Earn XP, Discord roles, and money by contributing to the Aden agent framework — from quick fixes to major features, plus integration testing and development.

Why Contribute?

Your name in the product. When you promote a tool to verified, your GitHub handle goes in the tool's README under Contributed by. Every agent that uses that integration carries your name — permanent credit in a production codebase.

Visible status. Your Discord tier role is earned, not bought. When you answer a question in #integrations-help with a Core Contributor badge, people listen.

Weekly races. Every Monday the bot posts the leaderboard. Top 3 get medal emojis. The best work gets highlighted in announcements.

The path to paid. Core Contributor unlocks real money. It takes sustained quality work across testing, docs, and code — the scarcity makes it matter.

How It Works

Pick a bounty from the GitHub issues board
Claim it by commenting on the issue
Do the work and submit a PR (or test report)
A maintainer reviews and merges
You automatically get XP in Discord via Lurkr
At certain levels, you unlock roles. At the top tier, you unlock paid bounties.

Tiers

Tier	How to Reach	Rewards
Agent Builder	~500 XP (Lurkr level 5)	Discord role, bounty board access
Open Source Contributor	~2,000 XP (Lurkr level 15)	Discord role, name in CONTRIBUTORS.md and tool READMEs
Core Contributor	Maintainer-approved	Monetary payout per bounty, private `#bounty-payouts` channel

Lurkr auto-assigns the first two roles. Core Contributor requires sustained, quality contributions across multiple bounty types and a maintainer vouching for you.

Bounty Types

Integration Bounties

Focused on the tool ecosystem — testing, documenting, and building integrations.

Type	Label	Points	What You Do
Test a tool	`bounty:test`	20	Test with a real API key, submit a report with logs
Write docs	`bounty:docs`	20	Write a README following the template
Code contribution	`bounty:code`	30	Add health checker, fix a bug, or improve an integration
New integration	`bounty:new-tool`	75	Build a complete integration from scratch

Promoting a tool from unverified to verified is the final step — submit a PR moving it from _register_unverified() to _register_verified() after the promotion checklist is complete.

Standard Bounties

General contributions to the framework, docs, tests, and infrastructure — not tied to a specific integration.

Size	Label	Points	Scope
Small	`bounty:small`	10	Typo fixes, broken links, error message improvements, confirm/reproduce bug reports
Medium	`bounty:medium`	30	Bug fixes, new or improved unit tests, how-to guides, CLI UX improvements
Large	`bounty:large`	75	New features, performance optimizations with benchmarks, architecture docs
Extreme	`bounty:extreme`	150	Major subsystem work, security audits, cross-cutting refactors, new core capabilities

Examples by size

Small (10 pts):

Fix typos or broken links in documentation
Improve an error message to include actionable guidance
Add missing type annotations to a module
Reproduce and confirm an open bug report with environment details
Fix linting or CI warnings

Medium (30 pts):

Fix a non-critical bug with a regression test
Write a how-to guide or tutorial for a common workflow
Add or significantly improve test coverage for a core module
Improve CLI help text, argument validation, or UX
Add structured logging or observability to a module

Large (75 pts):

Implement a new user-facing feature end to end
Performance optimization with before/after benchmarks
Build a new CLI command or subcommand
Write comprehensive architecture documentation for a subsystem
Add a new credential adapter type

Extreme (150 pts):

Design and implement a major subsystem (e.g., plugin system, caching layer)
Security audit of a core module with findings and fixes
Major refactor of core architecture (must have maintainer pre-approval)
Build a complete example application or reference implementation
End-to-end testing framework for agent workflows

Quality Gates

PRs must be merged by a maintainer (not self-merged)
Test reports must follow the test report template with logs or session ID
READMEs must follow the tool README template
Claim before you start — comment on the issue, wait for assignment
No self-review, no splitting one change across multiple PRs, no AI-only submissions without verification

