What you need in Codex
Codex and ChatGPT share one plugin catalog, so Candor Finance brings the finance skill and the Candor connection to Codex. The Codex CLI has its own plugin browser, and the Codex desktop app lives inside the ChatGPT desktop app. The IDE extension does not support plugins.
Check it worked
Start a new conversation with Codex, turn Candor on if asked, and send the message below.
Ask a new task to open Candor and report the accounts it covers. Both the candor-finance skill and the candor_open tool should be present. If access is waiting on browser approval, finish that rather than reinstalling.
What you should see: Codex names the accounts in Candor and how recent they are. A missing account means limited coverage, not a failed setup.
Check whether the candor-finance skill and Candor access are ready. Tell me about anything missing. If access works, continue my financial task, or start a first check-in on my money if I have not named one. Be clear about gaps in the records.
What Codex brings to money work
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent, included across ChatGPT plans with limited use on Free and Go. Finances is a ChatGPT feature on the web and phone apps; Codex has no finance feature of its own.
That makes Codex the place for jobs that take many steps: reconciling a month of transactions, following a refund from the merchant's promise to the posted credit, or checking a budget line by line. Candor supplies the records and keeps what Codex works out, so the next task does not start from a blank folder.
What changed in Codex
September 29, 2026: Codex Cloud arrived for Plus and above, so tasks can keep going while your computer sleeps.
Should you host your own Plaid MCP server?
Only if you want your records on your own machine and don't mind the upkeep. A self-hosted Plaid MCP server needs your own Plaid account and API keys, a link for each bank, and a process that stays up. Candor Finance is one plugin, and Candor connects through Plaid for you. Codex also gets goals, a budget, saved decisions, and a review of what matters most.
Open-source servers such as bank-mcp work in Codex and are read-only, and Plaid's free Trial plan, open to new US and Canadian developers, covers up to 10 Items. An Item is one login at one bank.
A server like that gives Codex the bank data. Each new task still starts without your budget, your category rules, or what you decided last time, and Candor saves those between tasks.
A local server works only on the machine running it, and putting it online for your other agents means securing a public endpoint in front of your bank data yourself. Candor Finance signs in with OAuth, and ChatGPT can use it too because the two share one plugin catalog.
Bank access
- Your own Plaid server
- A Plaid developer account, your own client ID and secret, and a stored access token for each bank
- Candor
- Link each bank through Plaid in Candor, with no Plaid account, keys, or tokens of your own
Running it
- Your own Plaid server
- You keep the server up, on your machine or a host you secure
- Candor
- Candor runs it, and your agent signs in with OAuth
Expired bank sign-ins
- Your own Plaid server
- You catch the error and run Plaid's repair flow yourself
- Candor
- Candor tells you and your agent which bank stopped updating, and you reconnect it in the app
Cost
- Your own Plaid server
- Plaid's free Trial plan covers 10 Items, and removing one does not free its slot. Past that you need a paid Plaid plan
- Candor
- Personal plan with your banks connected: $14.99/mo or $99/yr, 7-day free trial. Or try it free with your history from Monarch, YNAB, Copilot, or your bank.
Where it works
- Your own Plaid server
- A local server works only on the machine running it
- Candor
- Every agent you connect, including Claude and ChatGPT on your phone
What your agent gets
- Your own Plaid server
- Tools for bank data such as balances and transactions
- Candor
- Those records, plus calculated figures, goals, a budget, saved decisions, and a review of what matters most
Where your records live
- Your own Plaid server
- On your own machine or host
- Candor
- In your Candor account, which you can export or delete
What Candor gives a coding agent
Candor turns your money into something Codex can work on: current accounts, figures calculated from your records, and a place to save the goals, budgets, and notes it settles with you.
It also reviews your records and notes and raises what's worth talking through, such as a duplicate charge or a goal falling behind, with the transactions behind each item. Codex can start a task there and leave a note for the next run.
Schedule a review in Codex
Codex scheduled tasks run on a cadence you choose and can use plugins when you create them with Codex in the desktop app. They are listed under Scheduled in the ChatGPT desktop app.
Keep the computer on and the app running when a task needs local files. A weekly task that opens Candor, checks the budget, and saves a note of what changed is a good start, and Candor keeps that note for the next run.
When Codex setup stops
Candor Finance is missing from the plugin browser
- What to do
- Send Codex the setup message; it picks another route its tools support. Candor's Connections page, linked below, lists the options for Codex.
The plugin is installed but the skill is missing
- What to do
- Ask Codex in a new session to check its setup against the setup message; it reports what loaded and what is left.
Sign-in never returns on a remote machine
- What to do
- OpenAI's MCP documentation for Codex, linked below, covers sign-in on a remote machine. If it still stalls, we can finish setup with you.
Nothing loads in the IDE extension
- What to do
- The IDE extension does not support plugins. The Codex CLI and the ChatGPT desktop app do.
What to try with Codex and Candor
Try following an expected refund from the merchant's promise to the posted credit. Give Codex the merchant, amount, and promised date; it can compare them with Candor's transactions and keep a note of what is still open.
What Candor can and cannot do
Candor is read-only toward your money. It has no tool to move money, pay a bill, trade, or cancel a service, it does not train AI models on your financial information, and it records every agent read and change with its reason. You can revoke an agent, export your data, or delete it from your account.
Candor provides records and calculations, not financial advice; your agent advises and acts only through its own tools, with your okay.
Common questions
- Does installing in Codex also connect ChatGPT?
- They share one plugin catalog, but check each one: ask ChatGPT and Codex each to open Candor. Every agent you connect shows up in your Candor account.
- Which plans include Codex?
- Codex is included across ChatGPT plans, with limited use on Free and Go. Codex Cloud is on Plus and above.
- Can Plaid's own MCP server read my bank accounts?
- No. Plaid's Dashboard MCP server diagnoses Items and reports Link and usage metrics for teams with Production access, and its coding toolkit works with Sandbox data. Neither documents a tool that returns your balances or transactions.
- Can I switch from a self-hosted Plaid server to Candor?
- Yes. Link the same banks in Candor, add the plugin, and remove the old server from Codex so it reads one set of records. Candor never needs your Plaid keys, and nothing carries over from the old server.
- What does Candor cost?
- Candor's Personal plan connects your US banks, cards, and brokerages, so every account and transaction comes in on its own and Candor always reviews current records. It costs from $8.25 a month on the annual plan ($99 a year), or $14.99 month to month, and its first 7 days are free. You can also try Candor free first. Bring your history over from Monarch, YNAB, Copilot, or your bank. Download your transactions there, and your agent adds your accounts from the file. Codex's own plan and usage charges are separate.
Sources
- Plugins in ChatGPT and Codex OpenAI
- Codex MCP OpenAI
- Codex scheduled tasks OpenAI
- Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan OpenAI
- Pricing and billing Plaid
- Update mode Plaid
- Plaid MCP servers Plaid
- bank-mcp GitHub
Setup files for agents: Codex connection materials