| name | define-monetization |
| description | Capture the monetization and distribution model of the project — business model, pricing tiers, target market, licensing, and any non-commercial framing. Use when the project-builder agent is gathering monetization information. |
Purpose
Decide how the project sustains itself — or explicitly that it does not need to. This framing influences later technical choices (auth, billing, multi-tenancy, infrastructure cost profile).
Questions to ask (in order)
- Is there a commercial intent, or is the project non-commercial (personal, internal, open-source, research)?
- If commercial: which model best fits (see solution space).
- If open-source: intended license, contribution model, and any commercial overlay (hosted service, paid support, enterprise edition).
- Target market segments (e.g., individual developers, SMBs, enterprise, a specific industry or region).
- Pricing anchors (if applicable): prices in the space that feel right or wrong as reference points.
- Tiers or packaging (if applicable): what differentiates free vs. paid levels.
- Constraints: ethical, legal, or compliance considerations (e.g., no ads, no data resale, regulated industry, geographic restrictions).
Use AskUserQuestion for the commercial/non-commercial choice and the model selection.
Solution space to present
- Non-commercial: personal tool, internal tool, open-source (MIT / Apache-2.0 / BSD / MPL / GPL / AGPL), research artifact.
- One-time purchase: desktop or mobile app with a single price; optional paid upgrades.
- Subscription / SaaS: monthly or annual; flat, per-seat, or usage-based; optional free tier.
- Freemium: free core product, paid premium features or higher limits.
- Usage / metered: pay per API call, per GB, per job.
- Marketplace / transaction fee: cut of value exchanged on the platform.
- Advertising: free to users, monetized via ads or sponsorships.
- Open-core: OSS core plus commercial hosted or enterprise edition.
- Donations / sponsorship: GitHub Sponsors, OpenCollective, Patreon.
When the user is undecided, present 2–3 candidates with one-line tradeoffs (billing complexity, infrastructure implications, user friction, compliance exposure). Do not push a favorite.
Required schema
commercial_intent (yes/no)model (one of the options above, or "none")license (if applicable)target_market (list)tiers (list of {name, includes, price_anchor}; empty if not applicable)constraints (list)
Output
Write to PROJECT_BRIEF.md under a ## Monetization heading. Replace any prior ## Monetization section when re-run.
