qbo

name	qbo
description	Queries, creates, updates, and manages QuickBooks Online data via the qbo CLI. Use when working with QBO entities (invoices, customers, bills, payments, vendors, accounts, items, estimates, attachables, recurring transactions), running reports, or setting up install, auth, sandbox, and company switching.
allowed-tools	Bash(qbo *)

qbo — QuickBooks Online CLI

Install

# macOS / Linux
brew install voska/tap/qbo

# Scoop (Windows)
scoop bucket add voska https://github.com/voska/scoop-bucket && scoop install qbo

# Go (any platform)
go install github.com/voska/qbo-cli/cmd/qbo@latest

# Binary: https://github.com/voska/qbo-cli/releases

Getting Credentials

Requires an Intuit Developer account and a QuickBooks app for OAuth credentials.

1. Sign up at https://developer.intuit.com and create an app from the dashboard.
2. Select QuickBooks Online and Payments as the platform.
3. Under Keys & credentials, find your Client ID and Client Secret.
4. Add a Redirect URI (see below).

See Intuit's OAuth 2.0 guide for the full walkthrough.

Redirect URI Options

Sandbox allows http://localhost:8844/callback — just register it in the Intuit portal and qbo auth login handles everything automatically.

Production does not allow localhost. Three options:

1. Tunnel/funnel address — Route a domain (e.g. https://auth.yourdomain.com) back to your machine. Register it as the redirect URI. Use --redirect-uri or set QBO_REDIRECT_URI.
2. Login on the same machine — If the agent runs on a machine with a browser, use a tunnel so localhost callbacks work.
3. Non-resolving domain — Register any domain you own (e.g. https://yourdomain.com) as the redirect URI. After authorizing, the browser redirects there with ?code=...&realmId=...&state=... in the URL. Copy the full URL from the browser and paste it back into qbo auth login (or provide it to the agent to exchange manually).

Setup

# Store app-level OAuth client credentials in the system keychain (one time).
# After this, no QBO_CLIENT_ID/SECRET env vars are needed for any command.
qbo auth set-client --client-id your_client_id --client-secret your_client_secret

# Sandbox — uses localhost callback automatically
qbo auth login --sandbox

# Production — specify your redirect URI
qbo auth login --redirect-uri https://yourdomain.com

# Or set it as env var / config so you don't need the flag every time
export QBO_REDIRECT_URI=https://yourdomain.com
qbo auth login

# Print the URL without opening a browser (useful for agents/remote)
qbo auth login --manual

For non-localhost redirect URIs, qbo auth login prints the auth URL and prompts you to paste the callback URL after authorizing.

Tokens and client credentials (once qbo auth set-client runs, or after the first qbo auth login) are stored in the system keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager) with file-based fallback at ~/.config/qbo/tokens/. Credentials resolve in priority order: env var (QBO_CLIENT_ID/QBO_CLIENT_SECRET) → keychain → config.json, so env vars still work and override the keychain when set. On headless hosts that can't reach the login keychain, set QBO_KEYRING_BACKEND=file to use the encrypted-file backend instead.

Verify

After auth, confirm everything works:

qbo auth status
qbo company info --sandbox --json

If you get "no company ID", set one: export QBO_COMPANY_ID=<realm_id> or qbo company switch <realm_id>.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
no company ID	export QBO_COMPANY_ID=<realm> or qbo company switch <realm>
ApplicationAuthorizationFailed on production endpoint	Use --sandbox or re-authorize the app for a production company
OAuth state mismatch	Restart qbo auth login and use the newly generated URL
Token expired	qbo auth refresh or re-run qbo auth login

Response Structure

QBO wraps all responses. Know the shapes:

• list/query returns {"QueryResponse": {"Invoice": [...], "startPosition": 1, ...}}. Use --results-only to unwrap to just the array.
• get returns {"Invoice": {...}}. Use jq to drill in: qbo get invoice 123 --json | jq '.Invoice'
• create/update returns the same wrapper as get.
• report returns {"Header": {...}, "Rows": {...}}.

