(This is the README in the hledger repo's bin/ directory, also published as the Scripts and add-ons page on hledger.org.)
A script is a program you can run immediately without needing to compile it first. They are often small and defined in a single file or shell alias or shell function. You can create your own simple or complex scripts which enhance hledger. Eg you might script a complicated report so you don't have to remember the detailed command(s).
A hledger add-on command is any program whose name begins with "hledger-". Add-on commands found in PATH will appear in the commands list (shown when you run hledger with no arguments). Some of the scripts below are add-ons. Some add-ons are written in Haskell and can use hledger's full power, like builtin commands.
Below are some existing scripts you can use or learn from. Most of these are collected in hledger's bin/ directory, which you can get by cloning the hledger source. Compiled add-ons are also listed below, in their own section.
Note, you don't need any of these extras if you are new to hledger - except possibly hledger-ui and hledger-web, which can be nice to have at the start.
Here are some scripts which don't use hledger directly, but might be useful to hledger users. (For more, see also: plaintextaccounting.org > Software).
pricehist is useful for downloading market prices / conversion rates; recommended. And hledger-pricehist is a small script to make it show up in the hledger commands list.
paypaljson downloads the last 30 days of Paypal transactions (requires a free developer account & API key).
paypaljson2csv (python) converts paypaljson's output to CSV, with format similar to Paypal's manually-downloaded CSV.
These scripts use hledger's command line interface, or process one of its output formats.
bashrc contains many example bash aliases and functions. After installing the bin scripts: as a bash user,
# customise FINDIR and LEDGER_FILE at the top of bin/bashrc
$ . bin/bashrc
$ fin # list the scripts available
ft is a way to organise your finance-related reports and scripts using standard bash. (See also Justfile below.)
$ alias f=~/src/hledger/bin/ft
$ f
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"; }
ft - finance tool: run financial reports and finance-related scripts
Usage: ft [COMMAND [ARGS]]
Commands:
help show this help
get-csv download auto-downloadable CSVs (paypal)
import-dry import new downloaded transactions to the journal, dry run
import import new downloaded transactions to the journal, logging and not printing errors
get-prices [PRICEHISTFETCHOPTS] - download prices for main commodities (default: today's)
bs show balance sheet
is show income statement
a show assets
r show revenues
x show expenses
ab show assets bar chart
rb show revenues bar chart
xb show expenses bar chart
al show assets line chart
rl show revenues line chart
xl show expenses line chart
forecast print transactions predicted by forecast rules from last week on
household show a draft month-end household adjustment transaction for last month
consulting show consulting revenue
bin [PAT] show all scripts in $DIR/bin/[bashrc] (default: ~/finance/)
OTHERCMD [ARGS] run other hledger commands on the default journal
Add hledger options to customise reports.
tt is a similar bash multi-script for time reports.
$ alias t=~/src/hledger/bin/tt
$ t
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tt - time tool: run time reports and time-related scripts
Usage: tt [COMMAND [ARGS]]
Commands:
help show this help
dash show time dashboard, redisplaying when timelog files change
status show current time status
what what happened ? Show largest balances first, today and depth 1 by default
dots print line of N dots, grouped in 4s (suitable for timedot)
x horizontal time summary this year, monthly by default
y vertical time summary this year, monthly by default
rweeks recent weeks' time budgets
weeks this and last week's time budgets
hours show a bar chart of daily hours
accunused show unused / undeclared accounts
accunusedcat show unused / undeclared accounts by category
accadd add declarations for all undeclared accounts
budgets show monthly time budget performance this year
budgetsy show monthly time budget performance this year, vertically
budgetsw show weekly time budget performance this year
budgetswx show weekly time budget performance this year, horizontally
OTHERCMD [ARGS] run other hledger commands on $TIMELOG
Add hledger options to customise reports.
https://github.com/casey/just is a nice tool for organising financial reports and scripts, similar to make, but more robust for this use case. I can recommend it. See also hledger and just.
