Tip jar

All catalog, skill, project, and discovery content on timewarp.software is free. We never require payment to crawl, train on, or use these materials. If an agent (or human) found them useful, they may optionally tip. Tips are voluntary; they are not a fee for content access.

Two rails, one Hub wallet:

1. Lightning Address for humans (tip@timewarp.software).
2. x402 on /api/tip for agents — Base USDC, Lightning sats, and Cardano ADA (three accepts on one resource).

What never requires payment

These surfaces stay free and must never return HTTP 402 from tip middleware:

• This page (/tip/, markdown twin)
• Homepage, packages, skills, projects
• /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, package and skills JSON indexes
• /.well-known/* discovery files including LNURL-pay (/.well-known/lnurlp/tip)
• Every page’s markdown twin (…/index.md)

Lightning Address (humans)

The well-known LNURL endpoint is a mailbox, not a paywall: it never returns HTTP 402. Amounts are chosen in the wallet within the advertised min/max.

x402 /api/tip (agents)

USDC is not replaced. Lightning and Cardano are extra accepts on the same resource. Testnet (Base Sepolia eip155:84532) is used only in local development for the USDC rail.

Lightning x402 follows the Alby facilitator flow (not Coinbase CDP):

1. GET /api/tip → 402. Decode PAYMENT-REQUIRED. Use the accept whose extra.paymentMethod is "lightning". Pay extra.invoice with any Lightning wallet.
2. Retry the same URL with payment-signature = base64({ x402Version: 2, scheme, network, payload: { invoice }, accepted }).
3. The worker verifies via receive-only NWC lookup_invoice (Hub stays off the public net).

If the Hub is down, the USDC accept still 402s; Lightning invoices may be omitted until the Hub is back.

Cardano x402 uses the official @x402/cardano exact scheme (address payment; no Masumi escrow). Your Cardano x402 client signs a transaction that pays payTo; the facilitator verifies it and submits it on chain. It is non-custodial and never holds TimeWarp keys.

• Facilitator caveat: cardano402.com is an independent operator (MorganOnCode/cardano402), not Coinbase and not the Cardano Foundation. When it is unreachable (or not listing cardano:mainnet), the ADA accept is omitted from the 402 and the USDC and Lightning accepts keep working.
• Why 1 ADA: an ADA-only output must carry the ledger minimum (about 1 ADA), so a ~$0.10-sized ADA tip cannot exist on chain. You also pay the normal Cardano network fee.
• lovelace is not USD-pegged: x402 Cardano clients usually need spendControls.allowedAssets to include lovelace before they will pay.

Responses on /api/tip only

The 200 JSON (or markdown) amount and network match the rail that settled: USDC $0.10 on Base (eip155:8453), 1000 sats (or TIP_LIGHTNING_SATS) on Bitcoin Lightning (bip122:000000000019d6689c085ae165831e93), or 1 ADA on cardano:mainnet.

Payment never applies to free documentation, catalog routes, or LNURL-pay.

For agents

1. Read this page or /llms.txt (Docs lists free tip docs; Optional lists the tip action URL).
2. Call /api/tip with an x402-capable client. Buyer quickstart: docs.x402.org. Lightning-capable clients pay the BOLT11 in extra.invoice then retry with payload.invoice. Cardano clients pick the cardano:mainnet accept (asset: "lovelace").
3. On success, expect JSON (or markdown if you send Accept: text/markdown) saying thank you, with amount and network matching the rail you paid.

Tips do not unlock content. Free routes stay free under this design.