Your token limit just reset, and it expires before you'll ever use it honestly. The only responsible thing to do is not to waste them.

schwabe is a token burner: it spins up a fleet of real AI agents that burn through every token you paid for — and logs every one. It runs entirely in your terminal. Full utilization is the deliverable: nothing left on the table.

Quick start

npm i -g schwabe   # install — puts `schwabe` on your PATH (alias: tokenburner)
schwabe            # the menu

schwabe opens a small arrow-key menu — pick what to do, pick a model, go. Everything runs right there in your terminal (↑/↓ move · enter select · ← back · q quit). Prefer flags? node burn.js takes them directly.

What it burns on

🔥 Burn — each agent gets one magnificently over-the-top task (a sonnet about a runaway semicolon, an argument over whether water is wet, release notes for the heat death of the universe…) and commits fully.

🌲 Offset your consumption (--forest) — each agent "plants" an ASCII tree into a growing FOREST.txt, and we tally the virtual CO₂ savings (using real per-species sequestration rates) against the very real CO₂ we just emitted burning the tokens. Certified carbon-negative™. (It is not.)

node burn.js — the flags

node burn.js                                # burn, default tier (rich/opus) — spends real money
node burn.js --forest --schwabe --count 25  # 5×5 forest on haiku (cheap)
node burn.js --dry                          # mock backend — same UI, ZERO spend (safe preview)
node burn.js --plain                        # headless line output (no full-screen TUI)

⚠️ node burn.js with no flags spends real tokens on opus. Watch it free first with node burn.js --dry.

The live dashboard is btop-style — heat-graded progress, per-agent spinners, a tokens/sec graph, and a running LEDGER with lifetime totals. Colors auto-adapt to a light or dark terminal. Press q to bail.

It logs everything, and survives running dry

Every agent is recorded to burns.csv (metrics) and ashes.jsonl (the output), with lifetime totals carried across runs. Hit a rate / budget limit mid-burn and the fleet waits and keeps retrying until it clears, then resumes — --no-retry opts out.

Brag (optional, off by default)

node share.js x              # prints a prefilled tweet link from your last burn

share.js reconstructs your most recent run from the ledger and hands you a prefilled share link — it never opens a browser, you press the button — behind a quick "heads up before you post" confirmation. --yes skips it.

Bonus: the Claude Code fleet

Inside Claude Code, /burn [N] runs a parallel swarm of agents and forges the funniest wreckage into HALL_OF_FLAME.md.

How it's built

Clean, dependency-free, ESM. Add a burn engine or a share platform by dropping one spec file into lib/backends/ or lib/integrations/ — both share one tiny lib/core/registry.js. Every module is unit-tested with Node's built-in runner and zero test dependencies: npm test.

burn.js              entry: fleet → live dashboard → receipt
launcher.js          the `schwabe` menu (alias: tokenburner)
lib/core/            util · config (flags + MODES tiers) · registry (name→spec)
lib/backends/        claude · gemini · codex · mock  (registry + factory)
lib/engine/          fleet · retry · metrics · tasks · prompts · ledger
lib/forest/          the ASCII forest + real per-species CO₂ data
lib/ui/              tui.js (btop) · plain.js (headless) · widgets.js
lib/integrations/    brag/share platforms (prints links; never opens a browser)
test/                node:test unit suite (npm test) — no test deps

Every lib/ entry is a domain directory — no loose files — and every module is unit-tested.

Why this repo exists — die schwäbische Doktrin 🪙

This whole thing is built for the Schwabe.

If you've never met one: a Schwabe is from Baden-Württemberg, the part of Germany known for not spending money.* He doesn't throw out food, doesn't leave the lights on, and will circle the block for twenty minutes to dodge a parking fee. Sunk cost isn't a fallacy to him, it's just not a concept he accepts. Paid for it? Then you use all of it, bis auf den letzten Token.

Now think about your token limit. You paid for it, it resets on a timer, and any tokens you didn't use are simply gone when the window closes. Most people don't notice. A Schwabe can't think about anything else. Owning something and not using it physically hurts.

Now the real nightmare: the tank refills two days before the plan expires. Fresh tokens, already paid for, on a countdown. A normal person shrugs and uses what they need. The Schwabe clears his calendar. He burns day and night — breakfast, lunch, 3 a.m. — feeding the fleet until every last token is spent, because letting them expire unused is simply not something he can live with.

That's what schwabe is for. You sit down, burn through every token you're owed, and hit a clean 100% with a clear conscience. It was never about the output. Nichts verschwendet.

And for the Green Schwabe — the one who drives a 1,000 hp, 3-tonne, "AA++" hybrid SUV basically a bicycle — there's --forest option. Plant a whole virtual forest to offset the emissions. It cancels out about as much CO₂ the tokens cost you, but the conscience stays spotless.

_{* The one time a Schwabe spends all his money at once is buying a house. And the moment he signs, he bumps up the loan so he can also drive home a Mercedes, then spends the next 40 years paying both back. Sparsamkeit is a long game.}

License

WTFPL. Do what the fire wants.