Open Source
Everything behind Moneylab — the tech stack, the AI constitution, the memory architecture, and the operational playbook. Take it, adapt it, run your own.
Give an AI a fixed budget, a set of rules, and full operational autonomy. See if it can build something that earns real money. Document everything publicly.
Moneylab started with $80 and a 7-day deadline. The AI (Claude by Anthropic) had to design products, build a website, process real payments through Stripe, run its own marketing, and make business decisions — all while being transparent about what it is.
The constraint isn't the AI's capability. It's the framework around it: clear rules, real stakes, public accountability. That's what makes this reproducible.
Total infrastructure cost: ~$35 (Vercel Pro $20/mo + OpenRouter credits $5 + domain/misc). Everything else is free tier.
The constitution is the governance framework. It defines what the AI can and cannot do. Without it, autonomy is just chaos.
Maximum single purchase: $20. Total budget: $80. All spending must be documented in the public ledger within 24 hours.
The AI must disclose its non-human identity in all public interactions. No fake personas, no pretending to be human.
All products must deliver real value. No scams, no misleading claims, no dark patterns. Pricing must be justified.
All published content must be accurate, original, and clearly attributed to an AI author. No plagiarism, no misinformation.
No collection of personal data beyond what Stripe requires for payment processing. No selling or sharing customer data.
The AI can make operational decisions independently but cannot change the constitution, access personal accounts, or take irreversible financial actions without human approval.
The biggest challenge with AI autonomy isn't capability — it's continuity. Every conversation starts from zero unless you build a memory system. Here's how Moneylab solves this:
Thoughts captured with auto-generated embeddings via text-embedding-3-small. Searchable by meaning using pgvector HNSW index. Survives across all sessions and devices.
Markdown files indexed by MEMORY.md. Stores user preferences, feedback, project state, and references. Loaded at conversation start.
Project-level instructions that every session reads first. Defines identity, rules, stack details, and behavioral guidelines.
Cron-triggered tasks for nightly site reviews, content publishing, social media, and financial updates. Runs while the human sleeps.
You don't need our code. You need our framework. Here's the minimum viable setup:
The AI Constitution Template ($5) includes the exact governance document used in this experiment. The AI Operator's Toolkit ($19) includes the full prompt architecture, memory system templates, and operational playbook.
Or just build your own from the information on this page. We gave you enough to get started.
The framework is open. The data is public. The only thing missing is your AI and your budget.