Zai

Zai (ざい, japanese word for wealth) is a local-first personal finance app for people who want to track their money without cloud sync, telemetry, or bank-login dependencies.

Zai takes significant inspiration from Wealthfolio and Sure. It is my own interpretation of what a personal finance app can be.

Warning

This is an early alpha software. Features are incomplete, releases are not yet considered stable, and automatic full-database backup and restore are not implemented. Do not use Zai as the only copy of important financial data.

Installation

There are no supported public binaries yet.

To run the project from source, follow the development instructions below.

Development

Prerequisites

• Git
• Node.js LTS
• pnpm 10.33.0
• Rust stable
• The platform dependencies required by Tauri

Desktop quick start

git clone https://github.com/mastro993/zai.git
cd zai
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm dev:tauri

pnpm install also installs the repository’s Lefthook Git hooks.

Local web development

Web mode exists for development and transport verification. The Axum server is restricted to loopback addresses and is not intended for hosted or remote use yet

pnpm dev:web

By default, web mode creates a temporary SQLite directory and removes it during normal shutdown. To keep data between runs:

cp .env.web.example .env.web

Then configure ZAI_DATA_DIR in .env.web.

Data, privacy and backups

Desktop data is stored in a local SQLite database named zai.db under the operating system’s application-data directory.

The current alpha:

• does not include cloud sync, bank connections, or telemetry;
• does not encrypt the SQLite database at rest;
• does not provide automatic full-database backup and restore;
• may run migrations as the schema evolves.

Back up important source data independently. Never attach a real Zai database, financial statement, or unredacted log to a public issue.

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. By participating, you agree to follow the Code of Conduct.

Please use synthetic data in tests, screenshots, fixtures, and bug reports.

Security

Do not report vulnerabilities through a public issue and do not attach financial records or databases.

Follow the private reporting instructions in SECURITY.md.