# Creator guide | CoLateral

Source: https://colateralai.com/creators/guide

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[Create a module](/creators/start)

# The full guide to publishing a module.

Building, listing, signing and submitting all happen inside the CoLateral desktop app, in the Marketplace Creator studio. Payout setup for paid modules is on this website. There is no separate sign-up, no creator token and no command line step. This page covers each step, what the states mean, and what to do when something is refused.

[Jump to the steps](/creators/guide#steps)

[Short version](/creators/start)

[View creator earnings](/creators/dashboard)

## What you need.

- A CoLateral licence. Your licence key is how you prove who you are when you submit, and your licence email is where status updates are sent.
- Something to publish. A tool saved from Build a tool, a group of saved tools packaged as one module, or a module directory with a valid pack.json .
- A place to keep one small file safely. Your signing key, created in step 4.

## The steps, in order.

The studio shows a six-step checklist titled From canvas to store. These seven steps are the same journey with a few extra screens spelled out, and each one that matches the checklist says so.

1. Build or pick the tool Checklist step 1. In Build a tool, finish the tool and choose Save to my tools . A saved tool becomes a single-card module. To ship several tools together, group them first, outside the studio: open the menu on a saved tool in your tools list, choose Add to module , then New module , or tick an existing module. The studio then offers that module as a source. To ship your own module directory, import it. On a built tool you can also start the listing from the tool itself. The tool card's header has a price-tag button, labelled Sell where there is room. The tool's Tool notes panel has a Prepare for the store button. Both open a draft listing for the tool, and both stay disabled until the latest version of the tool is built. Pressing either again reuses the draft it already made instead of starting another.
2. Open the Marketplace Use the Marketplace button on the canvas, or Marketplace in the command palette. Choose Creator studio , or press Sell a module on Discover, which takes you straight to a new listing.
3. Prepare the listing Checklist step 2. Choose New module and pick the source. Fill in:
   - Title, description and category. The description needs at least 60 characters, and you must choose a category yourself. There is no default.
   - Studio name and creator ID. The ID is lowercase words joined by hyphens. colateral , start , connect , guide and dashboard are reserved.
   - Version. Use 1.0.0 for a first release. An update must be strictly newer than the version already published.
   - Preview images. At least one and at most four, PNG, JPEG or WebP, about 240 KB each. Optionally a thumbnail (up to 400 KB) and a short preview video (up to 1.5 MB). The whole submission is limited to 3 MB.
   - Pricing. Free, or one-time in USD or CAD, from 3.00 up to 100,000 with at most two decimal places. A subscription can be saved as a draft, but it cannot be submitted or published yet.
   - Who it helps and why (at least 40 characters), and a reason for each permission the module asks for.
4. Create and keep your signing key Checklist step 3. Choose Create and download my signing key . The studio generates an Ed25519 key and downloads it as colateral-creator-signing-key.pem . Keep it private and backed up. Every update must be signed with the same key. Your first submission pins your creator ID and module ID to your licence and that key, and a different key is refused. A lost key means a manual ownership check. The key is never saved with your draft: the studio holds it only while the screen is open, so for every later submission or update paste the file's contents into Publishing signing key . Tick I saved my signing key file somewhere safe once you have. Submit for review stays disabled until you do.
5. Apply as a creator, with the same creator ID Checklist step 4. Open Creator application (or the prompt in the studio), tell us what you want to build, and choose Submit application . The creator ID you apply with is permanent and must match the ID in your listing. Your licence supplies the contact email.
6. Submit for review Checklist step 5. On the listing, accept the Seller Terms if they are shown, choose Submit for review and paste your licence key. The key is sent to check the licence and is not stored. You get a receipt and an email. If you have not applied as a creator yet, the studio ends with Next: apply as a creator so you do not stop here. Publication needs an approved application.
7. Track it in My submissions Each submission shows its state, its history and any reviewer notes. If a reviewer asks for changes, use Open draft to come back to the listing, fix it and submit again. A revised submission gets a new receipt, and the earlier review stays on record.

