https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless
The always-on financial companion for founders
https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless
ai cli finance financial-planning founders fpa nextjs open-source pglite self-hosted startup typescript
Last synced: 2 days ago
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The always-on financial companion for founders
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless
- Owner: hoaxnerd
- License: agpl-3.0
- Created: 2026-06-14T13:54:41.000Z (16 days ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-06-25T07:58:23.000Z (6 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-06-25T08:23:11.905Z (6 days ago)
- Topics: ai, cli, finance, financial-planning, founders, fpa, nextjs, open-source, pglite, self-hosted, startup, typescript
- Language: TypeScript
- Homepage: https://burnless.ai
- Size: 6.25 MB
- Stars: 16
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 1
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- Security: SECURITY.md
- Notice: NOTICE
- Agents: AGENTS.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
[](./LICENSE)
[](https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless/releases)
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[](https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless/discussions)
---
The scariest part of being a founder isn't running low on cash. It's **finding out a month after you needed to act.**
You're heads-down building a product — not wrangling a spreadsheet for answers, or coaxing a chatbot into doing the math for you. So the numbers drift, and by the time you look, the moment to course-correct has already passed.
**Burnless is the always-on financial companion for founders.** It reads your real financials and watches your burn, your runway, your revenue — all of it, all the time — and surfaces what you need to know *before you have to ask. That morning, not a month later.*
It's open source, AI-native, and self-hosts in **one command** with an embedded database — no Docker, no Postgres to run. Your numbers stay on your machine; you bring your own AI.
```sh
curl -fsSL https://burnless.ai/install | sh
```
## A look inside
Always-on dashboard — burn, runway & revenue, watched live, with AI insights surfaced for you.
The companion — ask in plain English; it answers with real, computed numbers.
What-if, compared — every change diffed against your base case, line by line.
Scenario mode — model freely as an overlay, without touching your real data.
Revenue — MRR, streams, waterfall, and projections.
Funding — rounds, cap table, and a live dilution calculator.
Expenses — categorized spend, anomalies, and budget-vs-actuals.
Smart onboarding — bring your own provider; up and running in a minute.
## Every decision is a what-if
What if I hire? What if I raise? What if I cut? Ask in plain English and Burnless builds the scenario on your real model — then shows you the impact on runway, burn, and cash before you commit to anything.
Work in **scenario mode** to explore freely: it's a non-destructive overlay on your real data, so nothing you try touches the base case. Compare scenarios side by side, then promote the one you want to baseline.
## And a lot more
- **AI companion** — a chat that reads your live financials and takes actions through tools (build a scenario, adjust headcount, edit a forecast line) instead of just talking about them.
- **Forecasting** — dependency-graph forecast lines with multiple methods (fixed, growth rate, per-unit, percentage-of, custom formula), resolved in topological order.
- **The full model** — revenue (subscription / usage / one-time / services), expenses, funding rounds with cap table, and headcount — all in one place.
- **Reports** — P&L, cash flow, balance sheet, runway, budget-vs-actuals, key metrics, and an AI-assisted board update, exportable for investors.
- **Custom metrics & dashboard** — pin what matters, define your own metrics, lay the dashboard out your way.
- **Automations & MCP** — schedule recurring AI runs, connect external tools over MCP, and expose Burnless itself as an MCP server other agents can drive.
- **Bring any AI** — a provider-agnostic layer works with Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or fully local with Ollama.
## Computed, not hallucinated
The math is not the AI's guess. A deterministic, Decimal-precision financial engine and a traceable forecast dependency graph do every calculation; the AI *operates* that engine through tools. So when Burnless tells you your runway, it's a number you can trace — not a number a model made up.
## Quickstart
Install with the shell one-liner:
```sh
curl -fsSL https://burnless.ai/install | sh
```
Or with npm:
```sh
npm install -g burnless
# or run without installing:
npx burnless start
```
Then start your instance:
```sh
burnless start
```
This opens Burnless on `http://127.0.0.1:2876` (port 2876 = **BURN**) with auto-login on the loopback interface, and drops you into the onboarding wizard. One command and you're in.
**Requirements:** Node **≥ 20.9**. Don't have it (or the right version)? Pass `--with-node` and the installer provisions a pinned Node for you:
```sh
curl -fsSL https://burnless.ai/install | sh -s -- --with-node
```
> Prefer to read it first? `curl -fsSL https://burnless.ai/install | less`, then run it.
