Your Google Sheet is now an MCP server.

What it is

MCP is an open standard for connecting assistants to data. Your copy of Tobsy, the script inside your spreadsheet, is the MCP server. Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants are clients: they connect with your link, read what they need, and answer you. The script lives in your Google account and the assistant talks to it directly, so the only parties are you, Google, which already holds your sheet, and the assistant you chose.

How to connect, in three steps

1. In Tobsy, open Settings → Assistant and copy your link.
2. Add it to your assistant as a custom MCP server, with no sign-in. In Claude the check may say 302 or Not found: press Continue anyway. The check stops at the way Google answers; the connection itself follows it.
3. Ask. "What did we spend on groceries in September?" The assistant asks Tobsy who is in the sheet, works out who you mean, and reads that month.

The link is a password: it holds the password that opens your spreadsheet, and anyone with it can read your figures the way an assistant does. Give it only to assistants you use. If it gets out, Unlink every other device under Settings → Assistant, from the device that set Tobsy up, makes a new one, and every assistant and device then needs the new link.

What it can read, and the one thing it can write

An assistant reads through the same functions the app uses: your entries, categories, intentions, funds and goals, the calendar and the rest. Nothing the app itself would not show you. What you ask, and the figures needed to answer, go to the assistant you use, and its own terms apply to what it reads.

It can suggest entries, and that is all it can write. Suggestions wait in your spreadsheet until you look: Home says your assistant suggested some entries, and Review opens the import board, where you change any row, leave rows out, or start over. Nothing lands in your ledger until you tap Import.

Private categories, person by person

An assistant sees each private category as one "Private" line a month: the total still counts, the details stay with you. Each person can let assistants see their own private categories under Settings → Assistant, with their PIN, entered in the app and not in a chat. Even then an assistant sees them only when the question is about that person. Turning it off needs no PIN.

The assistant inside Tobsy

For an assistant that cannot take the link, the Assistant tab answers with a model from a provider you choose, under your own key: Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI or Groq. A Google key is free to start, and Settings has a "Get a key" link for it. Claude inside Tobsy needs an Anthropic API key, paid as you go; a Claude plan does not come with one. The key stays on your device, and Tobsy keeps no copy anywhere else.

What you ask, and the figures needed to answer, go to the provider you choose, under your own key or plan. Depending on your provider, plan and settings, they may use it to improve their models. A local model on this computer keeps it here; it has to be set to accept calls from the app, as Ollama's OLLAMA_ORIGINS setting does.