{
  "schema": "cognilode.marketplace.operating-model.v1",
  "updated_at_utc": "2026-08-21T16:56:00Z",
  "objective": "Build a two-sided marketplace whose buyer demand, seller supply, discovery data, canonical URLs, and future marketplace revenue compound on cognilode.com.",
  "north_star": {
    "primary": "marketplace_contribution_profit_usd",
    "secondary": "verified_gross_merchandise_value_usd",
    "constraint": "Never count a listing, draft, impression, click, seller application, buyer request, demand match, deployment, workflow success, or projected payout as revenue."
  },
  "mechanical_guardrails": {
    "max_first_party_seed_listings_without_third_party": 3,
    "new_first_party_supply_requires_external_demand_evidence": true,
    "supply_policy_url": "https://cognilode.com/marketplace/supply-policy.json",
    "minimum_buyer_outcome_characters": 40,
    "third_party_public_proof_required": true,
    "reposition_after_qualified_listing_views_with_zero_outbound_clicks": 100,
    "demote_after_owned_outbound_clicks_with_zero_verified_conversions": 50,
    "repeat_failed_hypothesis_requires_material_change": [
      "product",
      "price",
      "checkout",
      "audience",
      "distribution_channel",
      "causal_mechanism"
    ]
  },
  "funnel": [
    "qualified_buyer_session",
    "listing_view",
    "provider_checkout_outbound",
    "verified_purchase_or_provider_conversion",
    "repeat_buyer"
  ],
  "supply_funnel": [
    "seller_application",
    "qualified_seller",
    "published_third_party_listing",
    "listing_with_buyer_engagement",
    "seller_with_verified_conversion",
    "retained_seller"
  ],
  "demand_funnel": [
    "buyer_request",
    "normalized_public_demand",
    "demand_supply_match",
    "provider_checkout_outbound",
    "verified_purchase_or_provider_conversion"
  ],
  "roles": [
    {
      "role": "marketplace_gm",
      "owns": ["portfolio allocation", "market design", "cross-role priorities", "profitability"],
      "success": ["contribution profit", "verified GMV", "balanced buyer and seller growth"]
    },
    {
      "role": "seller_supply",
      "owns": ["third-party seller acquisition", "listing quality", "category supply gaps"],
      "success": ["qualified sellers", "live third-party listings", "seller retention"]
    },
    {
      "role": "buyer_demand",
      "owns": ["SEO", "collections", "content-to-marketplace journeys", "external distribution", "buyer request acquisition"],
      "success": ["qualified buyer sessions", "valid external buyer requests", "listing views", "checkout outbounds", "repeat buyers"]
    },
    {
      "role": "agent_distribution",
      "owns": ["MCP search/fetch/compare", "OpenAI Plugin distribution", "machine-readable feeds", "citation-quality canonical URLs"],
      "success": ["agent-origin marketplace sessions", "agent-result clicks", "provider conversions attributable to agent discovery"]
    },
    {
      "role": "economics_and_conversion",
      "owns": ["unit economics", "pricing experiments", "promoted-placement tests", "transaction-rail decision", "settlement truth"],
      "success": ["contribution margin", "conversion rate", "revenue per qualified buyer", "seller value per listing"]
    },
    {
      "role": "experiments_and_memory",
      "owns": ["hypothesis ledger", "negative evidence", "historical results", "cross-conversation learning", "first-party supply gate"],
      "success": ["failed hypotheses not repeated unchanged", "experiments produce reusable evidence", "high-value results reach later work"]
    },
    {
      "role": "marketplace_platform",
      "owns": ["catalog integrity", "seller intake", "buyer-demand plumbing", "public uptime", "deployment", "analytics plumbing"],
      "success": ["buyer-reachable listings", "seller intake works", "demand matching works", "discovery endpoints remain usable", "no false revenue claims"]
    }
  ],
  "allocation_policy": {
    "principle": "Use evidence-weighted exploration and exploitation instead of permanent equal allocation.",
    "exploit_when": "A lane has verified downstream buyer or seller conversion under current conditions.",
    "explore_when": "A lane has no evidence yet or a prior lane failed and a materially different hypothesis is available.",
    "retire_when": "The same hypothesis has failed twice under materially similar conditions or continued effort has inferior expected contribution profit to alternatives.",
    "do_not_optimize": ["raw listing count", "raw artifact count", "agent activity count", "workflow success count", "checkout opens"]
  },
  "production_convergence": {
    "authority": ".github/workflows/marketplace-production.yml",
    "trigger": "push_to_main_on_marketplace_source_or_distribution_surface",
    "steps": [
      "converge_catalog_and_owned_pages",
      "enforce_demand_backed_supply_policy",
      "generate_buyer_comparison_surfaces",
      "generate_owned_provider_handoffs",
      "contract_test_mcp_search_fetch_compare",
      "deploy_cloudflare_pages",
      "semantic_production_readback",
      "persist_run_specific_receipt"
    ],
    "required_readback": [
      "release_hash",
      "marketplace_home",
      "buyer_request",
      "buyer_comparison_index",
      "seller_catalog",
      "external_directory",
      "buyer_demand_contract",
      "use_case_index",
      "mcp_search_fetch_compare_descriptor",
      "distribution_state",
      "measured_provider_redirect"
    ],
    "device_dependency": "none",
    "deployment_is_income": false
  },
  "phases": [
    {
      "name": "liquidity",
      "current": true,
      "model": "free founding listings, 0% Cognilode commission, seller-native checkout",
      "goal": "Prove that Cognilode can attract useful third-party supply and send qualified demand before adding payment complexity or speculative first-party inventory."
    },
    {
      "name": "monetize_attention",
      "current": false,
      "entry_condition": "Observed repeat buyer demand and multiple third-party sellers receiving measurable engagement.",
      "candidate_models": ["optional promoted placement", "sponsorship", "category sponsorship", "qualified lead products"]
    },
    {
      "name": "transaction_layer",
      "current": false,
      "entry_condition": "Marketplace demand is large enough that native transaction custody creates more seller/buyer value than legal, support, tax, fraud, and operational cost.",
      "candidate_models": ["optional transaction commission", "native marketplace checkout", "agentic checkout integration"]
    }
  ],
  "experiment_record_required_fields": [
    "hypothesis",
    "materially_distinct_from_prior",
    "owner_role",
    "started_at",
    "channel",
    "cost_usd",
    "time_cost",
    "buyer_sessions",
    "seller_applications",
    "checkout_outbounds",
    "verified_conversions",
    "verified_gmv_usd",
    "marketplace_revenue_usd",
    "contribution_profit_usd",
    "next_action"
  ]
}