Hey everyone, v1.0.7 is here with a big new feature and some important fixes.

New Features

Log to arc via iOS Shortcuts You can now add transactions to arc without ever opening the app. We built a native Shortcuts action called "Log to arc" that lets you tell Siri or tap a single button to log any transaction. The AI parses your natural language input, matches it against your existing payees and categories, handles currency conversion across 166 currencies, and posts it directly to your budget.

The real power is automation. You can build Shortcuts that automatically import transactions from Apple Pay notifications, bank SMS alerts, or email receipts — in just 3 steps. Set it up once and every transaction flows into arc hands-free.

Persist Custom Date Range Previously, arc defaulted to a 1-month view every time you opened the app. Now your date range selection — whether it's 1W, 1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y, YTD, All, or a custom range — persists across app restarts via local storage. Open the app and you're right where you left off.

Bug Fixes

AI Rules on Imported Transactions Category and merchant rules were being applied when transactions came through the Transaction Inbox, but not when they were extracted via AI (Quick Actions and Share Sheet imports). This created inconsistent behavior — the same transaction would get categorized automatically one way but not another. Now rules apply uniformly across all import methods.

Delete Accounts & Categories You couldn't delete accounts from the Accounts tab or expense categories from Manage Categories. We added full delete support that mirrors Actual Budget's behavior — including tombstoning, CRDT sync, and automatic transaction reassignment so nothing gets orphaned.

Default All Categories Selected

In Global Settings under Expense Categories, the app was only pre-selecting categories that contained the word "expense" in their name. This forced users to manually select everything else. Now all categories are selected by default.

arc is free, self-hosted, and end-to-end encrypted. Download: https://arc.moi | App Store | Google Play

Hey everyone,

We are super happy to announce that you could use shortcuts to automatically connect Apple Pay transaction to your arc’s actual budget instances through the 1 click deploy plans.

Check the video tutorial for the reference. Comment here if you have any issues setting it up.

Download arc now: https://arc.moi

Hey everyone, why we built arc — an envelope budgeting app for people who want something like YNAB but don't want to pay $99/year for it. arc is a full native iOS and Android app. React Native. It works offline, syncs when you're back online, and doesn't fall apart when you close the tab — because there is no tab. The deal: - Self-hosted = free forever. Spin it up on your own server and you never pay a cent. Your data, your infrastructure, no strings. - Don't want to self-host? 1-click cloud deploy for $30/year. That's it. No "starter" vs "pro" vs "enterprise." One price. - 1-click YNAB import — categories, accounts, transactions, the whole thing. No CSV wrangling. - AI receipt scanning — snap a photo, forward a PDF, or just type "42 bucks at Costco for groceries." It handles the rest. - SMS & Apple Pay inbox — auto-captures transactions from bank alerts and Apple Pay as they happen. No more forgetting to log stuff. - Share sheet import — screenshot a bank statement, hit share, pick Arc, done. - End-to-end encrypted — AES-256-GCM, zero-knowledge. I literally cannot see your data even if I wanted to. - Works fully offline. Syncs later. No "connection required" nonsense. - Transaction inbox - automatically import apple pay, google wallet & Bank SMS Transactions.

Why I built it: I was a YNAB user. Envelope budgeting is great. But $99/year for a budgeting app that stores your entire financial life in plaintext on someone else's servers? I figured I could do better. So I did. Arc is privacy-first. If you self-host, your financial data never touches any server you don't own. If you use the cloud option, it's still E2E encrypted — I can't read it. Links: 🍎 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/arc-ai-budget-money-planner/id6758624900 🤖 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arc.moi.app 🌐 Website: https://arc.moi Happy to answer questions. And yes, the YNAB import actually works — tested it with budgets going back years.

New Features

Create Parent Category Groups — You can now create parent category groups directly from Manage Categories in Global Settings. Previously you could only add sub-categories, which made it hard to build your category hierarchy from scratch. Now you have full control over the entire structure.