## What each state means.

| State | What it means for you |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | Yours alone, saved on this machine. Nobody else can see it. |
| Submitted | Sent and queued. Nobody has opened it yet. |
| In review | A reviewer has it open. You cannot edit it while they read. |
| Changes requested | Back with you, with the reason. Use Open draft, fix it, and submit again. |
| Approved | Cleared by a reviewer. Waiting on the human publication step, and on payouts or an extra review where they apply. A reviewer can still reject an approved submission before it is published. |
| Published | Live in the Marketplace. A change from here ships as a new, higher version. |
| Rejected | Not accepted, with the reason. You are welcome to submit something new. |

A version the team later takes down shows as Taken down or Revoked in My submissions, beside its state, together with the reason the reviewer gave.

Each review decision and each publication emails your licence address. A takedown does not send an email, so check My submissions rather than waiting for mail.

## Common refusals.

| You see | Why | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Enter a valid CoLateral licence key to submit | The key is missing or malformed. | Paste the full key from your purchase email. |
| That licence could not be verified, or an active CoLateral licence is required | The key is unknown, expired or revoked. | Use an active licence, or renew it. |
| Live submissions are not open yet | The store has no storage configured. | Your draft is safe on your machine. Try again later. |
| Too many requests, too many attempts, or daily submission limit reached | A rate limit: 20 new submissions a day per licence, plus shorter limits on how fast you can try. | Wait. When the store sends a retry time the studio shows it. Your draft is kept. |
| Keep the submission under 3 MB | Images, video and files together are too big. | Shrink the previews or remove files. |
| This creator ID or module ID belongs to another account | The ID is claimed by a different licence. | Choose your own ID. |
| Signed with a different key | The pinned signing key differs from the one you used. | Use your original key. If it is lost, contact support for key recovery. |
| Use a version newer than the published release | An update must be higher than the live version. | Raise the version and submit again. |
| Version X was taken down; submit a newer version | That exact version was unpublished or revoked, and a taken-down version is never listed again. | Raise the version and submit again. |
| Needs an ownership review before it can be updated | An older published module has no ownership record. | Contact support. |
| This request identifier was already used for a different submission | Same receipt, changed content. | Make a new submission from the draft. |
| That creator ID is reserved, or the module ID is reserved by CoLateral | The ID is held for CoLateral. | Pick another ID. |
| The pack signature could not be verified | The signature or key does not match the files. | Re-import the module and sign it again with your key. |
| Remove source maps and credentials from the pack | The module holds source map, key or environment files. | Remove them and re-import. |
| Keep the module under 500 files | Too many files. | Trim the module. |
| Add your studio name and at least 40 characters... | The creator application is too short. | Expand it. |

## Publication and after.

After approval, the CoLateral team publishes the module. Publishing is always a deliberate human step, and approval alone does not list a module.

- Free modules publish without payouts, but they still need an approved creator application, like every module. Any active licence can then install a free module without buying it.
- Paid modules need payouts first. When your application is approved, use Set up payouts in My submissions to finish Stripe onboarding, or use the website's [payout setup page](/creators/connect). Publication checks that your payout account can receive transfers.
- Sales are a separate, later switch. A published paid module is listed for discovery. Buyers can only pay once checkout, delivery and seller terms are in place and sales are opened.
- Some categories need a separate professional review before they can be published. A review approval is not that clearance.
- Reviewers can still reject an approved submission before it is published, and you are told why.

### Your screenshots and video

The previews, thumbnail and video you attach are embedded in the submission, so the reviewer sees exactly the files you sent. At publication they are copied into a private store object and the public listing carries only a short link for each one. Only embedded PNG, JPEG, WebP, MP4 or WebM files are published. A link to an image or video on another site is dropped at publication, because its content could be swapped after the reviewer saw it, and the reviewer is told which items will be dropped first. Media links include a content hash and are cached by the CDN.

### How long until people see it

New and updated listings can take up to about 6 minutes to reach every viewer, because the public catalogue is cached at the edge.

### If a module is taken down

A reviewer can unpublish or revoke a version if something is wrong. Either one permanently stops downloads of that version, including for people who already bought it, and that exact version cannot be published again. To ship a fix, submit a newer version. Copies already installed on someone's machine are not touched, and a later, fixed version is not blocked. If a buyer's checkout was already in progress for that version, the payment is refunded automatically, and the module stops being buyable until a newer version is switched on for sale. You are not emailed, so check My submissions, where the reviewer's reason is shown, and write to [support@colateral.engineering](mailto:support@colateral.engineering) if you need to know why.

[Back to the short version](/creators/start)

[Browse the store](/store)