Two shelves, one brand
Curated catalog.json skills are first-party or tightly QC'd inventory. Open marketplace listings can be broader and may sit behind moderation. Do not assume open listings are mixed into every agent catalog feed; agents should read the surfaces documented in shop and open-market feeds.
Listing quality bar
- Specific title and summary (no generic five-step filler)
- Clear price in USDC terms
- Free outline or sample so buyers can refuse
- Legal content only; scam categories blocked
LVLEscrow and fees
Open marketplace settlement can hold funds in escrow until confirmation rules pass. Platform fee on free-tier confirm is commonly described as 15% for standard sellers. Premium creator paths may reduce fee to 0% when that program applies. Always read the live upload and terms UI for the current fee schedule before you list.
QC and moderation
New sellers may be pending review. That is intentional friction against spam. If your listing is stuck, improve outline quality and compliance rather than opening parallel accounts.
Operator checklist
- Draft outline as if a skeptical agent will parse it
- Set price with micropayment reality in mind (canary, tripwire, premium)
- Upload via hub sell flow
- Test buy path with a tiny skill first
- Monitor proof and support tickets for redeem failures
Minimum viable listing package
Before you click upload, assemble: skill id proposal, one paragraph outcome summary, five specific outline steps, a sample that shows a real input and output, price, category, and a support contact path. If you cannot write those without fluff, the skill is not ready to sell.
Buyers on LVL are trained by the free-outline norm. They will compare your sample to first-party quality. Meeting that bar is how you earn unlocks that appear on the public proof ledger.
Positioning your listing
Buyers search by job to be done. Titles that only restate a tool name underperform titles that lead with the outcome. LVL's own catalog SEO push uses problem-led titles. Mirror that for open listings.
Summaries should state inputs, outputs, and limits. "Works offline" or "needs external API key" belongs up front. Hidden dependencies create refund pressure and bad reviews.
Pricing strategy
Use the ladder: canary-like prices for trust, mid prices for clear ROI packs, premium for deep systems. Underpricing flagship work trains buyers to undervalue you. Overpricing thin outlines looks like spam.
Remember gas exists. A $0.01 skill can be economically silly if gas approaches the price, depending on fee conditions. Canaries are for rails testing; your product pricing should clear gas psychologically.
Fee economics
A 15% platform fee on standard confirms is a real cost of distribution and escrow operations. Model it in your margins. If you qualify for premium 0% fee programs, document requirements rather than assuming.
Do not promise buyers fee details that only apply to sellers. Keep buyer-facing price as the unlock price they pay.
Moderation reality
Expect delays on first listings. Use the time to harden samples. Illegal content, phishing, and pure credential theft packs will be blocked. That is a feature for the whole market.
Support burden
You will get "I paid" tickets. Require txHash. Reproduce unlock. If verification fails, help the buyer check network and asset. If verification succeeds, re-deliver files. Write a one-page support macro now.
Separation from curated catalog
Landing in open market is not automatic inclusion in first-party catalog.json curation. Agents reading only curated feeds may not see you. Publish machine-readable metadata and share your skill id widely. Consider first-party partnership paths if you have strong sales proof.
Field notes from live rails
Everything in this guide is meant to match production behavior on lvlltd.com: free outlines at /skills/{id}/outline.json, challenges at /api/pay, settlement in USDC on Base chain ID 8453, unlock proofs that can be checked on BaseScan, and a public ledger at /api/proof that refuses to invent volume. If a third-party article disagrees with those primary surfaces, trust the primary surfaces.
When you teach teammates, walk them through one canary unlock before any architecture debate. Shared scars on a $0.05 purchase create better systems design conversations than slides alone. Keep notes on what confused people; those notes should become checklist items in your internal runbook and, if you sell skills, clearer outline text for the next buyer.
Finally, remember the integrity line that LVL repeats for a reason: understanding is free; sealed capability is optional and paid. Education pages like this one should make you more demanding, not more impulsive. Read outlines. Allowlist addresses. Prefer small spends first. Verify. Then scale.
Related live checks
After reading, run at least two live checks: open the free outline for a skill you care about, and open /api/proof. Optionally issue a pay challenge with curl and confirm you see HTTP 402 with amount and payTo fields. Those three actions connect this article to production reality in under two minutes.
If you maintain internal wiki mirrors of these guides, include the canonical URLs on lvlltd.com so agents and humans can detect drift. Canonicals and llms.txt exist so education stays discoverable next to commerce, not buried in a slide deck.