IrisBooks Manual
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User Manual

IrisBooks User Manual

IrisBooks is local-first, double-entry bookkeeping with your own AI assistant. Your book is a folder you keep: journals and other accounting records use Markdown with YAML frontmatter; configuration uses standalone YAML. Community open-source overlays supply checks and calculation helpers for a region or purpose. You work with your book through two lenses:

  • the iris command-line tool driven by your own AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, Copilot, …), and
  • the web app, a first-party interface for browsing, editing, reporting, and collaborating.

The CLI works on your files; the web app works on their synced cloud copy. You can copy the folder, hand it to your accountant, sync it between machines or keep it local. Local iris needs no account or network; your chosen AI service may need its own connection.

New here? Read Getting started first, then Core concepts. Everything else is reference you can return to.

Who this manual is for

  • Personal tracking — understand everyday spending and balances without keeping every receipt. Start with a cash check-in or a statement and let your AI help at a level of detail you can maintain.
  • Business owners — freelancers, sole proprietors (個人事業主), and SMBs who keep their own books and file 青色申告 / 確定申告. Start with the CLI + your own AI (Bookkeeping with the CLI and your own LLM), add the web app if you use the cloud.
  • Accountants / 税理士 — firms managing many client books. The file workflow with your own AI is for you too. Use a separate assistant work folder/session for each client; the web app supports viewing and review.

Table of contents

  1. Getting started — install, create your first book, record your first entry.
  2. Core concepts — books, journals, accounts, status, reports, sync, seals.
  3. Bookkeeping with the CLI and your own LLM — the file-first workflow (fully offline).
  4. Using the web app — journals, reports, raw documents, activity, settings, collaboration (cloud).
  5. Receipts by email — your book’s receiving address, the sender allowlist, and the quarantine.
  6. Your AI on the go (remote connector) — figures, drafts, and receipts from your phone (cloud).
  7. Japan tax & compliance — correction history and search, consumption tax (消費税), fixed assets & depreciation, year-end close.
  8. CLI command reference — every command and flag.
  9. Book file-format reference — the on-disk structure of a book.
  10. Troubleshooting — validation errors, sync rejections, conflicts.

A 60-second picture

your-book/
├── config/        # book settings + your chart of accounts
├── raw/           # original documents, filed by you or your AI
├── journals/      # double-entry entries, one Markdown file each
├── notes/         # working notes shared with your AI and accountant
└── compiled/      # AI-generated reports (regeneratable)

Share a statement or tell your AI what happened. It files available originals under raw/, reasons about entries and explains its proposal. iris validate checks the work; after posting under your chosen policy, iris balance shows the results. Notes preserve context for another session or assistant. Optional iris sync mirrors book records to the cloud for the web app, collaboration and server-side change history.