THE PLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE

How FORK works

FORK has two sides that stay completely separate: a public Marketplace where creators sell AI prompts and tools, and FORK Enterprise, where employees share what works inside their own company. Each side runs on its own currency — here's the whole money model, side by side, plus every term you'll run into.

The money model, side by side

On the public Marketplace

Credits

The spendable currency

What it is: FORK's in-app currency. Roughly 100 credits = $10.
How you get it: Buy a bundle — the bigger the bundle, the bigger the bonus.
What it's for: Unlocking a case to keep its full content.
Good to know: Credits don't expire, but they aren't refundable or transferable.

Creator earnings

Real cash, via Stripe

What it is: Actual dollars you earn as a creator — 70% of every unlock, plus a 10% lifetime royalty on forks of your work.
How it flows: In when someone buys credits; out to creators cashing out the credits they've earned.
Good to know: Only earned credits are withdrawable (bought credits stay in your wallet). Weekly payouts, $10 minimum.

Inside FORK Enterprise

Points

Recognition, not cash

What it is: Your company's public record of who's sharing prompts and workflows that help. Status, never a rank.
How you get it: A colleague unlocks your workflow. Helping another department earns full Points; your own department earns 25%.
What it's for: A track record that follows you through every fork — evidence you bring to a promotion, never a score you're graded against.
Good to know: Points are recognition only. They never convert to dollars.

Bounties

The only cash in Enterprise

What it is: A real business problem leadership posts with a reward attached.
How it flows: Whoever's solution gets adopted earns the payout — settled by the company.
What it's for: The single place money changes hands inside FORK Enterprise.

The short version: Sharing earns recognition. Bounties earn cash. On the Marketplace, credits are how value moves. Inside FORK Enterprise, Points are how a company keeps score without money changing hands — the only cash flows through bounties.

Every term, in plain words

Everywhere on FORK

Unlock: Unlocking a case spends its price in credits and gives you the complete prompt, files, and examples to use. An unlock is permanent — you only pay once per case.
Case: A 'case' is the unit you publish and unlock on FORK: a reusable prompt, a packaged Claude Skill, a custom GPT or Gem, or another agent config — with at least one real example of what it produces.
Bounty: A bounty is a posted problem with a reward. On the public marketplace, bounties carry a real reward held in escrow and paid to whoever's solution is accepted. Inside FORK Enterprise, leadership posts bounties for the team's hardest problems — the only place cash changes hands.
Internal (vs Public): FORK completely separates the two worlds. Anything an employee publishes into FORK Enterprise is INTERNAL — visible only to that company, never on the public marketplace. The public marketplace is the open side where creators sell to anyone.
Result: A result is a short post showing the concrete output someone got from a case — the receipt that proves it works. Results help colleagues judge a case before they spend credits unlocking it.

On the public marketplace

Credits: Credits are FORK's in-app currency (about 100 credits to $10). You top up in bundles, then spend credits to unlock a case and keep its full content. Credits you buy don't expire, but they aren't refundable or transferable.
Fork: Forking takes a published case as a starting point for your own version. The original creator (and their ancestors) keep earning a small share of every unlock of your fork — so building on others' work is encouraged and fairly paid. A fork has to actually change something to go live.
Suggestion: A suggestion lets you propose an edit to a creator's case. If they accept it, your change becomes part of the case and you get contributor credit plus a small share of future unlocks.
Royalties: When someone forks your case and it gets unlocked, you earn a lineage royalty — about 10% to a direct parent, less further up the chain. It keeps paying for as long as the fork lives, so good originals compound over time.
Tier: Tiers set a case's price band: Gist (free or pay-what-you-want), Micro ($2), Standard ($5), Deep ($10), and Skill packs ($18–$30). The tier you pick is checked against a fair market range for similar work.
Trust tier: Trust tiers (New → Trusted → Verified) reflect a creator's history and credibility on FORK. Higher tiers signal a proven track record to buyers.
Payout: Creators cash out their earnings to a bank account through Stripe, processed weekly. Only credits you've earned (from unlocks, royalties, and bounties) are withdrawable — credits you bought stay in your wallet to spend. Minimum cash-out is $10.

Inside FORK Enterprise

Points: Points are how a company recognizes employees for sharing prompts and workflows that actually help colleagues — a public track record that follows you through every fork. They're evidence you choose to bring to a promotion conversation, never a score leadership grades you against. Points are recognition only and never convert to dollars; cash in FORK Enterprise flows only through bounties.
Cross-department weighting: To reward breaking down silos, an unlock by someone in a different department earns the publisher 100% of the Points, while a same-department unlock earns 25%. Repeatedly unlocking the same person's work earns less each time, so the points can't be farmed.
Standings: At the end of each period (monthly or quarterly), FORK Enterprise tallies each person's Points into the standings — a public snapshot of who contributed most. Points are recognition only; no budget is divided by them. Cash flows only through bounties.