Quickstart

Install the BankSync CLI, log in with an API key, list your banks, and pull transactions in under a minute.

2 min read

On this page

1. Log in
2. List your banks
3. Pull transactions
4. Pipe to jq
Where to go next

From zero to transactions in your terminal in about a minute. This assumes you have already installed the CLI.

Authenticate with an API key, list banks, pull transactions, and pipe structured JSON into jq.

Get running

Create an API key
In the BankSync app, open Settings > Developers and create a key. Copy the bsk_ secret when it is shown, because it appears only once. See the API keys guide for scopes and expiration.
Log in
Store the key for the CLI. It is validated against your workspace before it is saved.
List your banks
Confirm the key works and see your connected institutions.
Pull transactions
List transactions for a bank, resolving the bank by name or id.
Pipe to a tool
Because output is JSON when piped, the CLI drops straight into jq, scripts, and agents.

1. Log in#

Shell

banksync login --api-key bsk_your_api_key_here

The CLI calls whoami to validate the key, then saves it to an encrypted file for future commands. You will not need to pass --api-key again on this machine.

Logged in to Acme Inc (profile: default).

2. List your banks#

Shell

banksync banks list

On a terminal you get an aligned table with a status column:

ID         NAME             SOURCE    TYPE      STATUSbnk_a1b2   Chase            plaid     personal  ● activebnk_c3d4   Amex             plaid     personal  ● activebnk_e5f6   CommBank         fiskil    personal  ◐ syncing
3 banks · workspace acme

3. Pull transactions#

Reference a bank by its id, or by name (partial names resolve):

Shell

banksync transactions list --bank amex

transactions list has a short alias, tx, and accepts a date range:

Shell

banksync tx list --bank amex --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-03-31

4. Pipe to jq#

When stdout is not a terminal, the CLI emits its stable JSON envelope automatically, so pipelines just work with no flag:

Shell

banksync tx list --bank amex | jq '.data[] | {date, description, amount}'

You can also ask for JSON explicitly with --json (or -o json):

Shell

banksync banks list --json | jq '.data | length'

Everything is discoverable from the terminal

Run banksync --help for the full command tree, banksync <command> --help for a command's flags and examples, and banksync commands --json for a machine-readable catalog. You never have to leave the shell to find your way around.