burn451

Manage your reading queue from the terminal.

Save articles. Triage them. Let the rest burn.

CLI for Burn 451 — the reading triage system with a 24h countdown.

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Why

You have 47 tabs open. You'll "read them later." You won't.

Burn 451 gives every saved article a 24-hour countdown. Read it or lose it. burn451 brings that system to your terminal — save URLs, check what's burning, search your history, see your triage stats. No browser required.

Install

npm install -g burn451

Quick start

# 1. Get your token from burn451.cloud/settings → MCP Server
burn451 login bmcp_your_token_here

# 2. See what's burning
burn451 flame

# 3. Save something
burn451 save https://karpathy.bearblog.dev/verifiability/

# 4. Check your stats
burn451 stats

Commands

Command	What it does
burn451 login <token>	Authenticate (token from burn451.cloud/settings)
burn451 brief	Daily launch page — burning soon + new + absorbed today
burn451 digest [days]	Recent absorbed articles summary (default: 7 days)
burn451 flame	Show articles burning soon (< 6h remaining)
burn451 list [filter]	List bookmarks: flame (default), vault, spark, all
burn451 save <url>	Save URL to Flame (24h countdown starts)
burn451 search <query>	Search across all bookmarks
burn451 stats	Your reading triage statistics
burn451 triage	Interactive triage — k/r/d each article
burn451 keep | read | delete <id>	Move an article by id

Examples

# Start of day — what to read first
burn451 brief

# Weekly digest → markdown, paste into your notes or blog
burn451 digest 7 --markdown > week-16.md

# JSON output for downstream scripts (jq, Raycast, shortcuts)
burn451 brief --json | jq '.burning_soon'

# What needs attention right now?
burn451 flame

# Everything in your permanent vault
burn451 list vault --limit=50

# Find that MCP article you saved
burn451 search "MCP server"

# Save from a pipe
echo "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/8/muse-spark/" | xargs burn451 save

# Interactive triage session — keep/read/delete each article
burn451 triage

Authentication

Two ways to authenticate:

Option 1: Login command (persistent)

burn451 login bmcp_your_token
# Token saved to ~/.burn451/config.json

Option 2: Environment variable

export BURN_MCP_TOKEN=bmcp_your_token
burn451 flame

Get your token at burn451.cloud/settings → MCP Server section.

How it works

burn451 CLI → Burn 451 API (Supabase) → Your reading queue
     ↕
~/.burn451/config.json (token)
~/.burn451/session.json (cached JWT, 5min TTL)

No intermediate server. Your CLI talks directly to Burn's API with your token. Session is cached locally for 5 minutes to avoid repeated token exchanges.

Part of the Burn ecosystem

Tool	What it does
burn451 (this)	CLI for daily queue management
burn-mcp-server	MCP server — 26 tools for Claude/Cursor
burn-daily-triage	Claude Code Routine — auto-triage every morning
morning-brief	Daily briefing from GitHub + reading + tasks
reading-digest	Weekly digest from your bookmarks

Roadmap

• v0.1 — login, flame, list, save, search, stats
• v0.2 — keep, read, delete, interactive triage
• v0.3 — brief (daily launch page), digest (weekly summary, --markdown/--json)
• v0.4 — export (full backup), shell completion, themed output
• v0.5 — Interactive TUI mode with vim-style navigation

License

MIT — see LICENSE