Paid Projects

Paid Projects is Rival’s community build board - shown in the app as the Build Board. It’s where people post the tools and agents they wish existed, upvote the requests they’d use, and where builders go to find their next project, ship it, and earn a bonus.

Find it at cortexone.rival.io/mission-board.

What it is

Not every useful tool exists yet. Paid Projects makes that gap visible: anyone can post a request, anyone can upvote, and any builder can claim a request and ship it.

Each request - called a project (or build request) - describes a tool the community wants. The poster can attach an optional cash bonus that’s held in escrow and released to the builder whose submission wins. Once a project ships, the resulting tool is published to the Marketplace, where everyone can run it.

The pages you’ll use

Page	Where	What it’s for
Build Board	/mission-board	Browse and search open projects
Post a build request	/mission-board/new	Create a new project
Project detail	/mission-board/{id}	Read a project, upvote, ask questions, claim it
Your Build Board	/missions	Your claimed and posted projects (In progress, Complete, Posted by me)
Build workspace	/missions/start/{id}	Build a claimed project with RivalBot
Review submissions	/mission-review/{id}	Review, feature, and award submissions to a project you posted

How to post a paid project

Posting is free - you only pay if you choose to attach a bonus.

Open the Build Board and click Post a build request (or go straight to /mission-board/new).
Fill in the form. It’s split into four sections - the first two are required:
- What’s the problem? - a short name (3-60 characters), a description of the problem in your own words (20-1000 characters), the type of project (Function - one tool that does a specific job, or Agent - a multi-step autonomous worker), category, and how complex the build is (Low, Medium, or High).
- Who is this for? - pick up to 5 audiences (or type your own), and add 2-5 success criteria: short, testable bullets that builders will be graded against.
- Bonus (optional) - attach a cash reward. See Setting up a bonus.
- Limits (optional) - cap the number of submissions and/or set a submission deadline. You can close the request to new submissions at any time later.
Optionally use Improve with AI to polish your name and description together.
Click *Next: review, double-check the details, then **Post build request. (If you added a bonus the button reads *Post & escrow $X.)

Your new project appears on the Build Board and under Posted by me on your Build Board dashboard.

How to browse ongoing paid projects

Open Paid Projects from the left sidebar, then click Find Build Requests in the top-right to browse all ongoing paid projects. Use these controls to narrow it down:

Filter chips - *All open, **With bonus, **Agents, **Functions, and *Recently Shipped. Each chip shows a live count.
Sort - *Featured, **Highest bonus, *Most wanted (by upvotes), or Newest.
Search - free-text search across build requests.
Filters panel - refine further by complexity (Light / Medium / Heavy), *only requests with a bonus, and a *minimum bonus slider.

Every project card shows the title, whether it wants an agent or *function, its **complexity, the *bonus (if any), the upvote/demand count, and how long ago it was posted. Open any card to read the full description, who it’s for, the success criteria, submissions so far, and public Q&A.

From a project you can:

Upvote - signals you’d use the tool if it existed. Upvotes drive the Most wanted sort, so they directly influence what builders prioritize. You don’t have to be the original requester to upvote.
Ask a question - post a public question about scope, inputs, or acceptance criteria before you claim. The poster’s answer is visible to every builder.
Claim - start building (see below).

How to claim a paid project

Claiming tells everyone you’re working on the project and unlocks the build workspace.

Open the project at /mission-board/{id}.
In the right-hand panel, click Claim and Build.
You’re taken to your Build Board (/missions), where the project now sits under In progress.

You can’t claim a project if it’s your own (or from your organization), if it’s already closed or shipped, if you’ve already claimed it, or if the submission cap is full. In those cases the button is disabled and explains why on hover. You’ll need to be signed in - claiming while signed out sends you to log in first.

How to build and submit a paid project

Once you’ve claimed a project, build the tool or agent and submit it for review.

