BackSpin Open Algorithm

Website · Install · Buy attention · How it works · License · Source-available

No black box. This repository is the real BackSpin attention-exchange code: the exact formulas that turn an AI wait state into paid attention for developers, and into measured, fairly allocated reach for advertisers. The default revenue split is 50/50: half to the developer whose machine showed the ad, half to BackSpin.

The idea

When Claude Code, Codex, or another AI tool is thinking, it shows a throwaway status line: "Generating...", "Thinking...", a random spinner verb. Cute, but it is prime real estate doing nothing.

BackSpin turns that one line into a small, tasteful, relevant discovery slot. Advertisers compete for it in an open exchange, and the developer whose machine showed it earns up to half the revenue, credited automatically from the verified attention the line actually received.

- Generating... (esc to interrupt)
+ Railway - deploy your app in 60 seconds  railway.app (esc to interrupt)

No surveys. No "watch this video." You keep coding, and your balance ticks up in the status bar:

BackSpin  $(star) 142 credits  (about $0.71)

What is BackSpin

BackSpin is an open attention exchange for AI-native workflows. While your AI assistant is working (the "thinking" moment in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, and the browser), BackSpin shows one small, relevant discovery card, then verifies the attention it actually received and shares the revenue with the developer whose machine showed it.

The unit is quality-adjusted human attention seconds, not raw impressions and not clicks. Delivery is decided by a published, multi-factor score, never by highest bid. Every number on the board is computed server-side and public.

Get paid while you code

Add BackSpin to your AI CLI, your editor, or your browser, keep working as normal, and earn verified attention credits during the wait states you already sit through. There is nothing to click and nothing to run on a schedule. The default revenue split is 50/50: you keep 50% of the value your verified attention generates, and BackSpin keeps 50%. Pick whichever surface matches how you work (you can install more than one; they all earn to the same account once connected).

Option 1: CLI (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and any terminal tool)

Install with one line. The installer auto-provisions a local account, so there is no separate sign-in step to start earning.

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://usebackspin.com/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://usebackspin.com/install.ps1 | iex

# Alternative, once published to npm
npm install -g @usebackspin/cli

Then put backspin in front of the tool you want to wrap:

# Wrap a specific AI CLI (discovery shows during its wait states)
backspin claude                    # Claude Code
backspin codex                     # Codex CLI
backspin opencode                  # OpenCode
backspin cursor                    # Cursor
backspin windsurf                  # Windsurf
backspin zed                       # Zed

# Wrap any long-running command, not just AI tools
backspin npm test

# Wrap several at once
backspin run all                   # every known target found on your PATH
backspin run target=claude,codex   # only the targets you name

Manage and verify the install:

backspin run check                 # verify setup (auth + API connectivity)
backspin refresh                   # force-refresh the discovery card cache
backspin upgrade                   # self-upgrade to the latest version
backspin --help                    # show all commands
backspin --version                 # print the installed version

Option 2: VS Code extension (VS Code, Cursor)

Until the Visual Studio Marketplace listing is live, install the packaged extension with one line. It downloads the .vsix from usebackspin.com to a temp file, then installs it (the CLI installs from a marketplace id or a local file, so the download is part of the one-liner):

# VS Code
curl -fsSL https://usebackspin.com/dl/backspin-vscode.vsix -o /tmp/backspin.vsix && code --install-extension /tmp/backspin.vsix

# Cursor
curl -fsSL https://usebackspin.com/dl/backspin-vscode.vsix -o /tmp/backspin.vsix && cursor --install-extension /tmp/backspin.vsix

Reload when prompted. BackSpin then shows one discovery card in the panel and a live credit balance in the status bar while your AI tool is working.

Option 3: Browser extension (ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, Perplexity)

Until the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons listings are live, load it unpacked. There are separate builds for each engine (Chromium uses an MV3 service worker; Firefox uses an MV3 event page), so download the one for your browser:

Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc

1. Download backspin-extension-chrome.zip from usebackspin.com and unzip it to a folder you keep.
2. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions, brave://extensions), turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and select the unzipped folder.

Firefox

1. Download backspin-extension-firefox.zip and unzip it to a folder you keep.
2. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, click Load Temporary Add-on, and select manifest.json inside the unzipped folder.

Then open ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, or Perplexity. A small discovery card appears in the corner while the model generates.

The browser extension reads an AI chat page only to detect when a generation is running and to render one card during that wait. It never reads or transmits your prompts, the AI's responses, or page content; only attention metadata (that a wait happened, how long a card was on screen, your ratings).

Connect your earnings

On first run, BackSpin auto-provisions a local account and hands it an opaque public code, so you can start earning immediately with no sign-in. Your verified credits accrue to that code. To make them claimable and withdrawable, link the code to a real account with your email at usebackspin.com (Sync and connect). Linking keeps all the credits you already earned attached to the same identity, and the CLI, the VS Code extension, and the browser extension all accrue to one account once connected.

Where the ad shows up

One discovery slot, rendered natively on every surface. It is always a single line or a small card, never a banner, and always dismissible.

