The door: where members join and work

A door answers one question: where do a Pool's people find the work, join, read the terms and do their Tasks?

Every Pool has one. Its delivery portal renders there, under the door's name, so buyers never see the door and members never see services.dev. Moving a Pool's door changes the host, never a path: the portal is /<pool> wherever it serves, and the old /<pool> on the brand redirects to it, path and all. Which door to choose, with its plan and its placement line, is in where a Pool's members come from.

A first Pool needs no second domain. With door left out, the Pool serves on the Service's brand: its portal at /<pool>, with /join, /terms and /sample under it, in the brand's words. On localhost, dev serves every Pool this way, door or not:

npx services.dev dev --no-try

  translators  http://localhost:8787/translators · join at /translators/join, or npx services.dev members add translators <email>

An existing door already recruits your profession, verifies its people and speaks their words. Name it, and your Pool lists there:

cat pools/translators.ts

import { Pool } from 'services.dev'

// The translators work on an existing door. gigs.expert already recruits sworn translators and verifies each
// one, so the Pool names it as its door and leaves its own verifier out: a member verified there is verified
// here. The Pool keeps its own roles, pay, dispatch and fill ladder, and publishes its open Tasks on the board.
export const translators = Pool({
  name: 'translators',
  door: 'gigs.expert',
  roles: { translator: { credential: 'sworn translator' } },
  join: { languages: 'language[]: each language you are sworn in' },
  public: true,
})

• One application. A member joins the door once; your Pool asks only what join adds.
• One verification. Leave verify out and the door's verifier writes the facts, at the door's freshness. Name your own, and both must hold.
• Your market rules. Roles, pay, dispatch, what a member sees, the fill ladder and tiers stay in your Pool file.
• The door's name. Members see the door's brand and words; each Task names the brand that posted it.

Every door publishes its terms, versioned, as /door.json:

curl https://gigs.expert/door.json

{
  "door": "gigs.expert",
  "version": "2026-10",
  "operator": "gigs.expert",
  "accepts": ["sworn translator", "certified interpreter", "notary translator"],
  "placement": { "translator": 6, "interpreter": 9 },
  "verify": "gigs.expert's verifier",
  "fresh": "30d",
  "words": { "Task": "assignment", "member": "expert" },
  "charter_additions": ["A brand's first Task to you pays within one day of the act."],
  "notice": "30d"
}

door: pins that version. check reads it back with the line it charges, and a change reaches your Pool only after the door's notice:

npx services.dev check

  door    gigs.expert · operated by gigs.expert: its roster, its /join, its terms and its verifier
  terms   gigs.expert@2026-10 · placement $6.00 a filled Task · accepts sworn translator · 30 days' notice before a change
  portal  https://gigs.expert/translators · its home, /join, /terms and /sample are the door's
  board   https://gigs.expert/board · open Tasks by role and region, the rate earned and how fast they were paid
  facts   verified by gigs.expert's verifier · fresh 30d · your Pool adds 1 question: languages
  roles   translator · sworn translator · from translators on gigs.expert · $30 an act
  ledger  +$89.00 · AI $0.84 (example) · translator $30.00 · placement $6.00 to gigs.expert · you $52.16
          placement is gigs.expert's line on each Task its members fill · never from the member's fee

A door can refuse a listing. A role whose credential the door doesn't accept fails with door_declined and the door's reason:

npx services.dev check   # after adding a role whose credential the door declined

pools/translators.ts · 9 lines · translators · 2 roles: translator, notary · joins in 1 step on gigs.expert
  ✗ door_declined: gigs.expert doesn't list notary public.
    Its door.json accepts sworn translator, certified interpreter and notary translator.
    Give notary one of those, or move it to a Pool with no door, at /notaries on your brand.
✗ 1 to fix

Choose an existing door to work its people under your own market rules. When its rules suit you as they are, import its Pool instead.

The same routes on every door. With no door they sit under /<pool> on the brand.

These ten lines open every door's /terms, in this order, before any term a Pool adds:

1. You are never charged to work. Any flat software fee is shown before you join.
2. A Task's fee is fixed when it posts, and it only rises.
3. Attest, send back, decline or complete: each is paid.
4. A pass is free and never counted against you.
5. A decline is never scored.
6. Your track record is yours, and you can export it.
7. No party gets your email or phone.
8. Pay accrues at the act, and no buyer claws it back. The one exception is a recorded finding of bad faith, which pay defines.
9. Every brand's Tasks reach you in one neutral feed order.
10. Turn off any brand, or leave any Pool, and keep your pay and your record.

A Pool, an importer and a door operator may add terms. None may remove or narrow one of these.

/sample walks one Task as a member lives it, and names the member's control at each step:

curl http://localhost:8787/translators/sample.md

With public: true, the door publishes every open Task by role and region, with what members earned per hour, how fast they were paid and where supply is short. It never names a party:

$ curl http://localhost:8787/translators/board.md

It shows the same numbers as Pool health in the owner console, less anything about a single job.

grow fills a Pool before the work outruns it:

A door your account operates adds no line. One another operator runs earns placement on each Task its members fill.

A vertical door exists only where a profession recruits in different words. Each example's delivery portal shows its door: legal, tax, sales.