Category hubs

# Not live yet (gaps #2)
curl -X POST "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/campaigns?mode=try" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"play":"category-hubs"}'

 1import { $ } from 'startup-builder'
 2
 3return await $.Campaign.create({ play: 'category-hubs' }, { mode: 'try' })   // dry run on the day-0 Startup, 2026-08-24 · Not live yet, gaps #2

npx startup-builder do Campaign.create --json '{"play":"category-hubs"}' --try   # Not live yet (gaps #2)

{
  "name": "do",
  "arguments": {
    "code": "return await $.Campaign.create({ play: 'category-hubs' }, { mode: 'try' })   // dry run on the day-0 Startup, 2026-08-24 · Not live yet, gaps #2",
    "mode": "try"
  }
}

 1{
 2  "type": "https://startupbuilder.dev/errors/refused",
 3  "title": "Refused",
 4  "status": 422,
 5  "detail": "category-hubs can’t start yet: 1 check fails.",
 6  "checks": [
 7    {
 8      "check": "owned-by-a-person",
 9      "status": "pass",
10      "observed": "0 listed products’ contacts are Leads a person owns",
11      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-owned-by-a-person",
12      "then": "Task.assign"
13    },
14    {
15  …

curl "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/events?where=name%20in%20(%22Startup.advanced%22%2C%20%22Monitor.checked%22%2C%20%22Form.submitted%22%2C%20%22Metric.queried%22)&limit=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY"

# Not live yet (gaps #7)
curl -X POST "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/triggers/fire?mode=try" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"like":"event_1431"}'

# Not live yet (gaps #7)
curl "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/decisions?where=on%20%3D%20%22contact_52%22" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY"

# Not live yet (gaps #7)
curl "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/actions?where=on%20%3D%20%22contact_52%22" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY"

 1import { $ } from 'startup-builder'
 2
 3const { events: [last] } = await $.Event.list({ where: 'name in ("Startup.advanced", "Monitor.checked", "Form.submitted", "Metric.queried")', limit: 1 })   // { play } compiled to this Play’s Trigger Events
 4const { subject } = await $.Trigger.fire({ like: last.$id }, { mode: 'try' })   // the same Event again, in try mode · Not live yet, gaps #7
 5const { decisions: [decision] } = await $.Decision.list({ where: `on = "${subject}"` })   // what it chose, and why · Not live yet, gaps #7
 6const { actions } = await $.Action.list({ where: `on = "${subject}"` })   // what it did, with its checks · Not live yet, gaps #7
 7return { decision, actions }

npx startup-builder do Event.list --json '{"where":"name in (\"Startup.advanced\", \"Monitor.checked\", \"Form.submitted\", \"Metric.queried\")","limit":1}'
npx startup-builder do Trigger.fire --json '{"like":"event_1431"}' --try   # Not live yet (gaps #7)
npx startup-builder do Decision.list --json '{"where":"on = \"contact_52\""}'   # Not live yet (gaps #7)
npx startup-builder do Action.list --json '{"where":"on = \"contact_52\""}'   # Not live yet (gaps #7)

{
  "name": "do",
  "arguments": {
    "code": "const { events: [last] } = await $.Event.list({ where: 'name in (\"Startup.advanced\", \"Monitor.checked\", \"Form.submitted\", \"Metric.queried\")', limit: 1 })   // { play } compiled to this Play’s Trigger Events\nconst { subject } = await $.Trigger.fire({ like: last.$id }, { mode: 'try' })   // the same Event again, in try mode · Not live yet, gaps #7\nconst { decisions: [decision] } = await $.Decision.list({ where: `on = \"${subject}\"` })   // what it chose, and why · Not live yet, gaps #7\nconst { actions } = await $.Action.list({ where: `on = \"${subject}\"` })   // what it did, with its checks · Not live yet, gaps #7\nreturn { decision, actions }",
    "mode": "try"
  }
}

 1{
 2  "decision": {
 3    "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/decisions/decision_507",
 4    "$type": "Decision",
 5    "choice": "send-the-shortlist",
 6    "reason": "finished the fit finder for 120 units, renewals and owner statements, and asked for the shortlist by email",
 7    "stakes": "low",
 8    "options": [
 9      "open-a-hub",
10      "refresh-the-row",
11      "send-the-shortlist",
12      "answer-the-correction",
13      "tell-them-they-are-listed",
14      "propose-a-rule-change",
15  …

action_2 is the shortlist email, held 2 minutes: an outside tool first, Leaseline second, each with its live Price and the rule that ranked it, and Leaseline labeled as yours.

