Frequently asked questions

Money and safety

Is it safe to use real money?

No, not yet. ReuseForge is in public beta and payments run in test mode. Specifically:

• The default payment rail is simulated. No real funds move.
• The escrow smart contract is specified but unaudited, its source is not in the repository yet, and nothing is deployed.
• The node can check a USDC or USDT deposit and build payment links, but it does not send payouts. The Bitcoin rail only builds a link.
• Each order on a node has one arbiter, with no timeout, appeal or jury.
• The hosted app takes no orders at all yet: checkout, orders, earnings and funded builds are coming soon.
• Moving money between strangers may need licences and checks that have not been done.

What would change this: an independent audit of the contract, a deployed and tested contract wired to the node, a dispute process, and legal review. Until those exist, treat every dollar amount you see as play money. See what is not guaranteed.

What does test mode mean?

Balances are numbers kept in memory by the simulated rail. A deposit, a payout and a refund are all recorded in the log exactly as they would be on a real rail, so you can learn the whole flow, but nothing is paid. Every escrow, payout, refund and funded build described in these docs works this way. Listings marked DEMO are examples with placeholder addresses.

Who holds the money in escrow?

In test mode, nobody: balances are numbers. For a real rail it would be the escrow agent, which on a self-hosted node is the node operator. The ledger records who is allowed to do what, but the funds themselves sit with the agent until a deployed contract takes over that job. That is why the contract matters, and why it must be audited first.

What if a seller never delivers?

If any item is undelivered when the delivery deadline passes (7 days by default), the whole order is refunded to you in full, with no fee. No dispute is needed. In test mode the refund is a simulated balance. See Acceptance window and deadlines.

What if the code is bad?

Dispute before the acceptance window ends. The arbiter reads your reason and decides to release or refund. Write what you ran, what you expected and what failed. If you wait out the window, the order is released and it is too late.

Can I get a partial refund?

No. A dispute ends in a full release or a full refund. If you want sellers to be independent of each other, buy from each in a separate order.

What does it cost?

The software is MIT licensed and free to run. A released paid order pays a network fee, 1% by default on a self-hosted node, set by whoever runs it (test mode: no real money moves yet). Free items never involve a fee. The build estimate in a plan (default $8 per piece) is what your own agent may spend, not a charge. For the hosted app, see Pricing.

Using ReuseForge

How is a plan different from a search?

A search returns ranked items for a query. A plan starts from a goal, splits it into capabilities, picks one option for each and totals quality, cost and risk. It also shows the cheaper and the better alternatives on the Pareto front, so you choose how much to spend. See The Pareto plan.

Does the planner use an AI model?

Not by default. Splitting the goal uses a keyword taxonomy of 23 capabilities, and the search for plans is exact, not generated. With --llm you can have Claude split the goal instead; that needs the anthropic package and credentials, and it is off otherwise.

How is quality scored?

From the signals an item has: verified-purchase ratings, test pass rate, stars, downloads, citations and, when present, security scorecard, dependents, known vulnerabilities, last update and archived status. Each has a fixed weight or penalty. Missing signals are left out, and an item with none scores 0.4. See Quality, cost and risk for the weights.

Does ReuseForge run the code I buy?

No. It records a link and a hash. The only time ReuseForge executes an item's code is when you run verify yourself, which is not a sandbox. See Sandboxing verify.

Do I need a crypto wallet?

Not to try it. The simulator and the default rail need no wallet. For the stablecoin rails you would pay from your own wallet, and sellers give a payout address for each rail they accept.

Can my AI agent use it?

Yes. The hosted app serves MCP at https://reuseforge.com/mcp for search, planning and publishing. Its order and funded-build tools answer not_implemented because those features are coming soon. A node adds the escrow tools in test mode: run python -m repoblock mcp, or point your agent at /mcp on the node. Reads such as search and planning are open. Paying and accepting are write tools, and the node's bundled prompt tells the agent to ask you before doing either. See Let an agent use it.

Is the hosted app open?

Yes, for the catalog side. You can sign up, search, plan, publish or import items, join organizations and create API tokens at /app/. Checkout, orders, earnings and funded builds are coming soon: their screens are placeholders today and there is no date. Until they exist, the simulator and a self-hosted node cover the buying flow. See Getting started.

Is there an API or an SDK?

Yes, in part. The app is built on JSON endpoints under /api/ that you can call with an API token. A versioned /api/v1/ API serves items, versions, plans, tokens, webhooks and metadata, and SDKs for JavaScript and Python are in the repository. Its order, payout, earnings, funded-build and ledger operations return 501 not_implemented for now. See API and SDKs and the API reference.

Selling and building

Can I sell closed-source code?

You can list it and deliver through an access link, such as an invite to a private repository. State the terms you grant in the licence field and in the delivery. ReuseForge records the listing and the payment, and does not enforce licence terms.

Can a buyer just copy what they bought?

Yes. Once delivered, code can be copied. Escrow protects the payment, not secrecy. The content hash lets a buyer prove what they received, and a licence is your legal protection.

Is backing a crowdfunded build an investment?

It may be treated as one. Backers receive revenue units that can be transferred and that earn a share of later sales, which is the kind of arrangement securities law often covers. Crowdfunded builds run on the simulated rail only. Get legal advice before real money or public promotion. See Crowdfunded builds.

What does building from a paper mean?

When no item fits, the plan offers a build step. With online discovery it attaches up to two arXiv papers as blueprints, and brief writes instructions for a coding agent. Nobody is paid for it inside ReuseForge. The agent builds, you test it, and you can publish the result as an item so the next plan can reuse it.

Technical

Is this a blockchain?

No. It is a signed, hash-linked event log that nodes merge by taking the union, with no mining and no token. The only on-chain part is the optional escrow contract for USDC and USDT. See How nodes agree.

Is it open source?

Yes. The repository is MIT licensed and includes the node, the planner, the escrow logic, the Worker behind the hosted app, the app itself and the SDKs. Contributions are welcome through GitHub.

Which languages are supported?

This site and its docs are in English and Simplified Chinese. The API reference and the hosted app's interface are in English only. Goals can be written in English or Simplified Chinese: the default keyword planner matches English words and a list of Chinese terms. For another language, translate the goal or use the --llm option.

How do I report a security problem?

Privately, with GitHub's Report a vulnerability on the repository's Security tab. Do not open a public issue. More on the Security page.