Bounty Brief · free reference
GitHub bounty risk checklist
A bounty amount is not enough evidence to start coding. Use this point-in-time preflight before investing implementation time. Re-check the source immediately before work begins.
1. Is the opportunity still active?
- Open the canonical issue, not a screenshot or aggregator copy.
- Check state, labels, milestone, update timestamps, and recent maintainer comments.
- Look for assignment requirements, reservation commands, or an already selected claimant.
- Record the exact public URL and review time.
2. Is somebody already doing the work?
- Search open and closed pull requests using issue number, title phrases, and relevant file names.
- Inspect linked issues, development panels, forks, draft PRs, and comments claiming the task.
- Do not assume a closed PR means the opportunity reopened; identify why it closed.
3. Can acceptance be tested?
- Translate prose into explicit deliverables and pass/fail checks.
- Record required tests, documentation, compatibility targets, review steps, and deadline.
- List every ambiguity that needs written maintainer confirmation.
4. Are you eligible?
- Check contributor, location, identity, platform-account, sanctions, KYC, and prior-approval rules.
- Confirm whether assignment must happen before implementation.
- Separate repository contribution rules from sponsor payout rules.
5. Are the reward and payer verifiable?
- Record the stated amount, currency or token, network, payer, and payout trigger.
- Check whether partial, discretionary, shared, or first-accepted-submission terms apply.
- Treat wallet balances, labels, and promotional pages as signals—not proof of a future payout.
Stop and ask before coding if…
- the issue is assigned, claimed, stale, duplicated, or contradicted by recent discussion;
- a matching PR exists or the maintainer has not confirmed that parallel work is welcome;
- acceptance criteria, eligibility, reward amount, payer, or payout trigger are unclear;
- the request requires secrets, deposits, unsafe binaries, or payment to become eligible.
Minimum evidence for a “GO”
Keep a timestamped record containing the issue URL, active status, assignment state, competing-work search, testable acceptance criteria, eligibility signals, stated reward terms, evidence links, and unresolved questions. “GO” is a decision based on public evidence, not a guarantee of acceptance or payment.
Turn the review into a portable record
The worksheet runs in your browser and does not submit its field values.Need an independent evidence pass?
The fixed-scope $29 Bounty Evidence Pack reviews one public GitHub issue for competing submissions, acceptance criteria, eligibility signals, and stated payout terms, then delivers a timestamped Markdown report.
Scope is confirmed in writing before payment or work. No acceptance, assignment, or payout outcome is guaranteed.