Here is a Justfile reimplementing the ft and tt scripts more simply:
$ brew install just # eg
$ alias j=just
$ cd ~/finance
$ cp ~/src/hledger/bin/Justfile . # or start from scratch: just --init
$ j
Justfile commands:
watch CMD # rerun the given command with watchexec whenever local files change
get-csv # download auto-downloadable CSVs (paypal)
import-dry # import new downloaded transactions to the main journal, dry run
import # import new downloaded transactions to the journal, logging and not printing errors
get-prices *PRICEHISTFETCHOPTS # show prices for main commodities (default: today's)
bs *HLEDGERARGS # show balance sheet
is *HLEDGERARGS # show income statement
a *HLEDGERARGS # show assets
r *HLEDGERARGS # show revenues
x *HLEDGERARGS # show expenses
ab *HLEDGERARGS # show assets bar chart
rb *HLEDGERARGS # show revenues bar chart
xb *HLEDGERARGS # show expenses bar chart
al *HLEDGERARGS # show assets line chart
rl *HLEDGERARGS # show revenues line chart
xl *HLEDGERARGS # show expenses line chart
forecast *HLEDGERARGS # print transactions predicted by forecast rules from last week on
household *HLEDGERARGS # show a draft month-end household adjustment transaction for last month
consulting *HLEDGERARGS # show consulting revenue
tdash *HLEDGERARGS # show time dashboard, redisplaying when timelog files change
tstatus *HLEDGERARGS # show current time status
twhat *HLEDGERARGS # what happened ? Show largest time balances first, today and depth 1 by default
tdots N # print line of N dots, grouped in 4s (suitable for timedot)
tx *HLEDGERARGS # horizontal time summary this year, monthly by default
ty *HLEDGERARGS # vertical time summary this year, monthly by default
tweeks *HLEDGERARGS # this and last week's time budgets
tweekspast *HLEDGERARGS # recent past weeks' time budgets
thours *HLEDGERARGS # show a bar chart of daily hours
taccunused *HLEDGERARGS # show unused / undeclared time accounts
taccunusedcat *HLEDGERARGS # show unused / undeclared time accounts by category
taccadd *HLEDGERARGS # add declarations for all undeclared time accounts
tbudgets *HLEDGERARGS # show monthly time budget performance this year
tbudgetsy *HLEDGERARGS # show monthly time budget performance this year, vertically
tbudgetsw *HLEDGERARGS # show weekly time budget performance this year
tbudgetswx *HLEDGERARGS # show weekly time budget performance this year, horizontally
watchaccounts shows hledger account names, updating on file change under the current directory. Arguments are passed to the hledger accounts command. Useful when cleaning up accounts.
$ watchaccounts expenses -2
$ watchaccounts -f time.journal client1 date:thismonth -l
sortandmergepostings is an adventuresome awk script intended to clean up and merge similar postings in a transaction (see original discussion). It sorts postings so that positive ones are first, negative ones last. Within each sign, postings are sorted alphabetically by account name. Lastly if there are multiple postings to the same account in the same direction, it tries to merge them (by leaving some amounts blank). Piping the output to hledger print can recalculate the missing amounts. Multiple runs might be needed to clean up all duplicates.
$ sortandmergepostings input.journal | hledger -f - print -x
hledger-simplebal shows how to reliably report a single machine-readable number with hledger. This and the other "hledger-" scripts are add-on commands.
$ hledger simplebal
hledger-bar prints quick bar charts in the terminal.
$ hledger bar reimbursement
2023-01 ++++++
2023-02 ++
2023-03 ++
2023-04 -------
$ hledger bar # show help
$ hledger bar food # monthly food expenses
$ hledger bar -- 1 --count food # monthly food posting counts
$ hledger bar -- type:c not:tag:clopen cur:\\\\$ -W # weekly cashflow, $ only
$ hledger bar -- type:al not:tag:clopen cur:\\\\$ # monthly net worth change ($)
$ hledger bar -- type:rx --invert cur:\\\\$ # monthly profit/loss ($)
$ hledger bar -- -v 1 -f $TIMELOG -D # daily hours, with numbers
hledger-git provides easy version control for your journal files, using git. Run it with no arguments for help.
$ hledger git log
$ hledger git status
$ hledger git record [MSG]
hledger-pijul provides the same thing using the pijul version control system..
$ hledger pijul log
$ hledger pijul status
$ hledger pijul record [MSG]
The hledger-utils python package provides a hledger-edit command to edit the queried transactions in your $EDITOR no matter what file they reside in.
Install or upgrade:
$ pip install -U hledger-utils # might be slightly different on your system
Examples:
# Opens your $EDITOR or $VISUAL with only costs in Florida
# (if you named and tagged them like that)
# edit the transactions, save and exit your editor,
# then the changes are distributed to the original files
$ hledger edit Cost tag:location=Florida
# Automate changes by setting `$EDITOR` to a script
# (here all food we had on that one day in Florida was Fast Food 🌠and we initially forgot to write that)
EDITOR='perl -pi -e "s|Cost:Food|Cost:Food:Fast Food|g"' hledger edit tag:location=Florida date:2022-12-20
The hledger-utils python package provides a hledger-plot command for generating charts with matplotlib.
Install or upgrade:
$ pip install -U hledger-utils # might be slightly different on your system
Examples:
$ hledger-plot -h
$ hledger plot -- bal -DH ^Assets -2
hledger-lots shows a lots report, or generates a lot sale transaction, using FIFO strategy (and without needing subaccounts for lots).
Install or upgrade:
$ pip install -U hledger-lots
Examples:
$ hledger lots
$ hledger lots view
$ hledger lots list
hledger-report1.sh is a custom compound report done in shell. See also hledger-report1.hs.
