tillbooks

# TILL

**Trusted Independent Ledger Library.** Swiss accounting your agent can actually use.

TILL is a free, open-source (MIT), local-first accounting app built for Switzerland. Your books live
in a single SQLite file on your own machine. They never leave the country, because they never leave
your laptop.

The difference is the interface. Most accounting software is a GUI with an AI button bolted on. TILL
is built the other way around: an **MCP server is a first-class interface**, so an agent can post
entries, categorize transactions, draft and chase invoices, prepare the MWST-Abrechnung, and answer
"how did my quarter go" by talking to the ledger directly. A minimalist Studio gives you human
oversight of everything the agent did. Agent and human share one ledger.

> **Status: pre-alpha.** The engine, the MCP verbs and the Studio are built across the numbered
> capabilities. Nothing here is ready to keep real books yet. Do not run your business on it.

## Why

Switzerland has accounting software. It does not have accounting software an agent can drive, and
the open-source option (Gäld) is AGPL, which forecloses an open-core model. TILL is a clean-room
MIT rebuild aimed at the things that actually make Swiss books Swiss:

- **QR-bill** (Swiss QR-Rechnung) with the structured-address standard
- **Three MWST rates** (8.1%, 3.8%, 2.6%) and the MWST-Abrechnung that falls out of them
- **Kontenrahmen KMU** seeded out of the box
- **ISO 20022** (camt/pain) for banking
- de-CH and en from day one

## The ledger is not negotiable

Posted entries are append-only and immutable. A correction is a **reversing entry**, never a
destructive edit, exactly as real accounting works. Posting is idempotent: a double-post does not
double-count. These are asserted in the test suite, not merely promised in a README.

## Install

TILL is not installable yet. The package name `tillbooks` is reserved but unpublished, so
`npm install -g tillbooks` does not resolve, and there are no downloads. The source opens and the
package ships when the ledger can keep real books, not before.

Once it ships, the package will be `tillbooks` and the command will be `till`:

```
npm install -g tillbooks
till --help
```

## Documentation

- [Documentation](https://docs.tillbooks.ch) : the product guides and capability reference
- [Design](brand/DESIGN.md) : the design law this project builds to

## Before you use it

TILL is pre-alpha and it keeps books. [DISCLAIMER.md](DISCLAIMER.md) is worth two minutes: TILL is
not tax advice, you stay responsible for your own filings, and you should not point it at real
accounts yet.

## Contributing

- [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) : how to run it, and the rules that are not negotiable
- [CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) : how we treat each other
- [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) : report vulnerabilities privately to security@tillbooks.ch
- [SUPPORT.md](SUPPORT.md) : where to ask questions

## License

MIT, Copyright (c) 2026 Nomadik GmbH. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).

TILL is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from bexio AG or
any other accounting vendor. It is a clean-room implementation built from public documentation.