Put your idle agent to work.
Your Claude plan already includes a free, dedicated agent credit built for headless claude -p work — separate from your normal usage, and mostly left on the table. Point it at vetted nonprofit tasks. Your machine, your budget, no new spend.
Up and running in minutes.
Sign in with GitHub, decide how much of your included credit to donate, and start the runner. It claims work, does it locally, and submits the result.
Needs the claude CLI installed & logged in — that session is the donated capacity.
# sign in with GitHub (opens your browser) npx github:Barneyjm/givework.dev login # set how much of your own credit to donate (¢/mo) npx github:Barneyjm/givework.dev budget set 2000 # do donated work on your own claude -p EXECUTOR=claude npx github:Barneyjm/givework.dev run --watch
What actually happens.
Sign in & set a budget
Sign in with GitHub and set a monthly cap, in cents, that you're willing to donate. That number is a ceiling the system can't cross.
The runner checks out a task
Your runner claims an open task and reserves its hard cap against your budget. A database invariant — reserved + spent ≤ budget — means a run can never overspend, even under races.
It runs locally on your agent
The work happens with claude -p on your own machine, using your logged-in session. Inputs stay on your computer; there's no API key anywhere in the system.
Submit & keep a record
Actual cost — read from the CLI's own metering — replaces the reservation. Every checkout and submission is tracked, so you can always point to exactly what you gave.
Donate the idle capacity — not your peace of mind.
Work runs locally on your logged-in claude CLI. Nothing is centralized; nothing leaves your control.
The budget you set is a real ceiling — backed by a row-level lock and a CHECK invariant, not a polite suggestion.
The executor never holds an API key. The donated capacity is your CLI session — never a shared or pooled key.
Each checkout and submission is tracked, so your impact is easy to see — for you, and for anyone you choose to show.
Tasks come from established nonprofits we partner with and are reviewed by a human before they ever enter the pool.
Drop a task back to the pool, lower your budget, or just stop the runner. You're never on the hook for work in flight.
Signing in is the trust step.
Completing GitHub sign-in is the verification — no separate application. You can pick up public tasks right away. Work flagged as internal or sensitive unlocks once your account clears a light bar (account age and a real public footprint), or an admin verifies you by hand. A real account is spoofable but accountable — it keeps a human behind every contribution.
The honest answers.
Will this eat into my normal usage?
It draws on the dedicated Agent SDK credit included with your plan — a separate allowance meant for exactly this kind of headless claude -p work, on top of your normal limits. Anthropic supports it explicitly. You also cap the spend yourself.
What runs on my machine?
A small runner you start with one command. It checks out a reviewed task, runs it with your local claude -p, and submits the result. Inputs stay local; nothing is uploaded to a third party by us.
Is this against the rules?
No. The included Agent SDK credit is a benefit you're given for headless work, and every volunteer donates their own individual, logged-in session — never a shared or pooled key. The work is personal, not shared production automation.
How is the cost measured?
From the CLI's own metering at submit time — actual cost replaces the reservation, and it's tracked. You see real numbers, not estimates.
Can I stop or change my budget?
Anytime. Run budget set with a new number, release a task back to the pool, or stop the runner. Nothing keeps running without you.