stowe

Keep every HSA receipt.
Reimburse yourself whenever.

Stowe is a tiny desktop app that tracks the medical expenses you paid out-of-pocket so you can reimburse yourself from your HSA later — months or decades from now. Your data lives on your computer. Nothing is sent to a server.

Download for macOS View on GitHub
● Free & open source ● Local-only — no cloud ● macOS · Windows soon

Why Stowe

Built for the long-term HSA play

The IRS lets you reimburse yourself from your HSA years after the expense — but only if you can still produce the receipt. Stowe keeps that proof in one tidy place.

Your data stays on your Mac

Stowe is local-first by design. No account, no sync, no telemetry. The database is a single SQLite file you fully own.

Receipt for every expense

Snap a photo, drop a PDF, or upload a scan. Stowe links each receipt to the right expense so the audit trail is always intact.

CSV export for tax time

Per-year and all-time exports drop straight into your spreadsheet or accountant's inbox. Reimburse, file, and move on.

A look inside

Quiet, focused, exactly enough

No dashboards you'll never look at. Three pages: log, review, export.

Stowe Vault page Vault
Stowe Add Expense page Add Expense
Stowe Annual Ledger page Annual Ledger

Install

Two ways to run it

Use the macOS DMG for the desktop app, or run from source if you'd rather see the code.

macOS app

  1. Download the latest Stowe-x.y.z.dmg from Releases.
  2. Open the DMG and drag Stowe into Applications.
  3. First launch: macOS will warn the build is unsigned. Right-click Stowe.app → Open → confirm Open. Subsequent launches work normally.

The app keeps your database at ~/Library/Application Support/Stowe/.

From source

Requires Python 3.10+.

git clone https://github.com/Conkay1/Stowe.git
cd Stowe
python3 run.py

run.py installs deps, opens the app in your browser, and prints a LAN URL so you can snap receipts from your phone on the same WiFi.

FAQ

Quick answers

Where exactly is my data stored?

On macOS the app keeps two things: a SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/Stowe/database/stowe.db and your receipt files at ~/Library/Application Support/Stowe/receipts/. To back up, copy that folder. To wipe everything, delete it.

Does Stowe send anything over the internet?

No. There's no server, no analytics, no auto-update calls, no telemetry. The app runs a tiny web server bound to localhost only.

Why is it free? What's the catch?

No catch. Stowe is open source under MIT and built as a personal project. It will likely stay small — "do one thing well" is the goal, not "become the Expensify of HSAs."

Is there a Windows or Linux version?

The macOS DMG is shipping first. Windows is on the roadmap. On Linux you can run from source today.

How do I back up my data?

Copy the ~/Library/Application Support/Stowe/ folder anywhere — iCloud Drive, Dropbox, an external drive. Both the SQLite DB and the receipts back up cleanly. To restore, copy it back.

Can I use Stowe for tax advice?

No — Stowe is a record-keeping tool, not tax advice. Consult IRS Publication 969 and a tax professional for what qualifies as a reimbursable medical expense.

What happens if I lose my computer?

Whatever you didn't back up is gone. That's the trade-off for keeping nothing in the cloud. Drop the data folder inside iCloud Drive or Dropbox to get cross-machine backup without giving up local-first.

Not tax advice. Stowe helps you keep records — what counts as a qualified medical expense is up to the IRS and your accountant.