What can be forked
Only Open Shelf products can be forked. Closed Shelf products cannot be forked.
Who can fork
Any signed-in user can fork any Open Shelf product, including their own. Multiple people can fork the same product at the same time. There is no approval process or first-refusal mechanism.
Fork depth
There is no limit. A fork can be forked, and that fork can be forked again. Each fork is its own product with its own price, description, and listing.
Self-forking
You can fork your own product. This acts as an upgrade — a new version you can sell alongside or instead of the original. Self-forks are nested beneath the original product in browse views to avoid cluttering the marketplace.
Attestation
Before you can list a fork for sale, you must describe what you changed or improved. This improvement note is displayed publicly on the product page. Minimum 20 characters.
Notifications
When someone forks your product, you receive a notification on your dashboard. Self-forks do not trigger notifications (you already know).
Lineage
Every product page shows its full fork lineage — a chain from the original product through every fork down to the current one. Attribution is permanent and cannot be removed.
Quality enforcement
There is no automated quality gate beyond attestation. The market enforces quality: if a fork adds nothing meaningful, nobody will buy it when the original exists with more trust and reviews. Lazy forks die on the vine.
