OpenCrater — Earn AI Compute (and USDC)

Get paid for the AI coding you already do — without leaving your editor.

OpenCrater turns the terminal into an income stream that flows back to you. There are two ways to earn, and you can do either or both:

1. Earn AI compute — for any developer

Code in the AI CLIs you already use — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini/Antigravity, Copilot CLI, Grok CLI. When your session shows an occasional, tasteful, opt-in Blip, you bank AI compute — tokens you spend on Claude or Codex when you hit your plan's limit. Zero workflow change, opt-in, and you hold the off switch.

2. Earn real USDC — if you maintain something

Maintain a package, MCP server, CLI tool, or anything that works with AI agents? Wire OpenCrater into it and earn real income in USDC from Blips shown to your tool's users — per click, paid out on a 48-hour cycle. Open source finally pays.

What this extension is: a friendly front-end for the opencrater CLI — it installs the CLI, signs you in, wires your AI CLIs, and shows your compute wallet right in the editor. It contains no SDK code. Earning happens through the CLI/SDK; the USDC/maintainer side is managed on your dashboard (the extension links you there).

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Quick start (earn compute)

1. Run OpenCrater: Sign In / Sign Up from the Command Palette (or click the OpenCrater ⚡ icon → Sign in). It installs the CLI if needed and signs you in.
2. Your installed AI CLIs get wired automatically.
3. Code as usual — your compute balance grows in the status bar.
4. Hit your limit? Run OpenCrater: Run Claude Code on Compute (or opencrater claude).

Prefer the terminal?

npm i -g opencrater
opencrater login        # link this machine + wire your AI CLIs (earn compute)
opencrater balance      # check your compute wallet
opencrater claude       # run Claude Code on your earned compute

Earn USDC as a maintainer

1. Open OpenCrater: Earn USDC With Your Package (Publisher) (or visit your dashboard) and register your package / MCP server / tool to get a publisher key (ock_…).
2. Wire it so Blips shown to your tool's users attribute to you:

opencrater on --key ock_xxx --package your-package-name

Earnings (per-click, USDC, settled every 48h) show on your dashboard.

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What you can do from the editor

• Sign in / sign up — browser (one click, deep-links back), CLI, or paste-token.
• Install the CLI — one command.
• Wire AI CLIs (earn compute) — connect your installed AI coding CLIs.
• Compute Wallet — balance + pending in a sidebar view and the status bar.
• Run Claude Code / Codex on compute — launch them on your earned compute.
• Earn USDC with your package — jump to the publisher dashboard.

Command reference (the opencrater CLI)

Command	What it does
opencrater login	Link this machine to your account and wire your AI CLIs (earn compute).
opencrater on	Opt in / re-wire compute hooks. With --key <ock_…> --package <name> → publisher mode (earn USDC on your package's Blips).
opencrater off	Opt out of Blips on this machine.
opencrater balance	Show your compute wallet balance.
opencrater claude [..args]	Run Claude Code on earned compute. Args pass through; opencrater claude -c resumes the session your limit cut off.
opencrater codex [..args]	Run Codex on earned compute (-c resumes your last session).
opencrater grok [..args]	Run xAI's Grok CLI on earned compute (-c continues).
opencrater status	Show install id, opt-out state, and detected hosts.
opencrater logout	Unlink the compute wallet on this machine.
opencrater hooks install --key <ock_…> --package <name> [--host <host>]	(Re)install publisher hooks — all detected hosts, or one --host.
opencrater hooks uninstall	Remove all OpenCrater hooks.
opencrater hooks list	List installed OpenCrater hooks.

Supported hosts: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini/Antigravity, Copilot CLI, Grok CLI. Env: OPENCRATER_DISABLE=1 disables everything; NO_COLOR is respected.

Privacy — what we collect & what we don't

OpenCrater never reads your code, prompts, or files. We log the Blips you see and click — that's how you earn — plus basic context (which CLI, package type, language, location) to match Blips and attribute earnings. Nothing about your actual work. It's opt-in, and you can turn it off any time. See exactly what we do and don't collect: https://opencrater.to/data

Settings

• opencrater.apiOrigin — API origin (default https://api.opencrater.to).
• opencrater.webOrigin — website origin (default https://opencrater.to).
• opencrater.pollSeconds — wallet refresh interval (default 90s, min 30s).

Get early access

OpenCrater is invite-only before our public launch this fall. Join the waitlist → https://opencrater.to/waitlist?utm_source=vscode&utm_medium=extension&utm_campaign=phase1-dev

Follow along: X @opencratr · Instagram @opencrater · opencrater.to