We pay open-source engineers for the work they already do.
We convert your traces into RL environments. You get a share of every sale.
$ curl -fsSL https://payback.sh | sh
Only your open-source repos are synced. Key files and .env files are never recorded. Any repo with a .payback-ignore file is skipped.
macOS or Linux. Takes about a minute. Read the script.
Records the coding agents you already use
Getting paid
Licensed by a lab, paid to you.
Every uploaded session is reviewed. Most don't become environments, but a good number do, and each one that does typically pays you $100 to $500. A session that isn't a fit is deleted, and we email you when a state changes.
See your sessions →- Received
Uploaded and on your portal.
- Pending review
A real project, real code changed, a task that can be checked.
- Environment built
Rebuilt as a reproducible task.
- Listed
Offered to labs.
- Licensed
A lab licensed it. Your payment is added to your pending payout.
On the 1st of each month, covering everything owed by the 25th of the month before.
PayPal or Wise, or have us sponsor a GitHub account instead. Direct bank payouts through Stripe are coming.
Work from before you installed counts too. Setup lists your sessions on open-source repos; nothing is uploaded until you say yes.
Private by default
Secret files stay on your machine.
Files named like secrets, such as .env, *.pem and id_rsa, never go into a snapshot. Keep secrets out of your prompts, add a .payback-ignore to any repo you want left out, and we redact what we find in review. Your name is never shared with a lab.
Keep working
No tasks to pick up. Nothing to annotate.
AI labs train coding agents on real repositories at real commits, with a task someone actually asked for. The best source is work that already happened. payback records your sessions on open-source projects and turns the good ones into environments.
How it works →The repository's tree before your prompt and after the agent stops, so the change can be replayed exactly.
The transcript of that turn: your prompt, the agent's messages, and the tools it called.
The model name and a timestamp. Uploads run in the background on a timer; your agent never slows down.
One binary
A few commands, all optional.
Running payback with no arguments sets up this machine if it isn't yet, and otherwise shows your status.
| payback status | What was captured, what is queued, what failed. |
| payback upload | Pick past sessions to upload for review. |
| payback allow | Which repos are recorded: the policy, named repos, exclusions. |
| payback off | Never record this repository; on to undo. |
| payback pause | Pause passive income; resume to start again. |
| payback delete <id> | Delete one capture here and tell us to forget it. |
| payback account | Open your portal: sessions, earnings, payouts. |
Questions
Which sessions can become environments?
Sessions on public GitHub repositories with real code changes: a bug fixed, a feature added, or a refactor carried through. Setup uploads and syncs only sessions in your open-source repos; sessions in private repositories stay on your machine.
Does it slow down my agent?
No. Uploads run in the background on a timer. Nothing waits on them.
Do any agents need setup?
Two need one manual step, which payback init points you to: Codex asks you to approve the hooks once with /hooks, and Cline has a Hooks switch under Settings → Features.
Can I take it back out?
payback delete removes a capture from your machine, and its record and repository snapshot from us; write to founders@payback.sh to have everything removed. payback uninstall takes the hooks out of every agent and leaves your own agents' files exactly as they were.
Who sees my name?
No lab does. A lab receives the public repository, the prompts and the transcript, with no account information attached. Stripe collects your identity and bank details on its own pages; PayPal and Wise need your legal name and country, which we use only to pay you and for our payment records.
Get paid for the work you already do.
$ curl -fsSL https://payback.sh | sh