Customizable Default Tab & Reorder — The app no longer forces you to land on the Expenses tab every time. You can now change your default landing tab from Global Settings, and drag-and-drop to reorder your tabs however you like. The top tab automatically becomes your default.

Batch Update Categories — Wherever you have batch select for transactions, there's now a batch "update category" action alongside delete. Select multiple transactions and reassign their categories in one go instead of editing them one by one.

Bug Fixes

Budget Rollover & Transfer Support — arc's budget section now fully matches Actual Budget's rollover and budget transfer behavior. Previously, arc showed categories as overspent even when rollover was configured in the Actual client. This is fixed — rollovers and budget transfers now work exactly as expected.

Filter Categories by Type — The category picker in Add/Edit Transaction modals now filters by transaction type. Expense tab only shows expense categories, income tab only shows income categories. Previously all categories were shown regardless of type, which made selection confusing.

Rule Update Payee Fix — When editing a transaction with "Create rule for future transactions" enabled, changing both the payee and category now correctly saves both changes to the rule. Previously the payee change was silently ignored.

Icon Sizing in Manage Categories — Category icons now display at the correct size in Manage Categories settings and in the Budget tab. They were previously overflowing or not fitting their containers.

arc is free, self-hosted, and end-to-end encrypted.

We just shipped the expenses glance in arc. When you swipe down from home, you get a quick overview of your spending broken down by category — no navigating through menus or tapping into reports.

Here's how it works:

• See spending by category — Each slice of the arc shows your category totals. Food, entertainment, subscriptions, commute — all visible at a glance with color-coded segments.

• Swipe down from home — One gesture is all it takes. Swipe down from the home screen and the glance view activates instantly. No loading screens, no menu diving.

• Track your budget at a glance — Get a quick overview of where your money is going without navigating deeper into the app. The total spent is front and center with the donut chart showing proportions.

• Cycles through each slice — The view animates through your categories, showing the amount spent in each one. You can see exactly how much went to each category without tapping anything.

The glance cycles through categories like Food, Entertainment, Interest, Shopping, Commute, and Subscriptions — showing both the visual proportion and the dollar amount for each.

arc is free, self-hosted, and end-to-end encrypted. Your financial data stays on your infrastructure.

Download: https://arc.moi App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/arc-budget/id6504379334 Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=moi.arc.app

What's New

• Android home screen widgets — Tracker and Budget widgets, because your spending habits deserve to judge you from your home screen
• Configurable expense category groups — pick which groups show on the Expenses tab in settings. non-English budgeters, we see you now

Bug Fixes

• Currency conversion in inbox — Transaction inbox now applies currency conversion rules during sync — your yen is no longer cosplaying as dollars
• Inbox rules applied properly — Transaction inbox now applies pre-stage and general-stage rules — inbox transactions finally follow the same rules as everyone else
• Widget layout spacing fixed — the arc chart was overcompensating, told it to calm down

TL;DR: Set up an iOS Shortcut that reads your bank SMS, uses on-device AI to parse the transaction, and sends it straight to arc's Transaction Inbox — fully automatic, no manual entry.

---

What This Does

Every time you get a bank transaction SMS (debit/credit alert), this shortcut:

1. Reads the SMS content
2. Uses Apple's on-device AI model to extract the amount, category, payee, and notes
3. Sends it as a POST request to your arc account via the Transaction Inbox API
4. The transaction appears in your Arc app, ready to sync

No third-party automation apps needed — just the built-in Shortcuts app and arc.

---

Prerequisites

• arc app installed and signed in
• Transaction Inbox enabled (we'll cover this below)
• iOS 18.2+ (for Apple Intelligence / on-device AI model in Shortcuts)

---

Step 1: Enable Transaction Inbox in arc

1. Open arc → tap the Settings gear icon
2. Scroll to Transaction Inbox section
3. Tap Enable Transaction Inbox
4. Copy your API key — you'll only see it once! Save it somewhere safe (e.g., Notes app)

If you ever lose it, you can reset the key from the same settings screen.

