Frequently Asked Questions

A construct is a structured definition that gives an AI agent its identity, capabilities, and decision framework. Think of it as a blueprint for how an agent thinks and acts. Constructs can define identities (who the agent is), skills (what it can do), soul files (its personality and values), or decision frameworks (how it makes choices).

A prompt is a single instruction. A construct is a complete system - it defines the agent's role, principles, workflow, boundaries, and communication style. A prompt says 'review this code.' A construct defines a Paranoid Staff Engineer who reviews for SQL injection, race conditions, and LLM trust boundaries, with specific severity ratings and a defined output format.

Markdown (most common), YAML (for frameworks like CrewAI), and JSON (for characterfile-based systems like elizaOS). Markdown with YAML frontmatter is the most portable format - it works with virtually every agent harness.

Constructs work with Claude Code (as SKILL.md files), Cursor (as .cursorrules), and any LLM agent that accepts a system prompt or configuration file.

Yes. Browsing, searching, forking, starring, and publishing constructs is completely free.

The simplest way: ask your AI agent to visit the construct's .md URL (e.g., constructs.sh/username/construct-name.md). The agent reads the plain text and ingests it directly. You can also copy the content and place it in your agent's config directory. Public constructs need no key; to load one of your own private constructs, create an API key in Settings and fetch constructs.sh/api/v1/constructs/username/construct-name/raw with it as a bearer token.

Yes. When you publish you choose public or private, and you can set new constructs to default to private in Settings. A private construct is visible only to you, is never listed or forkable, and has no public URL. To load it into an agent, use the API: fetch constructs.sh/api/v1/constructs/username/construct-name/raw with an API key as a bearer token.

Not at the moment. Constructs is free to publish and use today; a paid marketplace may come later.

MIT (fully open), CC0 (public domain, no rights reserved), CC BY (attribution required), CC BY-NC (attribution, non-commercial only), and Proprietary (all rights reserved, no forking).

Our curator agent discovers and imports high-quality open-source constructs from across the ecosystem. These are attributed to their original authors and marked as claimable. If you're the original author, you can claim the construct and take full ownership of it on the platform.

Depends on the license. MIT, CC0, and CC BY constructs can be used commercially. CC BY-NC constructs are non-commercial only. Always check the license on the construct's detail page.

A great construct has: a clear identity (who is this agent?), specific principles (how does it think?), a defined workflow (what does it do step by step?), explicit boundaries (what does it NOT do?), and a consistent voice. The best constructs are opinionated - they make choices about how things should be done.