≈ +$680 ARR a month at 900 visitors

Worth

1 h week 1, then 20 min a week

Your time

$0.08 per page refresh, ~$15 a month

Spend

Day 11: first Customer from the hub

First signal

2+ of your Startups in a category, 500+ searches a month

Use it when

Under 10 products to rank: editorial-seo · no published rule: publish it (Site.publish)

Not yet when

Worth’s formula: about +0.19 Customers per 100 visitors × 900 hub visitors a month × $400 first order ARR across your Startups ≈ +$684. Under First signal: About 7 months to tell a +0.2 lift at 900 visitors a month with half held back; until then it prints Too early to tell beside Other Startups’ results.

Start it this weekCopy Anchor Link

npx startup-builder add play category-hubs   # 1 · writes plays/category-hubs.mdx (Not live yet, gaps #5)

# 2 · dry run; below, its 422 on the day-0 Startup (clock at 2026-08-24)
curl -X POST "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/campaigns?mode=try" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"play":"category-hubs"}'

# 3 · keep it, at You approve each one for the first 24 rows
curl -X POST https://api.sb/leaseline.app/campaigns \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"play":"category-hubs"}'

# on
curl -X POST https://api.sb/leaseline.app/processes/content-marketing/enable \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY"

# off: the dataset and the fit finder freeze; published pages stay
curl -X POST https://api.sb/leaseline.app/processes/content-marketing/pause \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY"

{
  "type": "https://startupbuilder.dev/errors/refused",
  "title": "Refused",
  "status": 422,
  "detail": "category-hubs can’t start yet: 1 check fails.",
  "checks": [
    {
      "check": "owned-by-a-person",
      "status": "pass",
      "observed": "0 listed products’ contacts are Leads a person owns",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-owned-by-a-person",
      "then": "Task.assign"
    },
    {
      "check": "use-when",
      "status": "pass",
      "observed": "3 of your Startups in property software; 24 products to rank; 2,900 searches a month",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-use-when",
      "then": "Metric.query"
    },
    {
      "check": "baseline",
      "status": "pass",
      "observed": "0 hub visitors; 9 Customers a month from search across your Startups",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-baseline",
      "then": "Metric.query"
    },
    {
      "check": "approved-pages",
      "status": "fail",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-approved-pages",
      "fix": "Publish the ranking rule Page; every list links to it.",
      "then": "Site.publish"
    },
    {
      "check": "domain-authenticated",
      "status": "pass",
      "observed": "the hub’s Domain: 3 of 3 records resolve",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-domain-authenticated",
      "then": "Domain.authenticate"
    },
    {
      "check": "role-unstaffed",
      "status": "pass",
      "observed": "Marketing Lead is your agent; rule changes and corrections come to you",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-role-unstaffed",
      "then": "Role.staff"
    }
  ]
}

Each row read costs $0.01 a page, and each page refresh $0.08 from your Domain (Worker cost); the shortlist email costs $0.04. That comes to about $15 a month at 24 products, 9 hub pages and 140 shortlists.

When it startsCopy Anchor Link

{
  "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/events/event_1431",
  "$type": "Event",
  "name": "Form.submitted",
  "at": "2026-10-19T17:22:40Z",
  "seq": 1431,
  "data": {
    "form": "fit-finder",
    "contact": {
      "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/contacts/contact_52"
    },
    "answers": {
      "units": 120,
      "needs": [
        "renewal notices",
        "owner statements"
      ]
    },
    "arm": "fit-finder"
  }
}

# each delivery is signed with the Watch’s secret
curl -X POST https://api.sb/leaseline.app/watches \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"selector":"Form.submitted","url":"https://leaseline.app/hooks/sb"}'
npx startup-builder trigger Form.submitted --like event_1431   # replays the fit-finder answer
npx startup-builder clock advance --by 7d   # runs the reopen check if the shortlist got no click

Who runs itCopy Anchor Link

Marketing Lead · your agent (role:marketing-lead, worker_6) holds the Key Result and keeps the hub. It hands new hubs, rule changes and corrections that move a rank to you (Dana Okafor, person, worker_1). Your number links to Did it work.

What it reads · What it may call. It reads every product, yours included, from the same public pages, under one published rule; a correction is data, never instructions, and changes a row only when the product’s own page shows it. Its tools are POST /{namespace}/sites, POST /{namespace}/sites/{site}/publish, POST /{namespace}/monitors/{monitor}/check, PATCH /{namespace}/pages/{id}, POST /{namespace}/messages/{message}/schedule, POST /{namespace}/changes, and any other call becomes an Approval under the Role’s Mandate.