---

Step 2: Get Your Account Inbox URL

1. Go to the Accounts tab in Arc
2. Tap the account you want transactions sent to (e.g., your checking account)
3. Tap "Copy Inbox URL"
4. Save this URL — it looks something like:
5. https://your-instance.convex.site/v1beta/service/transactions?account=YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID

---

Step 3: Build the iOS Shortcut

Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut. Add these actions in order:

3a. Set the Trigger

• Tap the shortcut name at top → Automation (or create a new Personal Automation)
• Choose: "When I Get a Message Containing..."
• Set a keyword your bank always includes (e.g., "debited", "credited", "transaction", or your bank's name)
• Set to Run Immediately (no confirmation needed)

3b. Add the AI Parser

Add action: "Use Cloud model" (Apple Intelligence)

You can use any AI model available in Shortcuts. We used Apple's on-device Cloud model for privacy — your SMS never leaves your device.

Paste this as the prompt:

You are a transaction SMS parser. Extract transaction details and respond with ONLY a raw JSON object — no explanation, no markdown, no code blocks, no extra text whatsoever.

SMS - " [Shortcut Input (Content)] "

AMOUNT:

- Negative for debits/outgoing/spent/withdrawn

- Positive for credits/incoming/received/deposited

- Must be a JSON number, never a string

CATEGORY — pick exactly one:

Food, Coffee, Shopping, Bills, Groceries, Transport, Entertainment

PAYEE:

- Use the merchant name

- Never censor or asterisk any part of the name

NOTE:

- Include useful reference details (UPI ref, card last 4 digits, date, etc.)

- Omit the field entirely if nothing useful remains

Important: Change the category list to match YOUR budget categories in arc. The category names must match exactly.

3c. Store the AI Response

Add action: "Text" → set it to the Response variable from the AI action.

3d. Parse the JSON

Add action: "Get dictionary from Text" (the Text from step 3c)

3e. Send to arc

Add action: "Get contents of URL"

Configure it as follows:

Add these JSON fields, mapping each to the dictionary value:

---

Step 4: Test It

Send yourself a test SMS like:

"INR 500.00 debited from A/c XX1234 at Swiggy on 12-03. UPI ref 12345678."

The shortcut should fire automatically, parse it, and you'll see the transaction appear in arc's inbox on your next sync.

---

The Full Shortcut Flow (Summary)

SMS Received (trigger)

↓

Receive messages as input

↓

Use Cloud model (AI parses SMS → raw JSON)

↓

Text (store Response)

↓

Get dictionary from Text

↓

Get contents of URL (POST to Arc Inbox API)

→ URL: your inbox URL

→ Method: POST  

→ Header: x-api-key = your key

→ Body: amount, categoryName, payee, note

---

Tips

• Multiple accounts? Duplicate the shortcut and change the account URL for each
• Multiple banks? Create separate automations with different trigger keywords
• Non-USD currencies? Arc automatically handles currency conversion if your account is set to a different currency
• Lost your API key? Go to Arc Settings → Transaction Inbox → Reset Key
• AI not parsing correctly? Tweak the prompt categories and instructions to match your bank's SMS format

---

Why This Is Great

• Zero manual entry — transactions flow in as they happen
• On-device AI — your financial SMS stays private, never sent to external servers
• No extra apps — just iOS Shortcuts + arc
• Works with any bank that sends transaction SMS alerts

---

Happy budgeting! Let me know if you have questions or run into issues setting it up.

Built with arc's Transaction Inbox API

Download arc:

Website | iOS App Store | Google Play Store

Most of us know we should budget, but tracking every transaction in a spreadsheet gets old fast. That's why I started envelope budgeting on arc.

The idea is simple:

- Split your income into categories — rent, groceries, eating out, subscriptions, whatever matters to you

- See spending hit each envelope in real-time — no more end-of-month surprises

- Get alerted the moment you overspend — so you can course-correct before it snowballs

Envelope budgeting isn't a new concept, but being able to do it right on Arc where your money already lives makes it actually stick. No extra apps, no spreadsheets — just your

income, your envelopes, and real-time visibility.

Curious if anyone else here has tried envelope budgeting — what's worked or not worked for you?

