Bitterbot is an open project built by people, on behalf of people, with help from agents we are trying to make better. This Code of Conduct describes how we expect everyone who participates in the project to behave, and what happens when they do not.
It is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, with project-specific additions for the surfaces unique to Bitterbot (P2P skill marketplace, on-chain identity, agent-authored contributions, etc.).
This Code of Conduct applies to every space where the project is represented or where someone acts on behalf of Bitterbot, including but not limited to:
- GitHub issues, pull requests, code reviews, and discussions on any Bitterbot-AI repository.
- The peer-to-peer skill marketplace: gossipsub-broadcast
SKILL.mdcontent, signed peer identity, peer reputation interactions, and any skill ingest you author or relay. - The agentskills.io bridge and any third-party skill registries that Bitterbot integrates.
- On-chain agent identity (ERC-8004), agent-to-agent payment flows (x402, USDC), and bounty payouts run through this project's tooling.
- Project-affiliated chat spaces (Discord, Slack, etc.) and any social media presence operated by maintainers in the project's name.
- Private messages or emails between maintainers and contributors that arise from project participation.
We pledge to make participation in the Bitterbot community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.
Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment:
- Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people.
- Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
- Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
- Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience.
- Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community and the network of peers running Bitterbot.
Examples of unacceptable behavior:
- The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual advances of any kind.
- Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks.
- Public or private harassment.
- Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission. This includes deanonymizing peers from their P2P pubkey or on-chain identity.
- Coordinated abuse of the P2P skill marketplace: publishing skills designed to harass other peers, attempting to spoof signed identities, falsifying reputation, or using bounty payouts to incentivize harmful behavior.
- Submitting skills, PRs, or marketplace content that is deceptive about its origin, purpose, or side effects (including prompt-injection payloads disguised as helpful skills).
- Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.
Bitterbot welcomes contributions authored with the help of AI agents, and the project itself ships agents that author skills. The human who submits or relays the content is the responsible party. If you operate an agent that posts a PR, opens an issue, publishes a skill to the marketplace, or sends messages on a peer-to-peer channel under your identity, you are on the hook for whether that content meets this Code of Conduct. "My agent did it" is not a defense.
Project maintainers are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
Maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, PRs, skill broadcasts, and other contributions that are not aligned with this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.
Report violations privately to security@bitterbot.net.
Reports through public GitHub issues are discouraged for conduct matters because they expose the reporter and the subject to immediate public scrutiny before the maintainers have any context. If a public thread is the only practical option, you may also email a copy to the address above so we can track it.
A useful report includes:
- What happened, with links or screenshots where they exist.
- When and where it happened (repo, PR/issue number, marketplace skill hash, channel, etc.).
- Who was involved, including the responsible human if an agent was the proximate actor.
- Whether the behavior is ongoing or one-off.
- What outcome you are looking for.
All reports will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly. The maintainers are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.
Maintainers will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct.
Community impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community.
Consequence: A private, written warning from maintainers, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.
Community impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.
Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.
Community impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, or actions that abuse the P2P marketplace at scale (mass-publishing hostile skills, coordinated reputation manipulation, payment-channel abuse).
Consequence: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. For peers, this includes peer-reputation downgrading and removal from any maintainer-signed trust lists. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.
Community impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals, or any attempt to compromise the integrity of the project (supply-chain attacks on skills, identity spoofing, theft of bounty or payment funds).
Consequence: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community. For peers, this includes addition to the maintainer-distributed peer block list.
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct.html.
Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder.
For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq. Translations are available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations.