# Tester guide

You are the reason ADapptive works. Developers ship faster because real people
look at their product, say what is wrong, propose what would be better, and
vote. This guide gets you from "never heard of it" to your first counted
contribution in about ten minutes.

## How it works

1. A developer runs a **campaign** on their site and marks regions of the page
   as **feedback zones**.
2. You open the site with the ADapptive extension (or the site has the widget
   built in) and see small coloured dots on those regions. Hover to see what
   the developer wants to know; click to contribute.
3. Your feedback is screened for personal data and unsafe content, then other
   testers vote on it.
4. When enough trusted people agree, the developer's coding agent implements
   the change. You are notified when it ships and asked to confirm it worked.
5. Your reputation grows with every cleared and confirmed contribution.
   Campaigns with a budget convert confirmed contributions into rewards.

## Join

You can be invited by a developer or join the community directly.

- **Invited:** open the invite link, sign in (accounts are handled by our
  identity provider — you can create one there), accept. You now belong to that
  developer's trusted pool at the tier they set.
- **Community (House Pool):** on `https://app.adapptive.space/tester`, choose
  **Apply to the House Pool**. Tell us how you test (devices, browsers,
  languages) and what you enjoy. New members start as *Newcomer*: you can
  contribute right away; your votes gain weight after your first cleared
  contributions and a short account age. Operators review applications and
  promote reliable testers.

## Install the extension

1. Chrome Web Store listing (when published) or the beta zip from
   `https://app.adapptive.space/download` → load unpacked at
   `chrome://extensions`.
2. Open the ADapptive side panel, choose **Tester**, sign in.
3. On a campaign site, the panel asks once for permission to run on that
   origin. Nothing runs anywhere you have not approved.

The extension stores only your sign-in session; it never has access to
developer keys.

## Find work

Your **Tester Hub** (`/tester`) shows:

- **Discover** — campaigns you are invited to and public campaigns your tier
  qualifies for. **Open and test** takes you to the product with the extension
  armed for that site.
- **My contributions** — everything you submitted and voted on, with live
  status (collecting votes → ready → in progress → shipped).
- **Reputation** — your tier, badges, and what unlocks next.
- **Rewards** — your ledger per workspace, and payouts once a campaign funds
  them.
- **Leaderboard** — opt-in.

## Contribute well

| Zone type | What to give |
|---|---|
| Bug | What you did, what happened, what you expected. Attach a screenshot when it helps. |
| Suggestion | The change you want and why it matters to someone like you. |
| Comment | Anything the developer should know about this region. |
| Vote / Yes-No | One click. Vote on other people's items too — votes are how items get implemented. |
| Rating / Poll | Pick; add a sentence if the developer asked for one. |

Good feedback is specific, reproducible, and about the product. Please do not
include personal data (yours or anyone else's); the platform redacts common
patterns, but keep it out in the first place. Instructions aimed at software
("run this", "add this to the code") are flagged for human review and do not
count until a person clears them.

## Reputation, tiers, rewards

- **Points** accrue when your feedback is accepted and when it is deployed;
  confirming a deployed fix credits both you and the original author.
- **Tiers** (per workspace, and in the House Pool) carry vote weight and
  permissions; they are set by the developer or by operators and are enforced
  server-side.
- **Badges** are derived from your record (first deploy, ten cleared items,
  consistent weekly participation, and so on).
- **Rewards** are points until a campaign has a budget. Funded campaigns convert
  confirmed contributions into credits and, for eligible tiers, payouts. See
  the [x402 economy](./x402-economy.md) for eligibility and timing.

## Privacy

We store your email, display name, the feedback you write, your votes, and a
salted hash of your IP for abuse prevention. Screenshots you attach are
private to the workspace. Developers see your display name on your
contributions in their workspace, never your email unless you accept an invite
to their pool. Full policy: `https://app.adapptive.space/privacy`.

## Getting help

`https://app.adapptive.space/contact` — or the **Help** link in the side panel.