Claude Code, all day, without the stops.

The ops layer for Claude Code.

Your Claude login stays the main credential. Burst adds the parts you need to run Claude Code all day. Most are off until you switch them on.

One line: Claude Code installs it.

You need macOS, Go 1.23 or later, the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) and Claude Code logged in.

1. 1Open Terminal: press Cmd Space, type Terminal, press Return.
2. 2Paste this line and press Return:

   claude "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andrewbakercloudscale/claude-burst/main/SETUP_PROMPT.md)"

   Copy to Clipboard
3. 3Claude Code opens with the setup prompt. It tells you in three lines what will change and waits for your go ahead, then checks what is needed.
4. 4It hands you one install line to paste into your own terminal, because it asks for your password. Claude Code never runs sudo itself.
5. 5It checks the gateway and dashboard answer, then reports. Restart Claude Code for Burst to take effect.

Already in a Claude Code session? Paste the text of SETUP_PROMPT.md instead. If you use Ghostty Dock, its Compact button offers Set Up Claude Burst, which runs the same line.

Two modes

By hand

Clone the newest release tag from the Releases page, then:

git clone --branch <newest tag> https://github.com/andrewbakercloudscale/claude-burst.git
cd claude-burst
scripts/verify-release.sh .     # optional: checks the release signature
./install.sh                    # asks: transparent (recommended) or base-url
claude-burst status
claude-burst open               # the dashboard

Optional: a secondary to overflow to when a limit is hit. Skip it on a single plan. Together AI, OpenRouter, any OpenAI compatible endpoint or Amazon Bedrock work. For example:

claude-burst configure --secondary openai-compatible \
  --secondary-base-url https://api.together.xyz/v1 --secondary-model zai-org/GLM-5.3
TOGETHER_API_KEY='your-key' claude-burst keychain-set --provider together
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$UID/ninja.andrewbaker.claude-burst

What it changes on your Mac

./install.sh uninstall removes all of it and checks it is gone.

Cmd Space, burst, Return.

The installer puts a Claude Burst app in ~/Applications. Open it from Spotlight or Launchpad, or drag it to the Dock. It opens the dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:7788, or the support console when the gateway is down. claude-burst open does the same from a terminal.

Three tabs sit at the top left: Claude, Codex and General. Under Claude, the sections are grouped as Setup, Observe, Context, Routing and Sessions. The bar along the top shows the mode and route, with Force primary, Force secondary, Reinstall and Revert to normal Claude.

Install and test has three checks to run after installing: Test connection, Test secondary and Send test message, which traces one tiny real message down the same path Claude Code uses.

Long sessions, no pause.

Every turn resends the whole conversation, so a turn at 400k tokens uses your limits about four times as fast as one at 100k. Claude Code only compacts near the end of its 1M window, and stops the session while it does. Burst compacts much earlier, in the background, and swaps the summary in on your next prompt.

• Nothing is lost. Burst shortens only what is sent. Claude Code keeps every message, so dropping the summary or rewinding sends the full history again.
• No waiting. The summary is written from the cache (about $0.20 at 400k) while you work. An experimental switch swaps it in mid turn.
• You see it. A line under your prompt says how much smaller the context got, for example 666k to 78k.
• On demand. Type /compact-async in any session.

On a subscription the saving is API equivalent value, not money back: your bill does not change, your limits last longer. In two days of real use with long Opus sessions it saved about $26 a day of that value, after the summaries’ own cost.

The right size, learned per repository.

Compact too early and you pay for summaries you did not need. Too late and every turn re-reads a context bigger than it had to be. The right point differs by repository. Set Compaction mode to Intelligent and Burst works it out from each repository’s last 14 days.

• Measured, not guessed. It replays every size from 100k to 500k over what the repository really sent, and picks the latest that cost no more than 5% above the cheapest.
• Careful with money. A 100k floor, a 500k ceiling and a 20% buffer. A new repository starts at 300k.
• Never loses twice. A compaction that did not pay for itself raises that repository’s size by 10% at once.
• Explains itself. Every row ends with its reason in a sentence. Learn now recalculates; a per repository override always wins.

What a session’s context is made of.

