-http-api version 26.4.0 and onwards)