Bursora: Open-Source Tool Blocks AI API Calls Before Budget Limits Are Exceeded

A developer built and open-sourced Bursora after an AI feature stuck in a loop racked up unexpected costs overnight, which were only discovered the next morning via a provider dashboard. Unlike existing tools such as Helicone or Langfuse that display spending after the fact, Bursora checks a preset budget before each API call and blocks it if the limit would be breached. The SDK wraps standard OpenAI client calls with minimal code changes, and all traffic goes directly to the provider without passing through Bursora's servers. Costs are reported back after each call, and spending can be tagged by customer, agent, or workflow for granular tracking. The dashboard is licensed under Apache-2.0, the SDK under MIT, and the entire stack can be self-hosted on a personal Postgres instance with no feature restrictions.