Blog
Operator notes.
How we think about affiliate program design, payout rails, fraud, and the messy edges of commission math.
2026-04-19
Why we built Mercury invoice payouts firstMost affiliate platforms outsource payouts to PayPal Mass Payments. If your store banks with Mercury, that's leaving money on the table.
2026-04-12
The refund clawback decision treePending → void; approved → negative-amount sibling; paid → manual review. Why this distinction matters and how most platforms get it wrong.
2026-04-08
Why we ship Standard Webhooks v1 in both directionsCustom webhook signing schemes were a 2017 thing. Here's why every modern API should use the Standard Webhooks v1 spec.
2026-04-04
Designing tier auto-promotion that doesn't flip-flopHow we rank promotion targets by sort_order to avoid demoting affiliates whose 30-day metrics dip slightly below threshold.
Follow @cobalzhq for new post announcements.