https://thebeanledger.com/tags/directives/ Recent content in Directives on The Bean Ledger Hugo en-us Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:10:08 -0700 https://thebeanledger.com/posts/directives/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://thebeanledger.com/posts/directives/ <p>A <code>.beancount</code> file is a stream of <strong>directives</strong> — dated instructions that either <em>record</em> that something happened or <em>assert</em> that something is true. The asserting ones are what make Beancount stricter than a spreadsheet: when an assertion fails, the file refuses to load, and the error points at exactly where your records and reality diverged.</p> <p>The language defines more directives than you&rsquo;ll ever need. The everyday working set is nine of them — seven that record, and two, <code>balance</code> and <code>pad</code>, that assert — and this post covers exactly those.</p>