# OpenAccountants

Accountant-reviewed tax and bookkeeping guides served to any agent over MCP; edit the skills, self-host the server.

OpenAccountants is a repo of 1,800+ markdown guides across 233 jurisdictions (tax, bookkeeping, payroll, e-invoicing, formation, financial statements) with named licensed accountants signing reviews. A hosted MCP at openaccountants.com/api/mcp is the product; a self-hosted Python MCP (pip openaccountants-mcp) serves the same open guides read-only through six tools. The guides under skills/ are the customization surface.

- Capabilities: adaptable, operable
- Vertical: support-bookkeeping
- Shape: skill
- Form factor: skill
- Execution model: deterministic
- Provenance: mixed (recorded, never ranked)
- Repo: https://github.com/openaccountants/openaccountants (AGPL-3.0), 359 stars, last commit 2026-09-02
- Last activity: 2026-09-02
- Page: apps/openaccountants--openaccountants.html
- JSON: apps/openaccountants--openaccountants.json

## Use it when

- our agent keeps guessing at sales tax rates and filing rules and we want it to cite a guide a named accountant signed
- we are a bookkeeping firm and want to add our own jurisdiction or client-type guides and serve them to staff agents privately

## Gotchas

- Code is AGPL-3.0 but guide content is under the OpenAccountants Guide License v1.0 with commercial terms in COMMERCIAL-LICENSING.md; check before redistributing
- Hosted server is the product and has a larger tool surface than the self-hosted one
- Knowledge, not a ledger: it does not do bookkeeping, it tells the agent how
- Pricing page returned 404; hosted tiers unknown

## Editions

- Free (self-hosted MCP and open guides): Free, open source
  - source: https://github.com/openaccountants/openaccountants
  - installable: pip install openaccountants-mcp
- Hosted connector: Free, closed source
  - hosted: https://www.openaccountants.com/connect

## Adaptable: make it yours

Effort: config-only (6 things to edit)

Edit or add markdown guides under skills/ (for example skills/federal/us-1099-nec-issuance.md or a jurisdiction folder); packages/, index.json, and llms-full.txt regenerate nightly and must not be hand-edited. Self-hosting the MCP means pip install and pointing it at your checkout; it is read-only and path-sandboxed to packages/. There are no env vars in the README; an agency adapting this would add its own vertical guides and run the local server.

- Env vars: none
- Config files: index.json (generated), mcp/server.json
- Prompt files: skills/**/*.md, skills/federal/us-1099-nec-issuance.md, skills/verticals/, skills/integrations/
- Accounts you'll need: OpenAccountants account for the hosted connector and accountant handoff

## Operable: what an agent can drive

Operability: native. Interface: mcp at https://www.openaccountants.com/api/mcp (published by the builder, both).

### Reach (partial coverage)

- Plan which guides apply to a question and jurisdiction: reachable. start tool returns skills_to_load, expectations, next_action, guardrails
- Load a full guide or its sections: reachable. get_skill, get_skill_sections
- Search guides by keyword: reachable. search_skills, up to 25 matched sections
- List guides with review tier and reviewer: reachable. list_skills with jurisdiction and category filters
- Get current rates and compare jurisdictions: reachable. hosted server only: get_rates, compare_jurisdictions, plan_cross_border
- Hand off to a named licensed accountant for review: reachable. hosted server only: request_accountant_review
- Submit feedback on a guide: reachable. submit_feedback builds a GitHub issue URL; no server-side write
- Post entries to a ledger or reconcile a bank feed: not reachable. read-only knowledge server; _integrations package gives export formats for Xero, QuickBooks, Stripe but no write tools
- File a return or make a payment: not reachable. README: general reference, not advice; no filing tools

## Code stack

- Languages: Python, Markdown
- Frameworks: MCP Python SDK
- Package manager: pip / uv
- Database: none
- Hosting target: local stdio (pip), hosted at openaccountants.com

## Model stack

- Providers: any MCP client
- Models: none
- Keys you need (names only): none
- Prompts live in: skills/**/*.md, packages/ (generated)
- Tools: start, list_skills, get_skill, get_skill_sections, search_skills, submit_feedback

## Skills

pure: Skill pack is the product; the MCP server only serves the same skills to agents that cannot install them locally.
- Paths: agent-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/*/SKILL.md
- Install: /plugin marketplace add openaccountants/openaccountants

## Evidence and confidence

- formFactor: mcp/ directory with a Python MCP server on PyPI; hosted endpoint in README (confidence 0.9)
- executionModel: server reads markdown; no model calls in the server (confidence 0.85)
- operability: README: hosted connector URL and self-hosted pip server; mcp/README.md lists six tools and the hosted superset (confidence 0.95)
- effort: README Contributing: edit skills/** only; everything else regenerates (confidence 0.8)
- editions: README: self-host with pip is free; hosted connector at openaccountants.com/connect; commercial licensing file for content (confidence 0.6)
- active: gh api: pushed 2026-09-02; README stats updated 2026-09-02 by nightly sync
- reach:  (confidence 0.9)

## Open questions

- Hosted connector pricing and free-tier limits
- Exact terms of the Guide License v1.0 for a firm serving guides to clients
- Provenance: guides are drafted from legislation, some AI-assisted; README does not say

## Sources

- https://github.com/openaccountants/openaccountants (sourcing:support-bookkeeping:curated)
- https://github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers (sourcing:support-bookkeeping:curated)