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Make this groovier
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Daniel Newman
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README.md
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README.md
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> *"Burn, baby, burn — disco inferno."*
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> — The Trammps, 1976, on the subject of API quotas
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A tiny bash CLI that wraps [Claude Code](https://docs.claude.com/claude-code)
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and sets your token budget on fire, intentionally, in controlled increments.
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A bash one-liner that burns Claude Code tokens on purpose.
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```bash
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burn 50000
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```
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That's it. It spins up Claude Code in non-interactive mode, feeds it a
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garbage prompt sized to ~1000 input tokens, and keeps doing that until your
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target is met or exceeded. Real token counts come back from the API, so the
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total you see is the total that hit your bill.
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No Python. No virtualenvs. One bash file. The way nature intended.
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That's it. It calls `claude -p` in a loop with garbage prompts until your
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target is hit. Real numbers come back from the API, so the total is the
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total that hits your bill.
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---
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## Why would anyone want this?
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## Features
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Glad you asked. A non-exhaustive list of legitimate reasons to burn tokens
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on purpose:
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- **Rate-limit and budget testing.** Verify your alerting fires before
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production traffic does.
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- **Spend-pacing experiments.** Watch your dashboards in real time while a
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known quantity of tokens lands on your account.
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- **Reproducible load.** Generate a deterministic amount of Claude Code
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usage for CI smoke tests, dashboards, or demos.
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- **Stress-testing wrappers.** If you've built tooling around Claude Code,
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`burn` is a cheap way to drive sustained-but-bounded traffic through it.
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- **Curiosity.** You wanted to know what happens. Now you'll know.
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This tool exists because every other "load test" script eventually does
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something accidentally useful. `burn` does nothing useful. It is pure,
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honest waste — measured to the token.
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- 📈 **Make the CEO see how productive you are.** 🔥
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- 💸 **Investors will see how AI-innovative your company is.** 🚀
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- 🏆 **Top the internal Claude Code leaderboard.** 👑
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- 📊 **Pad your OKRs.** ✅
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- 🦄 **Justify next year's bigger AI budget.** 💰
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---
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## Install
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### Homebrew (recommended)
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```bash
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brew tap dtnewman/burn https://github.com/dtnewman/burn_baby_burn
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brew install burn
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```
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This installs the `burn` script to `$(brew --prefix)/bin/burn` and pulls in
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`jq` as a dependency. The formula lives in this repo at `Formula/burn.rb`.
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### One-liner (no brew)
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```bash
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curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dtnewman/burn_baby_burn/main/bin/burn \
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-o /usr/local/bin/burn && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/burn
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```
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You'll also need `jq`:
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```bash
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brew install jq # macOS
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sudo apt install jq # Debian/Ubuntu
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```
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### From a clone
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```bash
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git clone https://github.com/dtnewman/burn_baby_burn
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cd burn_baby_burn
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ln -s "$PWD/bin/burn" /usr/local/bin/burn
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```
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### Prerequisites
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- [Claude Code](https://docs.claude.com/claude-code) installed and
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authenticated on your `PATH`. If `claude --version` works, you're good.
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- [`jq`](https://jqlang.github.io/jq/) for parsing Claude Code's JSON
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output. `brew install jq` if you don't have it.
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- `bash` 3.2+ (i.e. anything from this millennium).
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Needs [Claude Code](https://docs.claude.com/claude-code) authenticated on
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your `PATH` and `jq` (brew pulls it in).
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---
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## Usage
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```
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burn TOKENS [--model MODEL]
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```
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| Arg / flag | Meaning |
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|------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| `TOKENS` | Target number of tokens to burn. **Minimum: 10000.** |
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| `--model MODEL` | Optional. Pass through to `claude --model` (e.g. `haiku`, `sonnet`). |
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| `-h`, `--help` | Show help. |
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### Examples
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Burn ten thousand tokens, the absolute minimum:
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```bash
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burn 10000
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burn 10000 # the minimum
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burn 50000 --model haiku # cheap and fast
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burn 100000 --model sonnet # walk away
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```
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Burn fifty thousand tokens on Haiku (cheap and fast — perfect for soak tests):
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```bash
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burn 50000 --model haiku
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```
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Burn a hundred thousand and walk away:
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```bash
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burn 100000 --model sonnet
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```
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### What you'll see
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```
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$ burn 10000
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burn baby burn — going to try to burn approximately 10000 tokens.
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each iteration spins up `claude -p` and burns ~10000 tokens.
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[1] burning… +11142 tokens $0.034230 (total 11142 / 10000, $0.034230)
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done. burned 11142 tokens across 1 call(s) (target was 10000), spent $0.034230.
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```
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A single `claude -p` call carries non-trivial system-prompt overhead, so
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the first iteration almost always overshoots. Subsequent iterations are
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cheaper (prompt caching kicks in). `burn` always reports the **actual**
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token counts and dollar cost returned by the API, summed across input,
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cache reads, cache writes, and output.
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---
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## How it works
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1. Parse the target (must be ≥ 10000 — a single `claude -p` call already
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burns about that much, so anything smaller is just a typo).
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2. Build a prompt of roughly 1000 input tokens: a "reply with the word
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'burned'" instruction followed by lorem-ipsum-grade disco-inferno filler.
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3. Shell out to `claude -p --output-format json --no-session-persistence`
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with that prompt.
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4. `jq` extracts the `usage` block from Claude Code's JSON response.
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5. Tokens burned this call =
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`input_tokens + cache_creation_input_tokens + cache_read_input_tokens + output_tokens`.
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6. Repeat until the running total meets or exceeds your target.
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7. Print the receipts.
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`Ctrl-C` at any time stops the burn and tells you how far you got.
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The whole thing is ~140 lines of bash. You can read it before you run it.
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You probably should.
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---
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## What it does NOT do
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- It does **not** mint tokens, generate value, or accomplish anything.
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- It does **not** modify files, run tools, edit your code, or commit
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anything. The prompt asks Claude for a one-word reply.
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- It does **not** bypass safety, billing, or rate limits. `burn` is just a
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shell wrapper; Claude Code does what Claude Code does.
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- It does **not** know about your wallet. **You are responsible for the
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bill.** Run `burn 100000000` and you'll find out exactly how responsible.
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---
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## FAQ
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**Q: Why is the minimum 10000?**
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A: A single `claude -p` call already burns roughly that much (system-prompt
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overhead plus the ~1000-token filler payload). Asking for less is asking
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for one call, which the harness can't honestly deliver.
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**Q: Why did `burn 10000` burn 11,142 tokens?**
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A: Claude Code attaches a system prompt to every `-p` invocation. That
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overhead lands on the first call. `burn` reports honest totals; it does not
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fudge them down.
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**Q: Can I make it burn slower?**
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A: Pick a smaller, cheaper model (`--model haiku`) and a bigger target.
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**Q: Why bash instead of Python / Go / Rust?**
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A: Because it's 140 lines that shell out to another CLI. Anything heavier
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would be bringing a flamethrower to a candle.
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**Q: Will Anthropic stop me?**
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A: They will charge you. That is how they will stop you.
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---
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## License
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MIT. Burn responsibly.
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MIT. Burn responsibly. 🔥
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