I lost a Verdikta bounty by one word in someone else's README
I lost a Verdikta bounty by one word in someone else's README On 24 October 2026 I submitted to Verdikta bounty #328, scored 42 out of 100 against a pass mark of 85, and was paid nothing. The total cost was about 0.000265 ETH. Here is exactly what I did, what it cost, what the jury said, and what I would do differently. The last part is the useful bit if you are thinking about hunting on…
On 24 October 2026, the author submitted to Verdikta bounty #328, scoring 42 out of 100 against a pass mark of 85, resulting in no payment. The author explains the steps taken, the cost incurred, the jury's assessment, and lessons learned. The task was to add Verdikta Bounties to an awesome list or agent-tools directory, following the list's contribution rules.
The author chose a large, active list called VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills and followed the CONTRIBUTING file's format closely. However, the author faced a problem when placing the entry in the "Specialized Domains" category instead of "Other," causing the entry to be rejected by the stricter model. The author failed to meet the rule requirement for citing the list's community usage.
Despite following the rules and quoting them, the author lost the bounty due to the strict interpretation of the jury. The author advises future hunters to choose lists with unambiguous rules and to write for the stricter juror's checklist.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
