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Bounties

FitApp pilots a fixed-dollar bounty program for select roadmap items. Bounties are paid via a one-time GitHub Sponsors sponsorship on PR merge. They are in addition to the revenue-pool contribution points — claiming a bounty does not reduce your monthly pool share.

Trust-based, no escrow. There's no platform holding funds. Maintainer commits publicly in the issue to pay on merge; payment happens within 48 hours of merge. If this is a blocker for you, don't claim — open an issue instead and we'll discuss.

How it works

  1. A maintainer opens an issue labeled bounty with scope, acceptance criteria, and a dollar amount stated in the issue body.
  2. You comment on the issue saying you're attempting it ("I'd like to work on this" is fine — this isn't slash-command-driven). A maintainer replies to approve, which marks the bounty claimed so others don't duplicate work.
  3. You open a PR that says Closes #N, follows the PR template (including AI disclosure), and meets the acceptance criteria.
  4. On merge, the maintainer sends you a one-time GitHub Sponsors sponsorship for the stated amount.

Receiving payment

Preferred: you have GitHub Sponsors enabled on your account to receive a one-time sponsorship. Setup is free and takes ~10 minutes.

If you can't use GitHub Sponsors (not available in your region, don't want to set it up for $100, etc.), mention it in the PR and we'll arrange PayPal, Wise, or a direct Stripe invoice instead.

What a bountied issue looks like

Every bountied issue has:

  • Scope — a numbered list of what must ship
  • Out of scope — explicit non-goals to prevent scope creep
  • Acceptance criteria — the checklist a PR must satisfy
  • Size — S / M / L (drives the bounty $)
  • A maintainer comment stating the dollar amount and payment commitment

Sizing

Size Lines Scope hint Suggested $
S <50 Config, single widget, docs fix $100–$200
M 50–200 Feature touching 2–4 files, tests included $300–$600
L 200+ New screen, new service, or migration $800–$2000

Relationship to the revenue pool

Bounties are separate from, and additive to, the 25% revenue pool described in CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/proposals/stripe-monetization/open-source-strategy.md.

A merged bountied PR:

  • Triggers the GitHub Sponsors bounty payout within 48 hours
  • Still earns you PR points (S=1, M=3, L=5) toward the monthly pool distribution

Proposing a new bounty

Roadmap items only become bounties once they have tight scope and acceptance criteria. To propose one, open a Bounty Proposal issue. A maintainer converts approved proposals into the live bountied issue.

Etiquette

  • Don't claim more than one bounty at a time without merging the prior one.
  • If a claimed bounty goes quiet for 14+ days with no PR, the maintainer releases it back to the queue.
  • Ambiguous scope → ask in the issue before starting. Clarifications are free.

Why GitHub Sponsors (and not a bounty platform)?

As of April 2026, the two established bounty platforms (Algora and Polar) have both pivoted away from self-serve issue bounties — Algora toward recruiting, Polar toward SaaS billing. Rather than fight the platform question for a small pilot, bounties here are paid directly via GitHub Sponsors on merge. If the pilot scales, we'll revisit OpenCollective or a rolled-own escrow.

History

First bounty pending — this section will track completed bounties, time-to-merge, and any scope adjustments once the pilot runs.