What does this actually do?

You already use Self Employment Toolkit to track mileage, log expenses, and send invoices. With an integration, your AI assistant can read and update that same data just by having a conversation with you.

Think of it like giving Claude a read/write connection to your bookkeeping. You can ask it anything: "How much did I spend on travel last quarter?" or "Log a $47 lunch expense with Acme Corp." No copy-pasting, no switching apps.

Pick your tool

How you connect depends on which Claude (or other AI tool) you use. The web app uses OAuth and doesn't need an API key; the desktop and CLI use a long-lived API key in an Authorization header. Pick the section that matches your setup.

Claude on the web (claude.ai)

This is the simplest path. claude.ai handles authentication via OAuth, so you do not need to generate or paste an API key. Sign-in happens in a popup.

Behind the scenes claude.ai is doing OAuth 2.1 with Dynamic Client Registration — it discovers the authorization server from a metadata document, registers itself, and exchanges a one-time code (with PKCE) for a short-lived bearer token that auto-refreshes. You can revoke access at any time from your Settings page.

Claude Code (CLI)

If you use the claude CLI, register the toolkit with the mcp add command. Generate an API key first from your Settings page → API Keys & Integrations.

claude mcp add selfemploymenttoolkit https://selfemploymenttoolkit.com/mcp \
  --transport http \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer skt_your_api_key_here"

Then in any Claude Code session, type /mcp to see the tool list and confirm the connection.

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop is a free app from Anthropic for Mac and Windows. Edit claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config) and add an entry to mcpServers. Generate an API key from your Settings page first.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selfemploymenttoolkit": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://selfemploymenttoolkit.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer skt_your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The toolkit shows up in the connector list and all 20 tools become available.

Ask questions in plain English

Once connected, try things like:

• "What did I spend on software subscriptions last month?"
• "Log a $62 meal expense with Acme Corp from today."
• "How many business miles did I drive in April?"
• "Show me all unpaid invoices."
• "Create a draft invoice for Acme for 5 hours at my standard rate."

n8n or Make

For no-code automation workflows, use n8n's HTTP Request node or Make's HTTP module with an API key in the Authorization header. A common pattern: a Google Calendar event fires, n8n reads the event details and automatically logs a mileage trip in your account, no manual entry needed.

• Method: POST
• URL: https://selfemploymenttoolkit.com/mcp
• Header: Authorization: Bearer skt_your_api_key_here
• Body: JSON-RPC 2.0 format (see the technical reference below)

Protocol overview

The Self Employment Toolkit implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Streamable HTTP transport (spec version 2025-03-26). The endpoint is a stateless HTTP server that accepts JSON-RPC 2.0 requests and returns either application/json or text/event-stream responses depending on the client's Accept header.

Authentication uses a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Tokens have the prefix skt_ followed by 64 hex characters (32 random bytes). The raw token is shown once at creation time; only a one-way hash is stored server-side. Tokens can be revoked at any time from Settings.

All 20 MCP tools

Six read tools return JSON arrays or summary objects. Five write tools create or update records and return the new record's ID.

Tool	Type	Description	Parameters
get_overview	Read	YTD summary: revenue, mileage, trip count, active clients.	none
list_clients	Read	All clients: name, address, hourly rate, notes. Up to 200.	none
list_expenses	Read	Expenses filtered by date range or category. Up to 200.	start (YYYY-MM-DD), end, category
list_trips	Read	Mileage trips with distance, category, addresses. Up to 200.	start, end, client_id
list_invoices	Read	Invoices with status, total, client, due date. Up to 200.	status (draft | sent | paid | void), client_id
list_time_entries	Read	Time entries with client, date, clock-in/out. Up to 200.	start, end, client_id
log_expense	Write	Creates an expense record. Amount in integer cents.	amount_cents*, date* (YYYY-MM-DD), category*, vendor, notes, client_id
log_trip	Write	Creates a mileage trip record.	start_time* (ISO 8601), end_time*, distance_miles*, start_address, end_address, category, client_id
log_time	Write	Creates a time entry (HH:MM 24-hour clock).	date* (YYYY-MM-DD), clock_in* (HH:MM), clock_out*, notes, client_id
create_draft_invoice	Write	Creates a draft invoice with line items.	client_id*, issued_date*, line_items* (array), due_date, notes
mark_invoice_paid	Write	Transitions a sent invoice to paid status.	invoice_id*, paid_at (YYYY-MM-DD, defaults to today)

* Required parameter.

Rate limits

All calls (read and write) count toward the 120/min limit. Write operations are not separately rate-limited beyond the overall cap. Rate limit windows are fixed (not sliding). Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429.

Wire format

All requests are JSON-RPC 2.0 POST to https://selfemploymenttoolkit.com/mcp. Set Authorization: Bearer skt_... and Content-Type: application/json. Include Accept: application/json, text/event-stream for MCP-compliant clients.

List expenses with date filter:

Log an expense (amount in cents):

Discover available tools:

Security

API keys are hashed with SHA-256 before storage. The raw key is shown exactly once at creation time. Every response is scoped exclusively to the authenticated account; no tool can access another user's data regardless of the arguments passed. Rate limits are enforced per key, so a runaway workflow on one key does not affect others on the same account.

The MCP endpoint runs behind the same DDoS protection and TLS termination as the rest of the service. All data in transit is encrypted.

Frequently asked questions