Connect Instinct to your bank without your password

You don't need to give Instinct your online banking password. Link your banks to Era once, then give Instinct an Era API key: a credential you make yourself that expires after the number of days you pick and stops working from its next request once you revoke it. Instinct reads your balances and transactions through Era, and nothing in this setup hands it your bank login, because Era never has it.

Era is an independent company, not part of Instinct. The Era side is free to start and takes a few minutes. This guide covers it in full, and keeps the Instinct side to what you text it.

Should I give Instinct my bank login?

You don't need to. Instead of your online banking password, give Instinct an Era API key. Instinct reads your accounts through Era, can't reach your bank login because Era never has it, and is cut off when you revoke the key. You choose whether it can only read or can also make changes, and when it expires.

A banking password is a poor thing to share with any assistant. It opens everything your bank's website opens, it keeps working until you change it, and taking it back means changing it everywhere it's saved. An Era API key is built for the job instead:

• It can't reach your bank login. You enter your banking login in a connection flow run by a regulated aggregator, not on an Era screen. What Era keeps afterwards is an access token for each connection, encrypted at rest with AES-256.
• Era shows it once and keeps only a fingerprint. The key appears one time, when you make it. Era stores a SHA-256 hash of it, not the key itself, so nobody can read it back out of Era later.
• It expires when you tell it to. You pick how many days it lasts when you make the key, and there's no never-expires option. A key you forget about stops working on its own.
• You revoke it in one step. A key you made yourself stops working from its very next request. Your bank connections stay exactly as they are.
• It acts as your whole Era account. This is the part to take seriously. A key isn't limited to one account or one question: it reads everything in your Era account, and a key with write access can change things too. Keep it private, give it only the access you're using now, and let the expiry do its job. If there's an account you'd rather no assistant saw, hide it in Era: hidden accounts stay hidden from every assistant, Instinct included.

Era never sells your data. For the rest of how Era handles it, from encryption to what never leaves Era, see how Era protects your financial data.

How do I connect Instinct to my bank accounts with Era?

Link your banks and cards in Era, then make an Era API key with the shortest expiry that works for you. Text Instinct the link to Era's API documentation and ask it to connect to Era. When Instinct asks for your key, give it that short-expiry key. Instinct can then answer from your real balances and transactions.

Era connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all.

1. Link your banks and cards in Era. Sign up at era.app; the Basic tier is free. Start the connect flow, choose your bank, and approve access on the screens that follow. Checking, savings and credit card accounts all come through the same way. If your bank isn't listed, import a CSV export instead.

2. Make a key for Instinct. In Era, open Agents → API keys and choose Create key (or Create another key if you already have one). Then fill in the form:

   • Name: "Instinct", so you can find it later.
   • Scopes: these are Era's word for permissions. The everyday ones start ticked, and some of those end in "write", which lets the key make changes. If you only want answers, untick every ticked scope that ends in "write"; you can add write access later with a new key. If you want Instinct to recategorize, tag and set rules, leave them ticked. Leave the unticked scopes as they are: nothing in this guide needs them.
   • Expiry: pick the shortest option that covers what you're doing.

   Then choose Create key and Copy key. Era shows the key once and can't show it again.

3. Ask Instinct to connect to Era. You don't need to understand the docs; Instinct reads them itself. Text it this request:

   Connect to my Era account through Era's API. The documentation is at https://era.app/docs/era-api. It authenticates with an Era API key sent in the X-API-Key header. Ask me for the key when you need it.
   

   Instinct builds its connection from Era's API documentation.

4. Give Instinct the key when it asks. Reply with the key you copied in step 2. It acts as your Era account until it expires or you revoke it, so send it only in answer to Instinct's request, and don't paste it anywhere else. The short expiry you picked means it lapses on its own.

5. Ask a first question you can check. Try: "Using Era, what are my current balances, and what did I spend on groceries in the last 30 days?" Compare the balances with the ones Era shows you. If they match, Instinct is working from your real accounts.

If Instinct says the key doesn't work, open Agents → API keys in Era and look at its Expires date. A key that has expired or been revoked can't be revived, so make a new one and give Instinct that instead. If Instinct can read your accounts but can't change anything, the key was made without write access. A key's scopes are fixed when you make it, so make a new key with write access and revoke the old one. If Instinct says it's hit a limit, it sent requests faster than your plan allows. Wait a minute and ask again. The free plan also has a daily allowance that frees up gradually over 24 hours; paid plans have none. The limits belong to your account, so every key shares them, and each plan's figures are in Era's API documentation.

What can Instinct see and change with an Era key?

With read access, Instinct sees balances, transactions, spending breakdowns and recurring charges across every account you linked. With write access, it can also recategorize, tag, set standing rules and save to Era's memory. Moving money between your own accounts is in private beta and off by default for every key, and any transfer always needs your approval.

With a read-only key, Instinct can answer questions like these:

• "What's my balance across checking and savings right now?"
• "Break down my spending by category this month, and compare it with last month."
• "What does my cash flow look like, and where will my spending land by the end of the month?"
• "Find every charge from that hardware store since June."

With write access, Instinct can also change things for you:

• Tidy transactions. Recategorize a charge, rename a merchant, or add and remove tags.
• Set standing rules in plain English. "Tag every rideshare charge as commuting" becomes a rule that keeps sorting new transactions between conversations, so next month's spending arrives already organized.
• Start a new bank connection. Instinct can open the connection for you and hand you the link. You finish it yourself, so your banking login still never passes through Instinct.
• Remember what matters to you. A goal or preference Instinct saves to Era's memory is there for Claude, ChatGPT and any other assistant you connect to Era. Saving something to memory is a change, so Instinct needs a key with write access to do it.

Each key acts as your whole Era account, so grant only what you use now. A key with write access can also disconnect a bank from Era, which stops that bank syncing for every assistant. If you'd rather Instinct couldn't do that, give it a read-only key. Which plans include write access is on the pricing page, and each plan's request limits are in Era's API documentation.

Can Instinct find subscriptions to cancel?

Yes. Ask Instinct to list every recurring charge across your accounts from Era, with each one's amount and how often it bills. Era finds the charges; cancelling happens with each company that bills you, so if Instinct handles that, tell it to check with you first. Then ask it to set a rule that tags new recurring charges.

Era spots recurring charges from the pattern in your transactions: subscriptions, bills and regular income, each with an estimated monthly amount, how often it repeats and when it last appeared. A few requests that work well:

• "Using Era, list every subscription I'm paying for, largest first, with the last date each one charged me."
• "What do my subscriptions add up to each month?"
• "Set a rule in Era that tags every new recurring charge as a subscription, so I can review it."

For a longer walk through the same hunt, see how to find subscriptions you forgot about.

How do I cut Instinct off?

Revoke its key in your Era dashboard. A key you made yourself stops working from its very next request, and your bank connections stay in place for your other assistants. To remove a bank itself, disconnect it in Era, which ends that bank's access for every assistant at once.

To revoke the key, open Agents → API keys, find the one you named Instinct, choose Revoke, then confirm with Revoke key. That can't be undone, but making a replacement takes a minute if you change your mind.

Revoking a key doesn't reverse changes Instinct already made. Era keeps an edit trail, so you can undo any edit, yours or your assistant's, whenever you like.

If you only need Instinct for a while, the expiry does the work for you: the key stops on the date you chose, with nothing to remember.

Using more than one assistant

Instinct isn't the only assistant that can work from your Era account. Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants connect to the same accounts, each with its own approval, and every one of them reads the same categories, rules and memory. See how to connect any AI agent to your bank accounts for the rest.