Install on Linux

INSTALL · LINUX

Install Spent on Linux.

Spent on Linux installs as a user-level systemd service. There's no native menubar — you open the dashboard in your browser.

What you’ll need

• A modern systemd-based distro (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 38+, Arch, Debian 12+, etc.).
• Node.js 20+ from your distro’s package manager, nvm, or Volta.
• About 500 MB of disk space.
• Your bank login credentials.

1. 01

   Install Node.js

   Use whichever Node distribution you prefer. If you don’t have one yet:

   # nvm (recommended for most users)
   curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
   source ~/.bashrc
   nvm install --lts
   
   # OR: Ubuntu/Debian distro package
   sudo apt install nodejs npm   # check `node --version` is >= 20
   
   # OR: Fedora
   sudo dnf install nodejs

2. 02

   Get Spent

   git clone https://github.com/Shaya16/Spent.git ~/.local/share/spent
   cd ~/.local/share/spent

3. 03

   Install and run setup

   npm install
   npm run setup

   npm install takes 2-3 minutes. npm run setup builds the app, registers a systemd --user unit, and opens the dashboard.

Note

No menubar on Linux. The setup script installs the service only. You’ll open the dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:41234 (or http://spent.local:41234 if you add the hosts entry manually with sudo).

What `npm run setup` actually does

On Linux, in order:

1. Builds the Next.js app (npm run build).
2. Writes a --user systemd unit at ~/.config/systemd/user/spent.service and enables it so it starts at login.
3. Polls /api/health until the server is ready, then opens the browser via xdg-open.

Service management goes through systemctl --user; the npm run service:* commands shell out to it.

The hosts entry for spent.local is not added on Linux by default — modifying /etc/hosts outside of a package manager is unusual on Linux. Add it manually if you want the friendly name:

echo "127.0.0.1 spent.local" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

Source: scripts/setup.mjs, scripts/service/install.mjs.

Day-to-day commands

npm run service:status   # systemctl --user status spent
npm run service:start
npm run service:stop
npm run service:reload   # rebuild + restart
npm run service:logs     # journalctl --user -u spent -f
npm run service:open     # opens the dashboard via xdg-open

Uninstall

npm run uninstall

Disables and removes the systemd unit. Your data/ folder is preserved.

Next Connect your bank →