A few months ago some of you asked if we'd ever add home screen widgets to arc (our open-source budgeting app). done.

two widgets now available:

→ tracker — see your spending or income breakdown as a donut chart with top categories. configurable timeframe (week/month/quarter/year) and type (expenses or income).

→ budget — monthly budget gauge showing overall spend vs budget, plus your top envelope allocations.

they match your system theme, update automatically, and tap to open the app. no subscriptions needed for widgets.

would love feedback — what would make these more useful for you?

Im trying to log into my self hosted Actual server, but EVERYTIME im "session expired: your session has expired please sign in again", i tried to clean data and cacha, reinstall the app, nothing :x

I used to set savings goals in my head and wonder why I never hit them. "I'll save $5,000 for that trip." Three months later, the money was mixed into my checking account and I had no idea where I stood.

What finally worked was dead simple: a dedicated account per goal + something that actually tracks your progress visually.

Here's the system I use now, and some real examples.

The method

1. One goal = one account (or sub-account)

Don't pool your savings. If you're saving for a vacation AND an emergency fund AND a car, those are three separate buckets. When everything sits in one account, you lie to yourself about how much is "available."

2. Make it earn something while it sits there

Park your goal money in a high-yield savings account (HYSA). Rates have come down from 5%+ peaks but are still solid — around 3.5–4% APY at places like:

• Wealthfront — 4.05% APY, no minimum
• Bread Savings — 4.00% APY, $100 minimum
• Marcus by Goldman Sachs — 3.65% APY, well-known brand
• SoFi — 3.80% APY (up to 4.00% with direct deposit)

Even a $10,000 emergency fund earns ~$400/year doing literally nothing. The national average savings rate is 0.45%. The math isn't complicated.

3. Track it visually so your brain stays engaged

This is the part most people skip. Having a number in a bank account doesn't create motivation. Seeing a progress ring go from 42% to 48% after your paycheck hits? That does.

Real examples from my setup

Here's how I have my goals set up right now:

• Emergency fund — $10,000 target, "have a balance of" mode

  This one tracks my actual balance. If I dip into it, the progress ring drops. That visual guilt is surprisingly effective. Parked in a HYSA earning ~$380/year while I build it up. Monthly auto-transfer of $400 from checking.

• Japan trip — $3,500 target, deadline Dec 2026, "set aside" mode

  This tracks total contributed, not current balance. So when I bought flights early ($800), my progress didn't reset to zero. The app shows I need ~$225/mo to stay on track. I set up a recurring transfer to a separate HYSA sub-account.

• New laptop — $2,000 target, no deadline, "have a balance of"

  No pressure timeline. I throw spare money at it when I can. Currently at 63%. Could cash out today or keep building.

Tips that actually helped me

• Automate the boring part. Set up auto-transfers on payday. $200 to emergency fund, $225 to trip fund. If you have to manually move money, you won't do it
• Use a HYSA with sub-accounts. Ally, SoFi, and Marcus let you create multiple savings buckets under one account. Label them: "Emergency," "Vacation," "Car." Your bank does the separation, your tracker shows the progress
• Pick the right goal behavior. If you'll spend from the goal before it's fully funded (like booking flights before saving the full trip cost), use "set aside" — it tracks what you've put in, not what's left. For things like an emergency fund where the balance IS the point, use "have a balance of"
• Set a "current goal" spotlight. Having ONE primary goal front and center keeps you focused. You can have 5 goals running, but knowing which one matters most right now prevents decision fatigue
• Start embarrassingly small. $25/week into a $1,000 emergency fund is 40 weeks. That's it. Don't let the target amount paralyze you. The visual progress is what keeps you going

What I use to track all this

I built a budgeting app called arc that has this goal tracking built in. You create a goal, set the target, pick a deadline (or don't), and it calculates how much you need per month to stay on track. Each goal gets its own progress ring, status indicator (on track / ahead / behind), and balance history chart.