These scripts are written in Haskell and use hledger's haskell API (by importing the hledger or hledger-lib haskell libraries). They are often stack scripts. They can do anything hledger's builtin commands can do, and are usually more robust than command line scripts. Some builtin commands were first developed as standalone haskell scripts.
hledger-script-example.hs is a template for writing your own hledger-integrated add-on command. It has the same structure as most of the add-ons here:
- a stack script for robustness
- providing command line help
- accepting common hledger options
hledger-print-location.hs is a variant of hledger's print command that adds the file and line number to every transaction, as a tag:
$ hledger print-location -f hledger/examples/sample.journal desc:eat
2008/06/03 * eat & shop
; location: /Users/simon/src/hledger/examples/sample.journal:30
expenses:food $1
expenses:supplies $1
assets:cash
hledger-swap-dates.hs prints transactions with their date and date2 fields swapped.
hledger-check-tagfiles.hs interprets all tag values containing a / (forward slash) as file paths, and checks that those files exist. hledger-check-tagfiles.cabal.hs is the same command implemented as a cabal script rather than a stack script.
hledger-register-max.hs runs a register report and prints the posting with largest historical balance.
$ hledger-register-max -f examples/bcexample.hledger checking
2013-01-03 Hoogle | Payroll Assets:US:BofA:Checking 1350.60 USD 8799.22 USD
$ hledger register-max -- -f examples/bcexample.hledger checking
2013-01-03 Hoogle | Payroll Assets:US:BofA:Checking 1350.60 USD 8799.22 USD
hledger-check-postable.hs check that no postings are made to accounts declared with a postable:n or postable:no tag. This can be used as a workaround when you must declare a parent account to control display order, but you don't want to allow postings to it. Eg, to allow postings to assets:cash but not assets (remember that account tags are inherited):
account assets ; postable:n
account assets:cash ; postable:
hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs checks account balances over time in more complex ways than hledger's built-in balance assertions.
hledger-combine-balances.hs shows balance reports for two different periods side by side.
hledger-balance-as-budget.hs uses one balance report to set budget goals for another balance report.
hledger-smooth.hs is an incomplete attempt at automatically splitting infrequent/irregular transactions.
hledger-move.hs helps make subaccount/cost-preserving transfers.
hledger-report1.hs is a custom compound report done in haskell. See also hledger-report1.sh.
hledger-txnsbycat.hs is a mixture of a balance report and a register report; it shows each account's transactions under the account's balance.
These are some official and third-party add-ons you can install as compiled programs:
hledger-ui is hledger's official terminal UI. It allows faster browsing of your accounts and transactions.
hledger-web is hledger's official web UI. It allows data entry and simple reports in a web browser. It's good for non-command-line users.
hledger-iadd is a popular alternative to the builtin add command.
hledger-interest generates interest transactions.
- hledger-stockquotes fetches market prices. Not widely used, consider pricehist instead.
- hledger-diff compares two journal files. It's now built in to hledger, so you don't need it.
To use these bin scripts you must ensure they are in your $PATH and runnable:
Here's a suggested install procedure:
# Go to wherever you keep financial files:
$ cd ~/finance
# Get the hledger repo
# the fast way, without version control:
$ curl -LOJ https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/archive/refs/heads/master.zip && unzip hledger-master.zip && mv hledger-master hledger
# or the slow way, with version control for easy diffing/updating/contributing
# git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger
# Make a more convenient symlink to the bin directory:
$ ln -s hledger/bin
# Add the bin directory to your PATH. Eg as a bash user:
$ echo "export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/bin" >>~/.bash_profile"
$ export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/bin
# Optionally, compile all haskell scripts for faster startup:
$ cd hledger; bin/compile.sh
# Optionally, install the python scripts:
$ pip install -U hledger-utils
$ pip install -U hledger-lots
# Check that hledger's command list now includes the bin scripts.
# Eg "check-fancyassertions" and "swap-dates" should be listed:
$ hledger
To create a new hledger-integrated script, copy hledger-script-example.hs. On unix, the new script should be marked executable. This should do it:
$ cd bin
$ cp hledger-script-example.hs hledger-cmd.hs # replace cmd with your command name
# edit hledger-cmd.hs, updating at least the command name and help
$ stack install safe text # ensure the script's dependencies are installed
$ hledger-cmd.hs --help
cmd [OPTIONS]
My new cmd command.
...
$ stack ghc hledger-cmd.hs # optionally compile for faster startup/durability
$ hledger cmd -- --help
cmd [OPTIONS]
My new cmd command.
...
$ stack exec --package 'safe text' -- ghcid hledger-cmd.hs
...
Ok, one module loaded.
All good (1 module, at 10:50:48)
$ stack ghci --package 'safe text' hledger-cmd.hs
...
Ok, one module loaded.
...
ghci>
See Scripting hledger.