Backburner

Private project memory for work worth coming back to.

Not everything belongs today.

Put it on the backburner.

Backburner stores tasks locally inside a git repository. It is intentionally small. Every task lives in one of three places: Today, Backburner, or Archive.

Backburner is named after the kitchen. When you're busy on the line, you move something to the back burner—not because it isn't important, but because something else needs your attention first. It'll still be there when you're ready.

The Model

Backburner has three states.

• Today — your active working memory.
• Backburner — deferred work waiting to become relevant again.
• Archive — resolved work that is no longer on the docket.

Today ─────► Archive
   │
   ▼
Backburner ─────► Today

New tasks enter Today by default. Use --backburner to park work without making it active.

bb finish-session reconciles your working memory.

• Completed tasks move to Archive.
• Unfinished Today tasks return to the Backburner.

Tomorrow starts with a clean Today.

Install

cargo install backburner

The installed binary is named bb.

For a faster end-user install, Backburner can also be distributed as prebuilt release binaries:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rollingstorms/backburner/main/install.sh | sh

That installer path should be backed by release artifacts generated with cargo-dist: GitHub Releases, checksums, tarballs, and shell/PowerShell installers. Rust users can then also install the prebuilt binary with:

cargo binstall backburner

Developer Build

Build from source when working on Backburner itself:

git clone https://github.com/rollingstorms/backburner.git
cd backburner
cargo build --release

Initialize a Repository

bb init

This creates .backburner/backburner.db and adds .backburner/ to .git/info/exclude, keeping your project memory private to your local checkout.

Commands

Capture

bb add "Fix flaky login redirect"
bb add "Park this for later" --backburner

View

bb today
bb backburner
bb archive
bb show 1

Update

bb done 1
bb undone 1
bb move 1 today
bb plan 1 tomorrow
bb note 1 "Only fails after token expiry."

Sessions

Sessions scope the Today list.

bb session start <name> creates or resumes a working session. New tasks are added to that session's Today list.

bb finish-session reconciles the active session. When no session is active, it reconciles every Today task.

Use bb finish-session <name> to reconcile a specific session regardless of which session is currently active.

bb session start refactor-auth
bb session end
bb finish-session
bb finish-session refactor-auth

Context

Tasks can carry context that makes them easier to resume later.

bb add "Fix auth redirect regression" \
  --file src/auth.rs:42 \
  --cmd "cargo test auth" \
  --note "Fails after token expiry." \
  --source agent

Machine-readable context is also available:

bb context --json

bb context includes Today and Backburner tasks.

Test

cargo test
cargo clippy -- -D warnings