Crane Ledger for AI builders

You should not have to sign into your books. Your agent fills out the chart of accounts, connects Stripe and the bank on your infrastructure, posts journal entries, and keeps the ledger current. Generative UI is only for querying reports and inventing views on the fly — not for daily data entry.

Crane Ledger is the headless double-entry ledger of record under that agent. Payment rails and bank feeds live in your stack; the agent translates activity into balanced entries via MCP.

Who this is for

BuyerRole
The agentBookkeeping automation — COA, entries, invoices, bills, reconciliation
The builderShips the agent in Cursor, Claude Code, ChatGPT connectors, or vertical-AI SaaS

This is not for the person who logs into QuickBooks every morning. If your product is "AI that does the books," Crane Ledger is the backend.

Stack

LayerRole
AgentOwns integrations (Stripe webhooks, bank APIs, OCR, whatever you wire up); calls MCP to write the ledger
Generative UIChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or your app shell — read-heavy prompts, ad-hoc report views
Crane LedgerLedger of record — double-entry validation, org isolation, audit trail, financial reports
Agent  →  MCP  →  Crane Ledger  →  books
You    →  Generative UI  →  MCP  →  reports & invented views

Connect

MCP endpoint

SettingValue
URLhttps://api.craneledger.ai/mcp
TransportStreamable HTTP
Auth (OAuth)Sign in at consent UI — no key in the client
Auth (API key)Authorization: Bearer ha_live_…
Consenthttps://craneledger.ai/oauth/consent

Organization scope comes from your OAuth token or API key — you do not pass organization_id separately.

Scopes: ledger:read, ledger:write, and optionally ledger:admin.

See Authentication and MCP tools.

AuthPrefix / flowBest for
OAuth 2.1Consent at https://craneledger.ai/oauth/consentChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Grok — connector UIs
API key (live)ha_live_…Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, scripts
API key (test)ha_test_…Development and integration tests

Scopes: ledger:read, ledger:write, optionally ledger:admin. Organization scope comes from the token or key — do not pass organization_id separately.

Per-client setup: Connect your AI overview.

Pricing

OperationCost
Reads & reportsFree (0 credits)
Writes (create, update, delete, post)1 credit ($0.01)
New org signup500 free credits at craneledger.ai/auth/signin

Headless bootstrap (no browser): POST https://api.craneledger.ai/accounts/master — response includes a one-time api_key and 500 credits. Save the key immediately.

Top up credits

MethodWhen to use
purchase_credits (MCP)Stripe checkout URL for the billing master org
start_x402_credit_purchase / complete_x402_credit_purchase (MCP)USDC on Base via HTTP 402 — no browser
DashboardHuman billing at craneledger.ai

See Billing & Credits and x402 credit top-up.

MCP tools (90)

90 MCP tools cover accounts, transactions, invoices, bills, contacts, transfers, organizations, reporting, currency, reconciliation, recurring schedules, API keys, credits (purchase_credits, x402), drafts, and system probes.

Full catalog: MCP protocol reference · MCP tool catalog · llms.txt

First useful prompt

Once connected, start here:

Set up a basic chart of accounts for a small service business


Need help?

Create a free account (GitHub, Google, Apple, or email) to access our support portal. Once signed in, use the Support tab in your dashboard to submit a support ticket — no GitHub account required. Our team typically responds within 24 hours.