  Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated
fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements
of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of
the host neutron star and mass donors, but a number of confounding
astrophysical effects contribute to systematic uncertainties. Here we describe
some commonly-used approaches for determining system parameters, including
composition of the burst fuel, and introduce a new suite of software tools,
concord, intended to fully account for astrophysical uncertainties. Comparison
of observed burst properties with the predictions of numerical models is a
complementary method of constraining host properties, and the tools presented
here are intended to make comprehensive model-observation comparisons
straightforward. When combined with the extensive samples of burst observations
accumulated by X-ray observatories, these software tools will provide a
step-change in the amount of information that can be inferred about typical
burst sources.
