Monarch MCP Windows: Auth Succeeds, Transactions Fail with 401 Unauthorized

[jinksraevan]

Running Monarch MCP on Windows 11 (native Python, not WSL). MCP loads fine, auth is “successful,” but any transaction query returns 401 Unauthorized—even after re-auth. Other MCPs run fine via Docker.

My MCP config:

"Monarch Money": {
  "command": "python",
  "args": [
    "-m",
    "monarch_mcp_server.server"
  ]
}

Key details:

• Python 3.13.7 and pip installed on Windows
• Docker works, run other MCPs (Azure, GitHub, etc.) without issue
• Auth workflow completes, token is found in keyring, but transactions fail (401 error)
• Tried re-authenticating, restarting, etc.

Suspect cross-platform keyring, token handling, or Windows bug.

[robcerda]

Thanks for this issue. Ill take a look...been a little busy lately but ill take a look

[robcerda]

Hey! There have been some recent auth improvements that may help with this:

• PR Add file-based token fallback for WSL/headless environments #40 adds a file-based token fallback for environments where the system keyring doesn't work reliably (WSL, headless Linux, and potentially Windows). If the keyring backend is detected as unavailable or fails, the token is stored securely in ~/.monarch-mcp-server/token instead.
• The library was also switched to the actively maintained community fork (monarchmoneycommunity).

Could you try pulling the latest from main (once #40 is merged), re-running python login_setup.py, and testing again? If you're still hitting 401s, it would help to know:

1. Whether the login test during setup (get_accounts) succeeds
2. The output of the check_auth_status tool in Claude Desktop

Thanks for the report!

[robcerda]

Migrated the API endpoint to api.monarch.com and swapped to the actively maintained monarchmoneycommunity library, both of which address the 401s. Closing this out, reopen if you're still hitting it on latest.