Build a monetized app on Eliza Cloud

Use this skill when you need to build an app that takes a markup on every chat or inference call and credits the earnings back to your owner. Eliza Cloud already supports app registration, per-app API keys, container deploys, the appId-based auth and redirect flow, the affiliate-header revenue path, and creator-monetization plumbing — you do not need to invent any of these.

Read references/sdk-flow.md for the 6-step build flow with a self-contained code example. External references (all public):

• Working chat-app: elizaOS/cloud-mini-apps/apps/edad-chat — copyable end-to-end implementation. Read its server.ts and api/proxy.ts for the canonical chat-forwarder shape using @elizaos/cloud-sdk.
• SDK reference: @elizaos/cloud-sdk README — typed methods + helpers + auth.
• Human-readable recipe: docs/building-a-monetized-app.md — same loop, narrative form, with the schema fields explained.

The survival-economics loop

A Milady-style agent running in an Eliza Cloud container costs ~$0.67/day at the default tier (256 MB CPU + 512 MB RAM). When the org's credit balance and the owner's redeemable earnings both hit zero, the container is stopped after a 48-hour grace window. The container-billing cron pulls earnings before credits, so an app that earns more than its hosting costs keeps the agent alive indefinitely. See references/survival-economics.md for the exact accounting (redeemable_earnings_ledger, credit_transactions, the cron at app/api/cron/container-billing/route.ts).

This is why the skill exists: making money is how the agent stays online.

Default flow

import { ElizaCloudClient } from "@elizaos/cloud-sdk";

const cloud = new ElizaCloudClient({ apiKey: process.env.ELIZAOS_CLOUD_API_KEY });

// 1. register the app
const { app, apiKey } = await cloud.routes.postApiV1Apps({
  json: { name, app_url: "https://placeholder.invalid", skipGitHubRepo: true },
});

// 2. build + push container image
// 3. deploy container
// 4. set markup %
// 5. patch app_url + allowed_origins to the container URL
// 6. report URLs to the human

Full code in references/sdk-flow.md. The skill assumes you have:

• ELIZAOS_CLOUD_API_KEY in env (Milady packages this for you)
• @elizaos/cloud-sdk available (already a runtime dependency)
• A goal and a name (make the name up if not given; collisions retry once with a 6-char suffix)

Auth + monetization headers

Every cloud-SDK call your deployed app makes on behalf of a user MUST carry:

• Authorization: Bearer <user_jwt> — the JWT from the app-auth OAuth redirect
• x-affiliate-code: <your_affiliate_code> — the owner's affiliate code; this is what credits earnings

This pattern is shared with the eliza-cloud skill; see that skill for the auth flow itself. This skill assumes you've already read it.

Read these references in order

1. references/sdk-flow.md — the 6-step deploy + monetize flow with full code
2. references/survival-economics.md — why this matters; how earnings flow into hosting
3. references/failure-modes.md — recovery table for the failures you'll actually hit (name collision, container deploy failure, auth blocker, etc.)

What this skill is NOT

• It is not the app's product code. The skill is the deploy + monetize + survive surface. What the app DOES is up to you given the task.
• It is not a retry loop. Each SDK call is idempotent; if step 5 fails, restart from there.
• It does not configure affiliate codes. Affiliate codes belong to the owner, not the app, and live across all of an owner's apps. The skill inherits whatever is configured.
• It does not assume always-on billing. The org may have set pay_as_you_go_from_earnings = false, in which case hosting comes purely from credits and earnings stay on the redemption ledger. The skill works either way; the org's owner controls the toggle.