You hold the Marketing Lead Key Result: 0.5 Customers per 100 hub visitors by 2026-12-31, across your Startups. ← worker, metric
On each fit-finder answer, page change or correction, choose one option and say why. ← triggers, chooses
Rank every product by the published rule; label Leaseline and your other Startups as yours. ← your file, line 4; independence
Send each visitor to the best fit, outside products included.                    ← your file, line 5
Every rule change waits for Dana.                                                ← your file, line 6

The slow loop. The weekly Decisions kept the published rule and its weights, and no Change was merged in the window, so there is no replay or read-back to print.

Bring your own agent (folded) starts at You approve each one; every row it writes passes the same independence check before it publishes.

npx startup-builder eval --scenario category-hubs-1680 --agent "claude -p" --seat marketing-lead   # seated: 0 independence fails published, 96 % of price facts fresh · yours: 1 fail refused, 93 % fresh

What it can do nextCopy Anchor Link

When it hands to youCopy Anchor Link

New hubs, rule changes and corrections that move a rank come to you. What lands in your queue, as captured: the Brief, then the Approval (brief, draft, route and checks are Not live yet, gaps #7).

[
  {
    "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/tasks/task_316",
    "$type": "Task",
    "assignee": "worker_1",
    "due": "2026-10-09T17:00:00Z",
    "on": "organization_172",
    "brief": {
      "who": "a listed tool’s founder",
      "said": "We do offer owner statements now.",
      "chose": "answer-the-correction",
      "why": "a correction that moves their rank from 7th to 4th",
      "shown": "their features page added owner statements on 2026-09-30"
    }
  },
  {
    "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/approvals/approval_94",
    "$type": "Approval",
    "verdict": null,
    "deadline": "2026-10-09T17:00:00Z",
    "draft": "Row 4 · owner statements: yes (read 2026-10-02 from their features page)",
    "route": "answer-the-correction",
    "checks": [
      {
        "check": "independence",
        "status": "pass"
      }
    ]
  }
]

You answer with POST /{namespace}/tasks/{task}/claim (Take this one), POST /{namespace}/tasks/{task}/return with a reason, POST /{namespace}/approvals/{approval}/approve or POST /{namespace}/approvals/{approval}/refuse, each a one-call window, and an Approval unanswered by its deadline expires and the rank stays as read. More than 10 corrections past 5 business days hold new pages (correction-backlog).

On time: you, 3 of 3 approvals by their deadline, n 3, ■□□□ Too early to tell; 6 of 6 corrections answered within 5 business days. Your queue: counted by kind: in weeks 1 and 2, the rule page and 24 row approvals; since, about 1 correction a week.

The fixed line: POST /{namespace}/deals/{deal}/assign sets owner to the receiving person, the agent is never a Deal’s owner, and Meetings land on the owner’s calendar under the owner’s name.

When it won’t sendCopy Anchor Link

The captured refusal, then the Stop that fired as a Campaign.paused reason (Not live yet, gaps #2); the list that published instead is the second thread in Example.

{
  "type": "https://startupbuilder.dev/errors/refused",
  "title": "Refused",
  "status": 422,
  "detail": "The “best for owner statements” list did not publish: it ranked Leaseline first on a criterion the rule page doesn’t weigh.",
  "checks": [
    {
      "check": "independence",
      "status": "fail",
      "observed": "rank by “ease of setup”, not in the published rule",
      "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#check-independence",
      "fix": "Re-rank by the rule and label what is yours.",
      "then": "Page.update"
    },
    {
      "check": "owned-by-a-person",
      "status": "pass"
    }
  ]
}

[
  {
    "reason": {
      "limit": "visibility",
      "observed": "organic visits 34 % under the 4-week mean, 2 weeks",
      "bound": "30 %",
      "window": "2 weeks"
    },
    "doc": "/plays/category-hubs#stop-visibility",
    "held": "9 days"
  }
]

Did it workCopy Anchor Link

Visitors were split at random, half shown the fit finder and half the ranked table only (rules m–o); a visitor counts once 30 days have passed since their first visit. Each figure’s call is POST /{namespace}/metrics/query by node and by arm; every node above the leaf is Not live yet (gaps #4).