## Own your numbers
Your financial model is some of the most sensitive data your company has. Burnless is built so it never has to leave your control:
- **Nothing phones home.** Self-hosted, your financials and your AI keys stay on your infrastructure.
- **Your data, your AI, your choice.** Point it at any provider — or run a local model with Ollama — and own the whole stack.
- **Open forever.** The AGPL license keeps improvements open: anyone who ships a modified Burnless shares those changes back. It's honest, not bait-and-switch.
- **It can't be taken away.** Founder finance tools have a habit of getting acquired and shut down. An open-source one you run yourself can't be — the code is yours to keep, run, and reshape.
A managed **cloud** edition — the same codebase with the operational pieces handled for you — is on the way for teams that would rather not run it themselves. The core stays open either way.
## Self-host
The self-host story is the whole point: **a single artifact with an embedded database — no Docker, no Postgres to run.**
```sh
curl -fsSL https://burnless.ai/install | sh # or: npm install -g burnless
burnless start
```
- **Requirements:** Node ≥ 20.9 (or pass `--with-node` to provision a pinned Node).
- **Your data** lives under `~/.burnless/data`. Back it up by copying that directory — it sits outside the versioned install, so it survives updates and rollbacks.
- **Updates are atomic:** `burnless update` swaps in the new version and runs a health check; if it fails to come up, it automatically rolls back to the prior one. Your data is never touched.
- **Loopback by default:** Burnless binds to `127.0.0.1` — that's what makes auto-login safe, since the loopback interface is the security boundary. Exposing it more widely is an explicit, opt-in step.
| | Self-host | Cloud *(coming)* |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | You | Managed for you |
| AI | Bring your own provider / key | Hosted AI included |
| Data | On your machine (`~/.burnless/data`) | Hosted |
| Ops | One command | Zero-ops |
| Cost | Free, forever | Managed plans |
## How it works
Burnless is a pnpm + turbo monorepo. Data flows from the database through the financial engine and AI layer into a Next.js app:
```
┌──────────────────────────┐
apps/web ────────────▶│ Next.js app + API + │
(dashboard, API, │ the dashboard UI │
middleware) └────────────┬─────────────┘
│
┌───────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
packages/engine packages/ai packages/db
pure-TS financial calc provider-agnostic LLM layer Drizzle ORM
(Decimal precision) (Anthropic/OpenAI/ PGlite local /
OpenRouter/Ollama) Postgres cloud
packages/cli → the `burnless` CLI (start / update / mcp serve / …)
packages/mcp → Model Context Protocol support (consume + expose)
packages/types, packages/ui → shared TS types + React components
```
- **`apps/web`** — the Next.js app: dashboard, API routes, and middleware.
- **`packages/engine`** — pure-TypeScript financial calculations with Decimal.js precision (no I/O, no DB).
- **`packages/ai`** — the provider-agnostic LLM layer and chat/tool loop.
- **`packages/db`** — Drizzle ORM schema and queries; PGlite when self-hosted, Postgres for cloud and scale.
- **`packages/cli`** — the `burnless` CLI that installs, starts, updates, and manages your instance.
- **`packages/mcp`** — Model Context Protocol support: connect external MCP tools and expose Burnless as an MCP server.
- **`packages/types` / `packages/ui`** — shared TypeScript types and React components.
## Documentation
Start with [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for development setup and conventions. More documentation is on the way as the project matures.
## Community & support
- **Questions, ideas, show-and-tell:** [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless/discussions)
- **Bugs & feature requests:** [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/hoaxnerd/burnless/issues)
## Contributing
Contributions are welcome. Read [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) to get a local instance running and learn the conventions. On your first pull request, the CLA Assistant bot will ask you to sign a one-time Contributor License Agreement — a low-friction, automated step that takes a moment.
## Security
Found a vulnerability? Please report it privately — see [SECURITY.md](./SECURITY.md).
## License
Burnless is split so it's open where it matters and embeddable where it helps you:
- The server and the `@burnless/*` packages are **AGPL-3.0** ([LICENSE](./LICENSE)) — improvements stay open.
- The **`burnless` CLI is Apache-2.0** ([packages/cli/LICENSE](./packages/cli/LICENSE)) — so you can embed and script it freely.
A Contributor License Agreement exists for one reason: it lets us offer a commercial / hosted edition that funds continued development. It does not take away your rights to your own contribution — you keep them.
---
**Happy building.**
Burnless is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any third-party provider or trademark referenced above.