Labels

Integration bounty labels

Label	Color	Meaning
`bounty:test`	`#1D76DB` (blue)	Test a tool with a real API key
`bounty:docs`	`#FBCA04` (yellow)	Write or improve documentation
`bounty:code`	`#D93F0B` (orange)	Health checker, bug fix, or improvement
`bounty:new-tool`	`#6F42C1` (purple)	Build a new integration from scratch

Standard bounty labels

Label	Color	Meaning
`bounty:small`	`#C2E0C6` (green)	Quick fix — typos, links, error messages
`bounty:medium`	`#0E8A16` (green)	Bug fix, tests, guides, CLI improvements
`bounty:large`	`#B60205` (red)	New feature, perf work, architecture docs
`bounty:extreme`	`#000000` (black)	Major subsystem, security audit, core refactor

Difficulty labels

Label	Color	Meaning
`difficulty:easy`	`#BFD4F2`	Good first contribution
`difficulty:medium`	`#D4C5F9`	Requires some familiarity
`difficulty:hard`	`#F9D0C4`	Significant effort or expertise needed

Discord

#integrations-announcements  — Bounties, leaderboard, tool promotions (bot + admin only)
#integrations-help           — Questions, testing coordination, showcases
#bounty-payouts              — Dollar values and payout tracking (Core Contributors only)

Leaderboard

Weekly leaderboard auto-posts to #integrations-announcements every Monday. Top 3 get medal emojis. Check your rank anytime with /rank in Discord.

XP comes from two sources: GitHub bounties (auto-pushed on PR merge) and Discord activity in #integrations-help.

Launch Plan: The 55-Tool Blitz

A 2-week sprint to get all 55 unverified tools tested, documented, and health-checked.

Day 1: Post Everything

41 bounty:docs issues — tools missing READMEs, difficulty:easy, 20 pts each
40 bounty:code issues — tools missing health checkers, difficulty:medium, 30 pts each
55 bounty:test issues — one per unverified tool, difficulty:medium, 20 pts each

Week 1-2

All bounty types open in parallel. Contributors self-select. Daily progress updates in #integrations-announcements. Day 14 wrap-up with final leaderboard and shoutouts.

Automation

PR merged with bounty:* label
  → GitHub Action runs bounty-tracker.ts
  → Calculates points from label
  → Resolves GitHub → Discord ID via MongoDB (hive.contributors)
  → Pushes XP to Lurkr API
  → Posts notification to #integrations-announcements

See the Setup Guide for full configuration (Lurkr, webhooks, secrets, labels).

Identity Linking

Contributors link GitHub ↔ Discord by running /link-github in Discord. The bot verifies ownership via a public gist, then stores the mapping in MongoDB.

Without this link, bounties are still tracked but Lurkr can't push XP to your Discord account.

What Handles What

Concern	Handled By	How
Bounty point calculation	GitHub Actions	`bounty-completed.yml` reads PR labels
XP push to Discord	GitHub Actions → Lurkr API	`PATCH /levels/{guild}/users/{user}`
Discord engagement XP	Lurkr bot	Native message XP (configurable per-channel)
Leaderboard	Lurkr bot + GitHub Actions	`/leaderboard` in Discord + weekly webhook post
Agent Builder role	Lurkr bot	Auto-assigned at level 5
OSS Contributor role	Lurkr bot	Auto-assigned at level 15
Core Contributor role	Maintainer	Manual (involves money)
Identity linking	Discord bot → MongoDB	`/link-github` command with gist verification

Guides

Setup Guide — Admin setup from zero to running
Game Master Manual — Maintainer operations
Contributor Guide — Everything a contributor needs to start

Reference

Promotion Checklist — Criteria for unverified → verified
Tool README Template
Agent Test Report Template
Building Tools Guide
Lurkr API Docs

Automation Files

.github/workflows/bounty-completed.yml — PR merge → XP push + Discord notification
.github/workflows/weekly-leaderboard.yml — Monday leaderboard post
scripts/bounty-tracker.ts — Point calculation, Lurkr API, Discord formatting
scripts/setup-bounty-labels.sh — One-time label setup
MongoDB hive.contributors — GitHub ↔ Discord identity mapping (managed by Discord bot)