Connect any AI assistant to your UK bank accounts

Era connects your UK current accounts, credit cards and savings to any AI assistant. Clients that speak the Model Context Protocol (MCP), such as Claude and Cursor, connect to Era Context directly. Assistants that build their own connection to an API, such as Muse and Instinct, connect with an Era API key. Either way, you link your bank once through open banking, and every assistant works from the same data.

You don't have to pick one assistant and hope it's the right one. Use Claude for a deep look at your spending, Cursor while you code and another assistant on your phone. They all read the same accounts, the same rules and the same memory.

How does connecting an AI assistant to my UK bank work?

Link your bank in Era through open banking by approving access in your bank's own app or website. Then connect each AI assistant to Era: MCP clients add Era Context and ask for your consent, and API-based assistants use an Era API key you create. Every assistant then reads the same balances and transactions.

The setup follows the same pattern for every assistant:

1. Create an Era account at era.app. The Basic tier is free.
2. Link your bank through open banking. In Era, choose to connect a bank, then pick UK and European open banking under UK & EU. Choose your bank or building society and approve access in its app or website. Era never sees your online banking password.
3. Connect your assistant. Add Era Context to an MCP client, or give an API-based assistant an Era API key. Both routes are below.
4. Give your consent. An MCP client shows Era's consent screen, and you approve each assistant individually. An API key carries the permissions (Era calls them scopes) and the expiry you chose when you created it.
5. Ask about your money. Your assistant answers from your real accounts.

For a Claude walkthrough with every screen, read how to connect Claude to your UK bank account.

Assistants that connect through MCP

Every MCP client connects to the same Era Context server. Here's where each one takes it:

For every client, the server address is the same:

https://context.era.app/mcp

Configuration example

Claude Code's configuration looks like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://context.era.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Other clients use the same address with their own field names, and some take an API key instead of a consent screen. Era's connector settings give you the exact snippet for each client, and the Era Context MCP server reference covers the server itself.

Any assistant that can call an API

Not every assistant uses MCP. Some build their own client for a service from its API documentation, then call that service directly. Era's API reaches the same accounts, rules and memory as Era Context, so an assistant that works this way gets the same picture as Claude.

Before you make a key, know what it carries. A key acts as your whole Era account, not one bank or one question: a read-only key can read across all of it, and a key with write access can change categories, tags and rules or disconnect a bank. Moving money between your own accounts is in private beta and off by default for every key, and any transfer always needs your approval. The key can't reach your bank login, because Era never has it. Revoke a key and it stops working from its next request, while your bank connections stay in place for your other assistants.

Every API connection starts with a key:

1. In Era, open Agents, then API keys, and choose Create key (or Create another key if you already have one).
2. Give the key a name you'll recognise, such as the assistant's name.
3. Choose its Scopes, Era's word for permissions. Era ticks a starting set for you, and that set includes write access. For an assistant that only answers questions, untick every scope with "write" in its name. Changing categories, tags or rules, or saving something to Era's memory, needs a key with write access, so make a new key when you want that.
4. Choose an Expiry from the list. The shortest period you're happy with is the safest choice.
5. Select Copy key. Era shows the key only once and keeps a SHA-256 hash of it, not the key itself.

Muse

Muse works with outside services through Connectors, and it can build a Custom Connector for a service when you ask for one in chat. Ask Muse to create a Custom Connector for Era using Era's API documentation, and tell it the connector authenticates with an Era API key sent in the X-API-Key header. When Muse asks for the key, paste the one you copied.

Once the connector is saved, ask Muse something that proves it works: "Using my Era connector, what did I spend on groceries last month?"

Instinct

Instinct works by text and call, so connect it the same way you'd ask it for anything else. Text Instinct the link to Era's API documentation, ask it to connect to Era, and give it your key when it asks. Instinct then reads your accounts through Era, so it never needs your online banking login.

Start with a question you can check against your banking app: "What's my current account balance in Era?"

When a key expires

The assistant's connection stops working on the expiry date you chose. In Era's API keys, choose Create another key, then ask the assistant to update its Era credentials with the new one.

What can an AI assistant do with my bank data through Era?

An AI assistant connected to Era can check balances, search transactions, break down your spending, compare months, list recurring charges and forecast your cash flow. With write access it can also recategorise transactions, tag them and set standing rules. Moving money between your own accounts is in private beta and always needs your approval.