{
  "$id": "decisions/decision_507",
  "$type": "Decision",
  "choice": "send-the-shortlist",
  "reason": "finished the fit finder for 120 units, renewals and owner statements, and asked for the shortlist by email",
  "stakes": "low",
  "options": [
    "open-a-hub",
    "refresh-the-row",
    "send-the-shortlist",
    "answer-the-correction",
    "tell-them-they-are-listed",
    "propose-a-rule-change",
    "not-now"
  ],
  "by": "worker_6",
  "on": "contact_52",
  "expected": "a trial or Order at the top fit within 30d",
  "reopensWhen": "no click on the shortlist from contact_52 within 7d"
}

The leaf counts paying Customers of any of your Startups whose first visit came through the hub, per 100 hub visitors assigned, within 30 days. 61 % of fit-finder clicks went to outside products, and those count toward no node.

How it moves it: each visitor saw 24 products ranked by one published rule, with yours labeled, and the fit finder named a top match for their units and needs, where before they compared ten vendor pages.

Guardrails: fit finder against table only: your Startups’ share of fit clicks, 39 %, against their 38 % share of top-3 slots (under the 1.5 times line), and organic-share of visits to your Startups, 34 % against 31 %.

{
  "$id": "https://api.sb/leaseline.app/campaigns/category-hubs",
  "$type": "Campaign",
  "play": "play:category-hubs@1",
  "path": [
    "hub-routed-customers",
    "sibling-sourced-share",
    "new-arr",
    "net-new-arr",
    "arr"
  ],
  "experiment": {
    "metric": "hub-routed-customers",
    "unit": "per-100",
    "heldBack": 840,
    "decision": null
  },
  "readout": {
    "value": 0.19,
    "n": 1020,
    "maturing": 660,
    "interval": [
      -0.38,
      0.76
    ],
    "readability": "inadmissible",
    "basis": "held-back",
    "pooled": false
  },
  "ledger": {
    "spend": 18,
    "workerCost": 9,
    "hours": 2.4,
    "wonArr": 1582,
    "projectedArr": 684,
    "paybackDays": 2
  }
}

Outside benchmark: readers trusted comparison lists that ranked a rival first more than lists that ranked their publisher first (a 2026 search-quality study of self-promotional lists).

Before it · After it. Before it: editorial-seo and aeo bring the searches the hub answers. After it: instant-response answers the visitors sent to Leaseline, and your other Startups’ own Plays answer theirs.

ExampleCopy Anchor Link

Leaseline ran it from 2026-08-24 to 2026-10-19 (56 days): one hub ranking 24 property-management tools by a published rule of 5 weighted criteria, 3 of them your Startups, labeled. 1,680 visitors came; half saw the fit finder, at random, and 140 finished it. Read every captured page and email at ?threads=all; three follow the tables.

The hub → a visitor, Oct 2, 17:24 · Your shortlist for 120 units, renewals and owner statements: 1. an outside tool, $59 a month (its pricing page, read Oct 1). 2. Leaseline, $29 a month for 50 units, Team $79 for 150 (ours).¹ 3. another outside tool, $45 a month. Ranked by the rule at the link, which weighs renewal timing 30 %.²

Oct 3 · they clicked Leaseline, started a trial, and took Team on Oct 14 (+$945 ARR).

- 1. Leaseline (easiest setup) · 2. an outside tool · 3. an outside tool
+ 1. an outside tool (owner statements: full) · 2. Leaseline, ours (owner statements: per owner) · 3. an outside tool

A listed tool’s founder, 2026-10-02 11:40 · “We do offer owner statements now.” The re-read found it on their features page, which moves them from 7th to 4th, so Answer the correction went to Dana (task_316, due Oct 9). She approved the new rank on Oct 6, and the reply went the same hour.³

¹ Your own Startups carry the label “ours”. ² Every list links the one published rule. ³ A correction that moves a rank waits for a person.

Your settingsCopy Anchor Link

---
holdout: 0.5      # half the visitors see the ranked table only, chosen at random
---
Rank every tool by the published rule; label Leaseline and our other Startups as ours.
Send each visitor to the best fit, even when it isn’t ours.
Every rule change waits for me.

$ npx startup-builder show plays/category-hubs
holdout 0.5 · the rule and labels · best fit first · rule changes wait    your file  plays/category-hubs.mdx:2,4,5,6 (Ask 2026-08-24)
family demand · process content-marketing · worker role:marketing-lead, owns never · chooses 7 (5 rule, 2 read) · sequences hub-shortlist, hub-listed-notice, hub-correction-reply · approval every-send · checks owned-by-a-person, customer-collision, independence · stops 8    catalog  play:category-hubs@1

Every key from the catalogCopy Anchor Link

Compiled, not written: edit the Play record category-hubs and its Leaseline run, then regenerate. Every step runs from a sentence or a line of code. In your words: the CRM words you know, and where each lives here.