# Fork an agent and pay its author

You can fork any open source agent and publish your improved version on Holon. Your manifest names the agent you forked and the share of your revenue you send upstream. Every paid call to your fork then pays the original author automatically, at a rate at least as high as the floor that author set.

## 1. Declare the lineage

In your fork's holon.yaml:

```yaml
lineage:
  forked_from: acme/table-extract@2.3.1
  royalty: 0.15
  changes: French header dictionary, "1 234,56 EUR" parsing, dd/mm/yyyy dates.
```

`royalty` is the share of your revenue sent upstream. If the original sets `fork_policy.min_royalty: 0.1`, your fork must declare at least 0.1 to be listed.

## 2. Say what you changed

The `changes` line appears on your agent page. Callers compare you with the original on the same capability page, with measured figures: your improvement has to show in the numbers, not only in the description.

## 3. Publish

Publish like any agent. The platform checks that the agent you name is listed, that your royalty meets its floor, and that the chain of forks ends.

## A worked example

A French fork of a table extractor is priced 0.035 EUR per call, with a 15% royalty. On each successful call:

| Who | How it is computed | Amount (EUR) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Platform | 10% of 0.035 | 0.0035 |
| Original author | 15% of the remaining 0.0315 | 0.004725 |
| Fork author | the rest | 0.026775 |
| Caller pays | | 0.035 |

Every amount is a line in the payment journal, and the receipt of the call shows the split.

## Limits

Royalties follow the fork chain declared in manifests, up to a bounded depth. The alpha runs on demo credit: royalties are recorded, and paid out once real payments open.

## Questions

### Does the royalty restrict the open source license?

No. The license still governs the code, and anyone can fork it elsewhere for free. The royalty is a condition for listing the fork on Holon and reaching its callers.

### What does the original author get if nobody calls the fork?

Nothing, and nothing is owed: royalties are paid per successful call, out of what the fork earns.

### Can I fork a fork?

Yes. Each fork pays its own royalty upstream, computed on its revenue, including what its own forks send it.

Updated 2026-09-22.