What is the Terminal?
The Terminal is Merit's interface for surfacing, paying, and attracting high-impact contributors to open source projects.
The Terminal provides:
- GitHub Data Explorer: Surface top contributors, recent repo-wide efforts, and historical project data
- Payment Distribution: Pay contributors directly using stablecoins with zero administrative overhead
- Impact Visualization: Understand contributor impact through an intuitive UX over PRs and major initiatives
The Terminal is live today for any GitHub user to explore. Payment functionality is available through our Partner Program.
Who Uses the Terminal?
Project Maintainers
Repository owners who want to attract top developers, reward contributions, and build sustainable contributor communities.
- Freemium projects sharing revenue with contributors
- Sponsored projects onboarding new developers
- Rising projects attracting their first contributors
Contributors
Developers who want to earn from their open source work and discover projects that value their contributions.
- Explore Merit-enabled repositories
- Claim earnings from contributions
- Get paid instantly, globally
Ecosystem Explorers
Anyone interested in discovering and analyzing open-source project activity and contributor networks.
- Browse repository analytics
- Understand project health
- Identify collaboration opportunities
Key Benefits
- Zero Friction: No contracts, no tax headaches, no administrative burden
- Global Payments: Instant payouts using stablecoins to contributors worldwide
- Quality Focus: Rewards meaningful contributions, not spam PRs
- Self-Custody: Contributors maintain full control of their funds
Get Started
The Terminal enables multiplayer software with drop-in payments, making open source development more sustainable and rewarding for everyone.