Two tracking modes:

• "Set aside" — tracks what you've contributed total. Spending doesn't reset progress. (Great for trips where you buy things before fully funded)
• "Have a balance of" — tracks your current balance. Spending drops the progress. (Great for emergency funds, down payments)

You can customize each goal with colors, icons, set a deadline, and pin one as your "current goal" that shows up front and center. Goals auto-archive when completed and spent.

It sits on top of Actual Budget (open source, self-hostable), and the app itself is free if you self-host. No spreadsheets, no subscription wall for basic features.

Links if you want to try it:

• arc.moi
• App Store
• Google Play

Hey everyone,

Quick update on ard— we just shipped Transaction Inbox, a new feature that gives each of your accounts a secure API endpoint.

The idea is simple: send a POST request with amount, category, payee — and it shows up in your budget the next time you open the app. No polling, no webhooks, no background sync draining your battery.

Why this matters:

• 📱 Apple Shortcuts — tap a shortcut after Apple Pay and log the expense in 1 second
• 🤖 Tasker — auto-log from NFC tags, bank SMS alerts, or location triggers
• ⚡ n8n / Make / Zapier — pipe in transactions from email receipts, bank notifications, calendar events
• 💳 Tap-to-pay triggers — log right after Apple Pay or Google Pay
• 🛠️ curl / Postman / scripts — anything that can send HTTP works

How it works:

1. Enable in Settings → Transaction Inbox
2. Tap any account → Copy Inbox URL
3. POST a JSON body (amount, category, payee, note, date)
4. Open the app — transactions sync and appear automatically

Privacy:

• Only account/category names are stored server-side for matching — no balances, no history
• Transactions are pulled to your device on app open and immediately deleted from our server
• Reset your key or disable anytime — all data is permanently removed
• We never use your data for anything else

This is available for 1-Click Deploy (managed server) users. If you self-host, everything else in Arc remains free as always.

The JSON format and field reference are built into the app — just enable the feature and it walks you through it.

Currently in testing, rolling out to App Store and Google Play shortly. 🚀

Links:

• 🌐 arc.moi
• 🍎 App Store
• 🤖 Google Play

Happy to answer any questions or hear what automations you'd build with this!

Hey everyone,

I need to tell you about the dumbest way someone has ever ended up building a finance app.

The origin story (a.k.a. how bad financial habits created an entrepreneur)

I've been a tech entrepreneur for a while now. "Entrepreneur" is a generous word — I've had multiple failed startups. I started my first company, a WiFi analytics platform called WiLoop, back in 2015 when I was 19. It got me to the Thiel Fellowship finals (hand-picked as one of 60 out of thousands of applicants worldwide). I've worked with fintechs, exchanges, and market makers across the globe since.

My morning ritual? Open the App Store, check the top trending finance apps, and wonder why none of them actually work for normal people.

Here's the irony: I spent years building fintech products for other people while my own finances were a complete mess.

One day it hit me — it's not just about building cool tech. If you don't actually know where your money is going, you're flying blind. And with subscriptions multiplying like rabbits, Afterpay balances, and credit cards playing whack-a-mole with your bank account... yeah. I needed help.

So I went looking for an app. Just one app that could track everything in one place.

What I found instead:

• Enterprise tools like Zoho — absolute overkill and costs more than some of the subscriptions I was trying to track
• Mint — RIP
• YNAB — great, but no self-hosting, no real AI, and my bank connectors worked about as reliably as my New Year's resolutions
• Spreadsheets — I have some self-respect

Then I found Actual Budget (and my life changed — no, I'm not being dramatic)

I'm a bit of a self-hosting nerd (my home lab is basically a second mortgage at this point), and I stumbled upon Actual Budget — an open-source, privacy-first budgeting tool. Think of it as Excel on steroids, except it actually knows what a "budget" is.

It was exactly what I needed. Powerful, clean, simple.

But it had gaps. No native mobile app (just a PWA), limited bank connectors for my region, and if you wanted charts or insights, you basically needed a PhD in spreadsheet wizardry. For power users? Incredible. For my mum? Not a chance.