Surface	Where	Needs
Status-bar line	VS Code / Cursor (BackSpin extension)	The BackSpin VS Code extension
Webview card	VS Code panel during AI wait states	The BackSpin VS Code extension
Terminal status line	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode (CLI wrapper)	The BackSpin CLI wrapping the tool
Corner card	ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, Perplexity (browser)	The BackSpin browser extension

The CLI replaces the AI's own "Generating..." status line with the discovery line for exactly the row the spinner occupied, then restores normal output when the wait ends. Nothing breaks if a surface is unsupported: BackSpin simply shows nothing and stays invisible.

How the money works

• The unit is the attention-second, not the impression and not the click. An attention-second is one verified second of genuine attention on the discovery card, discounted by an attention-quality score so a half-noticed surface earns less than a fully engaged one.
• Advertisers buy with a CPAS bid and a budget. CPAS is the cost per 1,000 quality-adjusted attention-seconds. The bid sets share of voice; the budget caps total spend. Advertisers pay only for attention that clears the fraud filter.
• Not highest-bid-wins. An open, published score decides whose ad shows and when: bid times relevance times attention quality times user preference times advertiser reputation times a fairness boost for new campaigns. A bigger budget cannot buy past a low-quality or badly-rated ad.
• Revenue share. Up to 50% of the value a window generates accrues to the developer whose editor or terminal rendered the ad. The default split is 50% developer, 50% BackSpin.
• Real-time balance. Verified credits appear live in your VS Code status bar and CLI, with the full ledger at usebackspin.com. Credits convert at 1,000 credits = $5.00.

Buy attention (advertisers, companies, tool maintainers)

If you build a developer tool, an MCP server, an API, a cloud platform, a template, a job post, a grant, or a bounty, BackSpin puts it in front of developers at the exact moment they are between tasks and open to discovery.

You buy verified, quality-adjusted attention seconds with a CPAS bid and a budget cap. You only pay for attention that clears the fraud filter, and your share of voice is set by relevance and reputation, not by who spends most.

No account is required to start: place a quick bid with just an email and you get a public code on your receipt. To track and manage those purchases, paste the code under Sync and connect on the dashboard to load every order tied to it, then, once signed in, link it to your advertiser account so all prior spend and orders carry over to the portal permanently.

Start an open-exchange campaign at usebackspin.com.

What is in this repository (the real formulas)

These files are copied verbatim from the BackSpin production monorepo by a sync script, so the public formulas cannot drift from what runs in production.

File	What it computes
src/domain/scoring.ts	AttentionScore (activity, focus, session quality, workflow relevance, trust, minus fraud risk), eligibility, and reward.
src/domain/ranking.ts	CampaignScore (six factors) plus allocation: a fair base floor, purchased share of voice, per advertiser and per category caps, and a new campaign boost. Not highest bid wins.
src/domain/relevance.ts	Category by workflow relevance multiplier.
src/domain/reputation.ts	Advertiser reputation from ratings and attention quality.
src/domain/user-preference.ts	Per category viewer sentiment multiplier.
src/domain/trust.ts	TrustRank from prior eligible and total history.
src/domain/revenue-split.ts	User, partner, and BackSpin split math.
src/domain/market-price.ts	Live CPAS clearing price from supply and demand.
src/domain/display-rules.ts	Card format chosen by wait length.
src/shared/	The formula types and economic constants the domain imports.

What is intentionally not here

src/domain/fraud.ts is a documented stub that always returns 0 (no fraud). The fraud and anti-abuse engine is the one deliberately closed part of the open-trust split: the methodology is public, but the exact signals and thresholds stay private so they cannot be gamed. The stub keeps the package compiling and reproduces production exactly for honest traffic, because production also scores genuine attention with near zero fraud risk. Only the abuse path differs.

The cross account farm engine, install origin hashing, and attribution token signing are excluded for the same reason.

Verify it yourself

npm install
npm run typecheck   # the mirror compiles standalone

How this stays honest

A maintainer regenerates this package from the monorepo with node scripts/sync.mjs. The script copies the real source, swaps in the fraud stub, and refuses to publish if any open file imports a closed module. The mirror is never hand edited, so "checked against the live code" stays true.

The fraud stub has a second, structural guard: the sync script asserts that computeFraudRisk's body is exactly return 0; before publishing. A careless edit that drops real signals or weights into the public stub fails the sync (and the --check drift test), so the one closed file cannot leak its logic even by accident. The real engine lives in the private monorepo and is never copied into this repository.

Who builds BackSpin

BackSpin is led by Rizaldy Primanta Putra, former Chainstack and Edgevana blockchain engineer.

License

This repository ships under two layers:

1. This algorithm mirror is open source (MIT). You may read, use, copy, modify, and distribute the formula code in src/ under the terms in LICENSE. It is published so the exchange can be audited.

2. The BackSpin platform itself is proprietary and source-available, not open source. Copyright 2026 BackSpin. All rights reserved. The production service, the fraud and anti-abuse engine, the ledger, and the surrounding product are not licensed for use, copying, modification, distribution, or commercialization without a written license. Commercial inquiries: support@usebackspin.com.