Always use --json when parsing output programmatically.

Common Patterns

# List with filtering — --results-only gives you the array directly
qbo list customers --sandbox --json --results-only
qbo list invoices --where "Balance > '0'" --sandbox --json --results-only

# Get by ID — drill into entity key with jq
qbo get invoice 145 --sandbox --json | jq '.Invoice'
qbo get customer 58 --sandbox --json | jq '.Customer | {Id, DisplayName, Balance}'

# Create from stdin
echo '{"DisplayName":"Acme Corp"}' | qbo create customer -f - --sandbox --json

# Create from file
qbo create invoice -f invoice.json --sandbox --json

# Record a payment against an invoice
echo '{"CustomerRef":{"value":"58"},"TotalAmt":500,"Line":[{"Amount":500,"LinkedTxn":[{"TxnId":"145","TxnType":"Invoice"}]}]}' | qbo create payment -f - --sandbox --json

# Sparse update (partial)
echo '{"Id":"58","SyncToken":"0","DisplayName":"New Name"}' | qbo update customer 58 --sparse -f - --sandbox --json

# Reports
qbo report profit-and-loss --start-date 2026-01-01 --end-date 2026-12-31 --sandbox --json
qbo report balance-sheet --sandbox --json

# Raw query
qbo query "SELECT Id, DisplayName, Balance FROM Customer WHERE Active = true" --sandbox --json --results-only

Workflow: Create -> Invoice -> Payment

# 1. Create customer
echo '{"DisplayName":"New Client","PrimaryEmailAddr":{"Address":"[e-mail]"}}' \
  | qbo create customer -f - --sandbox --json | jq '.Customer.Id'

# 2. Create item (service)
echo '{"Name":"Consulting","Type":"Service","IncomeAccountRef":{"value":"1"},"UnitPrice":150}' \
  | qbo create item -f - --sandbox --json | jq '.Item.Id'

# 3. Create invoice (use IDs from above)
echo '{"CustomerRef":{"value":"CUSTOMER_ID"},"Line":[{"Amount":1500,"DetailType":"SalesItemLineDetail","SalesItemLineDetail":{"ItemRef":{"value":"ITEM_ID"},"Qty":10,"UnitPrice":150}}]}' \
  | qbo create invoice -f - --sandbox --json | jq '.Invoice | {Id, DocNumber, TotalAmt}'

# 4. Record payment
echo '{"CustomerRef":{"value":"CUSTOMER_ID"},"TotalAmt":1500,"Line":[{"Amount":1500,"LinkedTxn":[{"TxnId":"INVOICE_ID","TxnType":"Invoice"}]}]}' \
  | qbo create payment -f - --sandbox --json

Attachments

qbo attach invoice 123 receipt.pdf --json
qbo list attachable --where "AttachableRef.EntityRef.value = '123'" --json --results-only
qbo download <id>

Recurring Transactions

Templates that auto-post transactions on a schedule (e.g. monthly amortization). Each record wraps an underlying transaction by type with a nested RecurringInfo block: {"JournalEntry": {"RecurringInfo": {...}, "Line": [...]}}.

qbo list recurringtransaction --json --results-only
qbo get recurringtransaction <id> --json
qbo create recurringtransaction -f examples/recurring-je.json --json
qbo delete recurringtransaction <id>   # reads + echoes the full object for you

Agent Introspection

qbo schema --json             # Full CLI tree, all entities, all flags
qbo schema get --json         # Schema for a specific command
qbo exit-codes --json         # Exit codes as JSON

Exit Codes

0=success, 1=error, 2=usage, 3=empty, 4=auth required, 5=not found, 6=forbidden, 7=rate limited, 8=retryable, 10=config error.

Reference

See references/COMMANDS.md for full command reference.