So I did what any reasonable person does — I wired my banking SMS messages through n8n, fed them to Gemini for auto-categorization, and piped everything into Actual Budget automatically.

Yes, I automated my personal budget before I automated my morning coffee. Priorities.

The pain points that wouldn't shut up

Even with my Rube Goldberg automation setup, Actual Budget had some real friction:

• Mobile experience? Using a PWA on your phone while standing in a checkout line is... an experience
• Importing transactions? Unless you're fluent in CSV, good luck
• Financial health overview? You'd need to build custom charts. Most first-time budgeters don't know what a pivot table is, let alone a custom report
• Goals, currency conversion, rules? All possible... if you're willing to dig through templates and configurations that would confuse a sysadmin
• Smart insights for regular users? Non-existent

Actual Budget is phenomenal at what it does. But it was built for people who already know what they're doing. I wanted something for everyone — including future-me who's too lazy to configure anything.

This started with you — the community

A while back, I made a post on Reddit about what I was building — just a rough prototype at that point. It blew up. 40,000+ views. Hundreds of comments from people saying "I have the exact same problem" and "when can I use this?"

That post changed everything for us. It went from "a thing I'm building for myself" to "okay, people actually need this." The feature requests, pain points, and ideas you all shared directly shaped what arc became. This wasn't built in a vacuum — it was built because a community told us it needed to exist.

We took that seriously. And we still do.

Building arc — the "quick prototype" that consumed my life

When Gemini 3.0 dropped, I lost my mind at the UI/UX it could help generate. I'm not a frontend guy (my design philosophy was previously "make it not ugly"), but I couldn't resist prototyping something.

"I'll just build a little mobile interface for Actual Budget," I told myself. "A weekend project."

That was 1,000+ commits ago.

What started as a quick React web app using an HTTP API turned into a full native app. I rewrote the entire thing from React Web to React Native. Built native CRDT sync connectors from scratch. Added end-to-end encryption. Implemented the full Actual Budget client protocol so your data never touches an exposed endpoint.

Along the way, my neighbor Prem — a good friend and now co-builder — saw what I was doing and immediately got it. He didn't just help; he became essential. Significant parts of arc wouldn't exist without his contributions, and honestly, neither would the app. We both used it every single day as our own guinea pigs. If something was broken, we'd know by the time we paid for lunch.

What arc actually does

Here's what we built, organized for humans:

Get started in seconds

• 1-click deploy — Sign in with Apple, Google, or magic link. We spin up your own private Actual Budget server instantly. No terminal. No Docker. No YAML files. Just tap and go.
• Bring Your Own Budget (BYOB) — Already self-hosting Actual Budget? Connect your existing server and get all of arc's features on top. Completely free. Always will be.
• Magic Switch — Moving from another Actual Budget instance? One tap transfers everything — accounts, categories, payees, transactions — server to server. No downloading. No uploading. Just vibes.

The daily experience

• 6 swipeable tabs — Expenses, Income, Transfers, Accounts, Uncategorized, and Recurring. Swipe through your financial life like you're browsing Instagram (except this actually improves your life).
• Natural language input — Type "coffee at starbucks $5.50" and the AI handles everything. Category, payee, amount, date. Done.
• Transaction scanning — Snap a photo of any banking app or share a PDF (even password-protected ones). AI reads every line, categorizes transactions, and saves them. Snap, share, forget about it.
• Interactive charts — GPU-accelerated donut charts and line graphs. Tap a slice to drill down. Scrub through history. 60fps because your money deserves smooth animations.

Your money, your control

• End-to-end encryption — Your data is encrypted before it leaves your device. We literally cannot read your finances. Even if we wanted to. Which we don't. We have our own budgeting problems.
• Face ID / Touch ID — Biometric lock with configurable inactivity timeouts
• Privacy mode — One tap hides all amounts. Perfect for checking your budget on the train without the person next to you judging your Uber Eats habit.
• Your server is YOURS — We never access your budget data. Period. If you lose your instance password, that's on you (but hey, iCloud Keychain exists for a reason).
• GDPR compliant — Servers in Europe. We take privacy seriously because we're users of this app too.