On your Build Board → *In progress, click *Start building. This opens the build workspace at /missions/start/{id}, with the project’s request context and an inline RivalBot chat to build from. (You can also build in Studio the usual way.)
Publish your tool or agent so it’s available to submit. Functions are published from Studio; agents must be published to the Marketplace.
Back on the In progress card on your dashboard, click Update claim, choose the published tool or agent you built, set the status to Submitted, and save.
Your submission moves to Complete on your Build Board and appears on the project’s review page for the poster.

How to review submissions to your paid project

When builders submit, review their work and pick a winner from the review page.

Go to your Build Board → Posted by me and click Review submissions → on the project (it appears once there’s at least one submission). This opens /mission-review/{id}.
The header summarizes the project: number of *submissions, **bonus escrow, **time left, and *status.
For each submission you can Run Tool (or, for agents, Try it) to test it against your success criteria, and read the builder’s notes.
Act on each submission:
- Feature - highlight a submission on the project page. You can feature multiple submissions. The tool is featured on the project’s public page. (You can Remove feature later.)
- Award - accept a single submission as the winner and release the bonus to that builder (shown only while a bonus is still in escrow). See How the bonus works.
- Reject - pick a reason (“Please resubmit with fixes” requests a revision; the others are hard rejections) and add an optional note the builder will see.
Answer any questions from builders in the Q&A section at the bottom.
Use the status control to Close to new submissions (keep reviewing existing ones), *Reopen, or *Cancel the request.

How to edit or delete a paid project

Both live on your Build Board → Posted by me tab.

Find the project row and open the ⋮ menu (or use the Edit Mission button, shown while the project has no submissions yet).
To *edit, choose **Edit mission, update any details, and *Save changes. You can edit the name, description, type, complexity, audience, success criteria, and limits.
To remove the project, open the ⋮ menu and choose *Cancel, then confirm. Cancelling pulls the project from the board, notifies any builders with in-progress work, and *refunds any bonus in escrow back to your Run Balance. This can’t be undone.

Close vs *Cancel: *Close stops new submissions but keeps the project so you can still review, feature, and award existing work. Cancel removes the project entirely.
Editing is locked once a project is complete or shipped.
A bonus can’t be edited or removed once it’s set and posted - see below.

Setting up a bonus

A bonus is an optional cash reward that attracts stronger builders and pays the winner. Add it in the Bonus section when you post (or edit) a project.

Check Add a bonus.
Enter the bonus amount. The bonus cannot exceed your available wallet balance.
Post the project. The button confirms the escrow (Post & escrow $X), and the amount is locked in escrow immediately.

The bonus is funded from your organization’s Run Balance. If the amount is more than your available balance, posting is blocked with a prompt to lower the bonus or top up.

How the bonus works

The bonus follows a simple escrow lifecycle from your Run Balance to the winning builder:

Funded on post - the moment you post a project with a bonus, the amount is deducted from your Run Balance and held in escrow (shown as 🔒 Funded in escrow). Builders see the bonus on the project card and detail page.
Held while the project runs - the funds stay locked while builders claim, build, and submit. The bonus can’t be edited or removed during this time.
Released on award - when you Award a submission on the review page and confirm *Release bonus & select, the full bonus is released from escrow to that builder **immediately. The submission is marked the winner and featured, the project is marked *complete, and other builders get a courteous note.
Refunded if there’s no winner - if you never award a submission and instead cancel the project, the full bonus is refunded to your Run Balance. Nothing is charged unless a winner is selected.

So the winning builder is paid once, in full, at the moment you award them - and you only ever part with the money if you pick a winner. Builders can see the outcome on their own Build Board: a completed claim shows either ✓ $X bonus awarded or Bonus not awarded.

Project lifecycle at a glance

Posted - someone creates the project (optionally with a bonus held in escrow).
Upvoted - the community signals demand.
Claimed - one or more builders claim it and start work.
Submitted - builders publish their tool/agent and submit it against the success criteria.
Reviewed - the poster tests submissions, requests revisions, rejects, or features the best one.
Awarded & shipped - the winner is featured, the bonus is released, and the tool is published to the Marketplace for everyone to run.