MCP Integration

Give your AI coding agent the ability to spin up burners. When the agent needs to show you a live preview, share a URL with a third party, or verify its work in a real environment — it just calls spin_up_burner and gets a public URL back in ~30 seconds.

Setup

Two steps:

Authenticate (one-time)
```
npx burner-cli login
```
Signs in via GitHub OAuth and stores your API key at ~/.config/burner/config.json.
Add to your agent's MCP config

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json or global settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "burner": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["burner-cli", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "burner": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["burner-cli", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

Any MCP client that supports stdio transport can use the burner server. Point it at npx burner-cli mcp as the command.

Available Tools

Once configured, your agent will see these tools:

`spin_up_burner`

The main tool. Deploys a local project directory to a live public URL. The agent provides a directory path and a start command, and gets back a URL like https://cool-fire-abc.preview.burner.dev.

Parameter	Required	Description
`directory`	Yes	Path to the project directory
`command`	Yes	Start command (e.g. `npm start`)
`port`	No	Server port (default: 3000)
`env`	No	Environment variables as key-value pairs
`ttl_minutes`	No	Time-to-live in minutes (default: 45)

`list_burners`

Lists all your burners. Optionally filter by status (running, failed, destroyed, etc).

`get_burner`

Gets the current status and details of a specific burner by its preview ID.

`destroy_burner`

Tears down a burner and its cloud resources. Burners also auto-destroy when their TTL expires, so this is optional.

When Will an Agent Use This?

The tool descriptions are designed so your agent understands when to reach for a burner on its own:

You're away from your machine — the agent is building a feature and wants to show you progress. It spins up a burner and sends you the link.
No localhost available — your agent is running in a cloud environment without port forwarding. A burner gives it a real URL to work with.
Sharing with others — you want to show a colleague or client the current state of the app before committing anything.
Quick verification — the agent wants to confirm its changes actually work in a deployed environment, not just locally.

How It Works Under the Hood

When the agent calls spin_up_burner, the MCP server:

Archives the project directory (respects .gitignore)
Uploads the archive to cloud storage
Boots an isolated VM with your code
Runs dependency install + your start command
Returns a live public URL

The entire process takes ~30 seconds. The agent gets back the URL along with the preview ID (for later get_burner or destroy_burner calls).