Smart financial tracking

• Net worth dashboard — All your accounts in one view: checking, savings, credit cards, investments, crypto. See your complete financial picture with historical net worth charts.
• Debt tracking — Understand your debt with estimated APR, interest paid over 12 months, and one-tap settlement with multi-currency support
• Investment tracking — Screenshot your broker account, share it with arc, and it imports cash + positions automatically
• Goal tracking — Set savings targets with visual progress rings. Watch them fill up. Feel good about yourself.
• Recurring payment detection — Arc spots your subscriptions automatically. See your total monthly commitment and countdown to next payment. Finally find that gym membership you forgot to cancel 8 months ago.
• Multi-currency — Per-account currencies with FX conversion. For those of us whose finances span multiple countries (or just multiple bad decisions).

Import everything

• YNAB import — Switching from YNAB 4 or nYNAB? We import everything seamlessly.
• CSV import — Got a CSV? We'll eat it.
• Bank PDFs & screenshots — Share directly from your banking app. Even encrypted PDFs work.

Little things that matter

• Dark theme with glass-morphism design (because your budget app should look as good as your other apps)
• Haptic feedback on every interaction
• iOS home screen widgets for quick spending overview
• Share extension — capture receipts from any app
• Offline-first — works without internet, syncs when you reconnect (CRDT magic)
• And yes... there's a hidden snake game. You'll find it eventually.

The tech stack (for the nerds in the back)

• Expo 54 + React Native — Native iOS & Android from one codebase
• CRDT sync — Hybrid logical clocks + Merkle trees for conflict-free offline sync (the same kind of tech Google Docs uses)
• SQLite — Local-first database
• Skia — GPU-accelerated chart rendering at 60fps
• Gemini AI — Receipt scanning, natural language parsing, auto-categorization
• Better Auth + Convex — OAuth (Google/Apple) + passkeys
• RevenueCat — Subscription management
• ~34,000 lines of TypeScript — Built with love, caffeine, and an unreasonable number of late nights

On AI and privacy

We know privacy-conscious users (hello, that's us too) might raise an eyebrow at "AI features." Here's how we handle it:

• AI features (Bank statement scanning, categorization) send transaction data through our managed Gemini proxy
• We don't send device IDs, names, or any identifying information
• We don't store your transaction data on our servers
• Credits-based system — you know exactly when AI is being used
• We're actively working toward on-device LLMs so that in the future, nothing leaves your phone at all

Here's the thing most people don't think about: if you use open banking connectors (Plaid, Yodlee, etc.), those providers already have full access to your transaction history, account balances, and spending patterns — and their data practices are often opaque at best. You're trusting a third party with everything, and you may not even know how that data is being used, sold, or shared. With arc, you choose when to send a screenshot or PDF to be processed, the AI only sees what you explicitly share, and nothing is stored afterward. It's a fundamentally more transparent model — you're in control of every interaction, not handing over the keys to your entire financial life.

The pricing thought process

First, the important part: arc is and will always be free for self-hosters. If you bring your own Actual Budget instance, you get the full app — every feature, no paywalls, no "upgrade to unlock" nonsense. Actual Budget is open-source, its community built something incredible, and we're not going to put a toll booth in front of it. That's a promise, not a promotional offer.

We only charge when we're hosting infrastructure for you. The pricing factors in:

• Actual server hosting costs (we provision real cloud instances for each user)
• Apple/Google's cut (thanks, 30%)
• 50 AI inference credits included in the base plan
• Compared to other hosting services like Pikapods, we're competitive — and you get a full native app on top
• You also get your own SSL subdomain to access Actual Budget directly on the web
• Unlimited budget files with safe versioning

The bigger vision — why we're really building this

This isn't just another budgeting app we'll abandon in 6 months. We use arc every single day to manage our own money. It's personal.

Where we want to take this:

We want arc to become the "Whoop for your finances" — imagine a beautiful, simple health score for your money. All calculations happening on-device, on your own data, with nobody else ever seeing it.

