Categories

Categories group expenses within a cycle, such as Food or Transport. Check what already exists before considering a new category. Categories are created and managed in Spendly Web.

List categories

Find the cycle for your expense, then copy its ID:

spendly cycles current
spendly categories list --cycle-id CYCLE_ID

Replace CYCLE_ID with the returned ID. For an older expense, use spendly cycles current --date 2026-09-05 to find its cycle instead. The category list shows names, planned amounts, and IDs.

Use a category

Use an existing category name when adding an expense:

spendly expenses add --amount 18.75 --spent-on "Lunch" \
  --category "Food" --dry-run

To change an existing expense, use its ID from expenses list:

spendly expenses edit EXPENSE_ID --category "Food" --dry-run

Replace the name and ID with your own values. Remove --dry-run to save. The category must belong to the expense's cycle.

To remove its category, use expenses edit EXPENSE_ID --clear-category. To find expenses without a category:

spendly expenses list --uncategorized

If an explicit command omits a category while adding an expense, Spendly may use one from matching description history; otherwise the expense stays uncategorized. Guided mode always asks you to choose a visible category or Uncategorized. Run spendly categories --help for category commands.