Pick a session and see every part of what Burst last sent: tool results, tools, replies, instruction files and prompts, with what each costs. Items worth a look are flagged, such as large old output, an out of date copy of a file, or an instruction file from outside the repository. Remove takes one out of later requests; Restore puts it back. Claude Code keeps its own copy either way.

Commands inside a session

Several sessions, one working tree.

Several Claude Code sessions, and their subagents, can edit the same repository without overwriting, sweeping up or shipping each other’s uncommitted work. Nobody waits.

• The first session to edit a file becomes its master and is responsible for committing it.
• Other sessions can still edit it; the master is asked to commit their changes first.
• Blocked while another session has uncommitted work: overwriting a whole file, sweeping commits such as git add -A, and running a deploy script.
• A session commits the files it masters before it stops, on this Mac only, never pushed.

Session handover sits beside it: in a repository that opts in, each session reads HANDOFF.md at the start and writes it at the close, so the next one picks up where the last left off.

The numbers beside each session.

The installer adds the usage panel, a Claude Code mod, which shows a sidebar beside each session:

• the session’s cost and cost per hour
• a context bar of what Burst really sends, with the compaction point marked
• each turn’s tokens, cache hit and cost, with compaction Started and Finished rows
• Burst’s route, and how much of your 5 hour and weekly limits is used
• what Pauseless Compaction saved over the last 7 days

The burst-session mod also puts Burst’s route and context above the prompt, and shows alerts as toasts. /burst opens the summary in a pane. Set CLAUDE_BURST_PANEL=no at install to skip the panel.

Where the money goes.

The Observe group shows daily activity, latency and error rate, compaction savings, spend by model and by repository, and a Usage view you can filter down to single requests. Costs are at API prices you can edit, so on a subscription they show value used, not your bill.

Keep working past a limit.

Burst watches Anthropic’s own rate limit headers. Only when Anthropic says a model’s allowance is used up does it move that model’s requests: first to other Claude models on your plan, then to the secondary you configured. It returns to your subscription when the reset time arrives. A bare 429 never triggers it, and old tool output is pruned from overflow requests before they are sent.

With a metered API key as the primary, failover waits for sustained failures instead of a limit header. Force secondary at the top of the dashboard routes there on purpose, for testing.

OpenAI’s Codex too.

Codex, the CLI and the ChatGPT app, signed in with ChatGPT, can route through Burst. On the dashboard’s Codex tab click Route Codex through Burst, or:

claude-burst codex enable    # route Codex through Burst
claude-burst codex status
claude-burst codex disable   # straight to ChatGPT again

Then restart Codex. Requests reach ChatGPT unchanged. The tab shows tokens per turn, each session’s context against its window, the ChatGPT plan’s limits, a path trace and a test turn. Only model calls go through Burst; sign in, plugins and cloud tasks go to ChatGPT directly.

Keep a session running in your bag.

Under General, This Mac, choose to keep working with the lid closed: off, plugged in only, or plugged in and on battery. Claude Code stays reachable from your phone through Remote Control. Pick your phone’s hotspot and Burst joins it when the Mac goes offline. Off by default; it needs your password once per change.

Off in one click, gone in one line.

Turning Burst off sends Claude Code straight to Anthropic. Sessions already open keep working.

Uninstall

From the folder you installed from:

./install.sh uninstall           # keeps ~/.config/claude-burst
./install.sh uninstall --purge   # also deletes ~/.config/claude-burst

It lists the root steps first and asks for your password once, then removes the watchdog, the hooks in ~/.claude/settings.json, the LaunchAgents and the binary. It ends with a check and names any leftover with the command that removes it. Your secondary key stays in the Keychain and the usage panel has its own uninstaller. ROLLBACK.md lists each change with its own undo, to remove one part and keep the rest.

Common questions.

If something is not right.

Repair

Syncs with GitHub, reinstalls in the same mode and checks a request gets through. It asks before stopping any session.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andrewbakercloudscale/claude-burst/main/scripts/repair.sh | bash

Diagnose

Changes nothing and copies a redacted report to the clipboard.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andrewbakercloudscale/claude-burst/main/scripts/diagnose.sh | bash