April 24, 2026
AI can draft, but can’t send
Could a Claude Code routine watch my finances?
From broken bots to money butler: readers want real advice, not draft emails
TLDR: A developer built Driggsby to pull bank data via Plaid and run Claude Code routines for daily money emails, fixing the “Gmail draft only” snag with a custom sender. Commenters clash over access and cost for individuals, demand real financial advice, and worry about accounts Plaid can’t reach.
The saga starts like a sitcom: one dev’s “AI butler” logs into banks, pulls balances, and emails his wife—until 2FA (two-factor codes), browser hiccups, and a Gmail tool that only makes drafts turn the routine into chaos. So he ships Driggsby, hooks it to Plaid (the service that safely connects apps to your bank data), and straps on new Claude Code routines. The crowd? Immediately split.
On one side, pragmatists ask about the price tag and access: joshka wonders if a regular person can even get a Plaid subscription, while cjgx presses on edge cases: what about accounts Plaid can’t reach? On the other, dreamers like mahemm want to skip spreadsheets and go straight to robo-advice—arguing LLMs (chatbots like Claude) should give guidance, not just totals. Founder Matt parachutes in with a friendly “ask me anything,” and a Canadian commenter flexes a DIY path using Lunch Money plus a home‑rolled command-line tool.
The peanut gallery turns the Gmail snafu into a meme—“AI can write my money email but can’t hit Send”—until Driggsby’s custom email_me() tool saves the day. Big mood: excitement for effortless morning money recaps, anxiety over lock‑in and coverage gaps, and a spicy call to graduate from “daily digest” to “actual advice.” Cue the budget bots, cue the drama.
Key Points
- •The author’s initial Codex CLI and Chrome DevTools MCP cron job for daily financial emails was unreliable due to rendering issues, 2FA, and passkey-only logins.
- •They built Driggsby, a Rust-based MCP server integrating with Plaid, exposing tools for balances, transactions, investments, and loans.
- •Driggsby was first used interactively with Claude; common queries involved net worth and account monitoring.
- •Claude Code routines enabled scheduling a daily automated financial overview using Driggsby and connectors.
- •Because the Gmail connector only creates drafts, the author added a secure email_me() MCP tool in Driggsby to send the emails.