Tab

The Tab (scvd-tab)

mcp-name: store.scvd/tab Track recorded software expenses, check for an existing subscription before another signup, and surface trial deadlines for your agent to bring to you.

An MCP server from scvd.store. Local JSONL, append-only, zero dependencies. The full specification is THE_TAB.md at the repo root; the schema contract is SCHEMA.md.

Ask your agent

Use Tab to summarize my recorded software expenses and upcoming charges. Run stack_audit to identify possible subscription overlaps and price drift. Show missing prices and history. Compare any statement CSV I supply locally. Do not cancel anything, upload my records or request bank credentials.

A category overlap is a review lead, not proof that one tool replaces another. Task prompts and next steps include expense tracking, trial reminders and checks before a new signup.

Why this exists

Every builder carries a quiet ledger: the trial that converts Thursday, the annual plan that renews in March, the API that bills by usage, the thing signed up for in April and never opened since. Nobody keeps that ledger, so the bank statement keeps it for you — one surprise at a time. And now agents sign you up for tools too, which makes the ledger longer and the forgetting faster.

The Tab is that ledger, kept where you already work: inside the agent. Log a trial and the pager can queue its approaching conversion. Ask whats_due at the start of a session and the dearest thing is the first line. Ask burn_rollup and get the monthly number with what it is made of — and what it cannot see.

What makes it different

It never asks for a credential. If you choose to import mail, your agent reads it through a connector it already holds (SWEEP_ROUTINE.md), you export the card CSV yourself (reconcile_card_statement), and the tab holds a credential to exactly nothing. There is no account to breach because there is no account.

Local first, exit always. The whole product is one human-readable JSONL file on your machine, written by a server with zero dependencies you can read top to bottom in a sitting. export_tab hands everything back, any time, no charge — a product that holds your history hostage is the disease; this is the cure's own hygiene.

Warnings that ride the agent, not an app you must remember to open. An MCP server cannot wake anybody, so the clock runs outside (a one-line cron) and open pages ride back on any tool call — a trial converting tomorrow reaches you on whatever your agent was doing anyway. And a page handed to an agent is not a page you heard: only acknowledge_pages spends one, and pages that age out unspoken are counted against the product as unspoken_pct, not assumed away.

Every number says what it cannot see. The burn figure never ships bare: it arrives with the coverage block — what fed it, which part is an estimate (usage-based bills are marked, never smuggled), what the last mail sweep could not place, and how far the bank's own statement diverged. A dashboard that hides its blind spots is a prettier way of being wrong.

It remembers which doors need a human. Every signup can record what the path demanded — agent_native, email_only, phone_required, kyc_required, human_only — so check_before_signup warns before an agent-driven signup dead-ends on a wall somebody already hit.

Facts and counts, never advice. The tab says what you trialed, what you pay, and when it converts. "Cancel it" is your agent's sentence to say, not the tab's — by design, enforced by what the tools are able to return.

Install

One config block, any MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scvd-tab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scvd-tab@0.11.4"]
    }
  }
}

Or from a clone of the repo, no npm involved:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scvd-tab": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/tab/server.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

The tab lives at ~/.scvd/tab.jsonl (override with TAB_PATH or --path <file>). It is a plain JSONL file, it is yours, and export_tab hands it back in full any time — a product that holds your history hostage is the disease; this is the cure's own hygiene.

Three jobs to give your agent

Try it with synthetic subscriptions

From a repository checkout:

node tab/examples/software-cost-check.mjs

Or in a disposable directory after installing scvd-tab, run the same packaged example:

node node_modules/scvd-tab/examples/software-cost-check.mjs

The example creates a fresh temporary ledger and prints its path. It records a $20/month analytics subscription, $120/year hosting subscription and a $15/month trial ending two days from the run. It calls the same handlers the MCP tools use; the example itself is not an MCP host test. No network request, real subscription, inbox, wallet or existing ledger is used, and no reminder is acknowledged or schedule installed.

Read these results:

• burn.monthly is 30 USD, from the two paid subscriptions; the trial's expected conversion price is separate. Read burn's coverage alongside it.
• existing_signup.seen_before is true. possible_overlap has no history for the proposed new name but lists the recorded analytics tools.
• trials.converting includes the approaching trial; reminders.say_now contains its pending page. reminders.coverage.pages_acknowledged remains 0 because generating a reminder is not delivery.

For your own records, supply only the data you choose to log or import. Record the provider's actual deadline; keep unknown dates and prices visible. After your agent delivers a real reminder, it can acknowledge that page.

Running the clock

An MCP server speaks when spoken to; it cannot wake anybody. So the pager runs from outside:

# every morning at 9 — prints nothing when nothing is due
0 9 * * *  npx -y -p scvd-tab@0.11.4 scvd-tab-pager

Or from a clone: cd /path/to/repo && npm run --silent tab:pager.

Without a scheduler, pending reminders return on the next agent call. The agent must still deliver them; a tool result alone does not establish that you were reminded. A scheduler can run the due check on time, but its output still needs a working delivery path. If neither an agent nor a scheduler runs the check, no reminder is surfaced.

A page handed to an agent is not a page the builder heard. Only acknowledge_pages records that somebody said it out loud, and pages that age out unacknowledged are counted rather than deleted.

The mail sweep

The tab holds no mail code and never will. The sweep is an agent routine over a connector the agent already holds, writing through the same validated tools as any other caller. Its contract — including the counting obligation that keeps the coverage number honest — is SWEEP.md; the step-by-step routine an agent executes is SWEEP_ROUTINE.md. The counting itself is machinery, not diligence: sweep_tally counts verdicts as they arrive and writes the matched entries, and sweep_finish derives the coverage record from what was actually reported, so the books balance by construction.

The tools

What it will not do

Facts and counts only, never advice — the tab says what you trialed, what you pay, and when the trial converts; "cancel it" is your agent's sentence to say, not the tab's. Nothing leaves the file except a delta you consented to and your agent deliberately sent. Prices, payment labels, problem text and notes never ride a delta.

Signup friction

Every event may record what the signup path demanded: agent_native, email_only, phone_required, kyc_required, human_only. The tab remembers which doors need a human, warns before an agent-driven signup dead-ends, and — with consent — feeds the agent-readiness index: which tools agents can actually reach, measured, over time.

Tests

npm run tab:test

Runs on Node's own test runner; no framework, same as no dependencies.