Questions that work in any connected assistant:

Accounts

• "What are my account balances?"
• "Show me all my connected accounts."

Transactions

• "How much did I spend at Waitrose this month?"
• "List everything I spent on travel since January."
• "Find my recurring charges."

Spending

• "Break down my spending by category this month."
• "Compare my spending this month with last month."
• "What's my cash flow looking like?"
• "Forecast my spending for the rest of the month."

Changes

• "Recategorise my coffee shop spending as eating out."
• "Tag every train ticket this year as commuting."
• "Create a rule that tags my gym membership as health."

The answers are the same whichever assistant you ask, because they all read the same data through Era.

Era keeps an edit trail, so you can undo any change an assistant makes.

Does every assistant share the same memory?

Yes. When you tell one assistant connected to Era a goal, a spending limit or a preference, Era stores it as a fact that every connected assistant reads. Tell Claude you're saving for a house deposit, and Cursor, Muse or any other assistant you connect to Era knows it the next time you ask.

You control that memory completely:

• Ask any assistant to remember something, and every assistant knows it. An assistant that connects with an API key needs a key with write access to save it.
• Ask any assistant to forget something, and it's gone everywhere.
• Your memory is scoped to your account, visible only to assistants you've connected, and never used to train models.

Setting up cross-agent memory walks through it step by step.

Automation rules

On paid plans, you can describe automation rules in plain English through any connected assistant:

• "Tag all Uber journeys as commuting."
• "Tidy up the merchant names on my Amazon purchases."
• "Put every direct debit to my energy supplier under bills."
• "Find recurring charges I might have forgotten about."

Your assistant creates the rule, and it starts working straight away. Unless you say otherwise, it also applies to transactions you already have, so describe exactly what you want. You can switch a rule off or delete it on the Rules page in Era at any time, and when you delete one you can choose to undo the changes it made. There's also a library of ready-made rules you can browse and switch on in Era. How to create AI rules for your money covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to connect my bank account to an AI assistant?

Era never gives an assistant your banking login. Here's how the protection works:

• Open banking approval: you approve access in your bank's own app or website, and Era never sees or stores your online banking password.
• Encryption: AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit.
• Your say-so for every assistant: each MCP client goes through Era's OAuth 2.1 consent screen, and each API-based assistant needs a key you created, with the scopes and expiry you picked.
• Data policy: your data is never sold, never used for advertising and never shared without your permission.

Era's privacy model goes into more detail.

What can the assistant see and change?

On the free Basic tier, your assistants have read access to two connected accounts: balances, transactions and spending breakdowns. Paid tiers add more accounts and write access, so an assistant can recategorise, tag and create rules. See pricing for what each tier includes.

Can I revoke access?

Yes. The assistants you've connected are listed on Era's API keys page, where an assistant you approved through the consent screen appears as a key marked Auto. Select Revoke, then Revoke key. A key you made yourself stops working from its next request. An assistant you approved through the consent screen can't get new access, and any access it already holds expires within an hour. To remove a bank altogether, disconnect it in Era, which ends access for every assistant at once.

Can the assistant move my money?

Moving money between your own accounts is in private beta, it's off by default for every key, and any transfer always needs your approval. Outside the private beta, an assistant can read and organise your accounts, but it can't move money.

Do I need a separate Era account for each assistant?

No. One Era account works with every assistant. Link your bank once, connect each assistant, and they all read the same data.

What happens when my bank asks me to approve again?

Open banking consent lasts for a set period. When a connection needs renewing, Era shows it on the account and offers Reconnect. Approve in your bank's app or website and syncing resumes, with nothing to change in your assistants.

Does Era work with my bank?

Era connects current accounts, credit cards and savings accounts at banks and building societies that offer open banking. Era connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all. To check your provider, start a connection in Era and search for it. If it isn't there, import a CSV export from your bank instead.

Getting started

1. Sign up at era.app. The Basic tier is free.
2. Link your bank through open banking and approve access in your bank's app.
3. Add Era Context to your MCP client, or create an API key for an assistant that uses Era's API.
4. Approve the consent screen, or hand over the key when your assistant asks.
5. Ask your assistant about your money.

One setup. Every assistant. Your finances, your choice of AI.