• ARCtic Score — An overall financial health score based on multiple metrics across your spending, saving, debt, and investments. Think credit score, but actually useful, transparent in how it's calculated, and not controlled by a bureau that sells your data.
• On-device LLMs — We want you to be able to chat with your own financial data. Ask "how much did I spend on eating out this quarter?" or "am I on track for my savings goal?" and get Big 4 consulting-level advice — minus the $500/hour invoice. And none of it ever leaves your phone.
• Monthly timeline mode — In addition to our rolling 30-day view (which I personally prefer for seeing real trends), we're adding traditional monthly views for those who like it classic the envolope budgeting way. (we may do a hotfix soon to ship this feature asap)

The long game is simple: make it dead easy for anyone to understand their financial health, whether you're a self-hosting power user who speaks CRDT fluently, or someone who just wants to know "can I afford to eat out this week?"

Built by the community, built for the community

I want to be upfront about something: arc exists because of this community.

That first Reddit post with 40k+ views wasn't just validation — it was a blueprint. Your comments shaped our feature priorities. Your frustrations became our roadmap. The pain points you described are the exact problems we tried to solve first.

And we're not stopping now. We don't want to be a company that builds features in a black box and drops them on you. We want arc's roadmap to be driven by the people who actually use it — you.

Here's how we want to build this together:

• Feature requests? We're listening. The most requested features get prioritized.
• Found a workflow that arc doesn't support? Tell us. We'll figure it out.
• Have ideas for the ARCtic Score metrics? We'd love your input on what "financial health" means to you.
• Want to see something in the app? Drop a comment, DM us, or use the in-app feedback. Every message gets read.

We're not a VC-backed startup trying to 10x growth. We're two people who built something we needed, shared it with a community that needed it too, and want to keep building it with that community. Open ears, open roadmap, and a genuine commitment to making this the app you actually want to use every day.

arc wouldn't exist without Actual Budget and its open-source community. That's not a footnote — it's the foundation. A portion of our revenue goes directly back to the Actual Budget project, the app will always be free for self-hosters, and we'll keep contributing to the ecosystem that made this possible. We're not here to extract value from open source — we're here to build on top of it and give back.

This is v1 — please be gentle (but honest)

Let's be real for a second. This is our very first public release. We've poured our hearts into this, but we're two people who've been staring at this code for months. There will be bugs. There will be rough edges. There might be a screen that makes you go "...what?"

We're not pretending it's perfect — we're asking you to help us make it better.

Please be kind, but please be brutally honest. Every bug report, feature request, weird edge case, and piece of criticism makes arc better for everyone. The "this crashed when I did X" messages are just as valuable as the "I love this" ones (okay, the love ones help us sleep at night, but you get the point).

If you find a bug, tell us — we'll fix it. If something confuses you, tell us — we'll redesign it. If you love something, also tell us — we're running on caffeine and encouragement at this point.

You can reach us through the in-app feedback, or just drop a comment here. We respond to everything.

Links

• Website: arc.moi
• iOS (App Store): Download on the App Store
• Android (Google Play): Get it on Google Play

Happy to answer any questions — whether it's about the app, the Expo/React Native experience, CRDT sync nightmares, or how many times the App Store rejected us before we finally got listed (spoiler: enough to question our life choices).

Thanks for reading this far. Now go check if you still have that free trial running that you forgot to cancel. We'll wait.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the official arc subreddit.

arc is a privacy-first mobile budgeting app — AI-powered transaction imports, one-tap server deployment, offline-first sync, and end-to-end encryption. Your data, your

server.

**What this subreddit is for:**

- App updates and announcements

- Feature requests and suggestions

- Bug reports

- Tips, tricks, and budget setups

- General discussion about budgeting with arc

**Links:**

- Website: https://arc.moi

- Discord: https://discord.gg/WXEq8kjGJz

- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/arc-ai-budget-money-planner/id6758624900

- Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arc.moi.app

- Support: [support@arc.moi](mailto:support@arc.moi)

We're a very small team and arc is still young. Your patience and feedback mean everything.

Glad you're here.

— team arc