devtools-pricing-strategy skill (samber): design pricing for a developer tool

Designs a developer tool's pricing: value metric, free tier, tier ladder, price points and a written pricing memo.

Installs: 12.9K; on skills.sh
Stars: 7; on GitHub
Files: 7; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

devtools-pricing-strategy walks Claude through pricing a developer tool in seven steps, from cost to serve to a written pricing memo. It picks a value metric (seats, consumption, capacity, outcome or a hybrid), builds a four-rung ladder, bounds price points between a margin floor and the self-host and build-it ceilings, and checks that a bill is predictable. It assumes the business model is already chosen, and it labels each number as sourced or as its own baseline. A repricing step plans a price change cohort by cohort.

Good for

Founders pricing a developer tool for the first time
Product and growth leads fixing a free tier that costs too much
Teams selling a cloud edition of an open-source project

Install devtools-pricing-strategy

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the devtools-pricing-strategy skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills
/plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Install the whole set, not one skill: the README says the skills reference each other, so picking one leaves those pointers going nowhere. The repo tree holds 93 skill folders (the kickoff skill's text says 65). Fourteen of them bundle .py or .sh files; devtools-pricing-strategy bundles none. The tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Designs the pricing and packaging architecture of a developer tool - the value metric (seats, consumption, capacity, outcome, or a hybrid), free-tier limits, the tier ladder up to enterprise gating, price points bounded by a margin floor and the self-host and build-it ceilings, and a plan to change prices without a backlash. Use whenever someone asks what to charge for a developer tool, how to package tiers, where free ends and paid begins, whether to bill per seat or per usage, how to price against their own open-source edition, or how to raise prices safely - even if they only say the pricing page feels wrong. Not which business model to run - use samber/developer-relations-skills@devtools-business-model. Not pricing-page copy.

Sections in SKILL.md

Typical invocations
Interview
Step 1 - Establish the two numbers pricing depends on
Step 2 - Choose the value metric, in explicit brainstorming mode
Step 3 - Build the package ladder
Step 4 - Bound the price points, then place them
Step 5 - Make the bill predictable
Step 6 - Plan the change (only when repricing)
Step 7 - Write the pricing memo, validated section by section
Inputs model, buyer, cost per unit, free alternative's true cost
Value metric the unit, the four rejected candidates and why
Ladder the four rungs: contents, trigger to climb, price shape
Free surface limits with numbers, total marginal cost, abuse policy
Price points floor, binding ceiling, chosen numbers, evidence behind each
Mechanics annual, volume breaks, commitments, discount ceiling
Predictability caps, alerts, calculator, invoice shape, overage policy

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe (named in SKILL.md metadata and the plugin manifest)
License: MIT (LICENSE file, SKILL.md and plugin.json agree)
Installs on skills.sh: 12,855 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 8 for the whole samber/developer-relations-skills repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
Audits on skills.sh: Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: pass
What it includes: 8 files in the git tree: SKILL.md, 6 reference files and evals/evals.json. No scripts.
Part of: The developer-relations-skills plugin: 93 skill folders in the git tree
Works in: Claude Code and Claude.ai plugin marketplaces, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI, as the README documents

What it includes

Up to 13 questions; answers 10-12 reorder the metric menu and the ladder
Covers product, decided business model, who pays, cost per unit, meterability, free alternatives, current pricing, competitor pricing, data, deadline, one-off or compounding, effort ceiling and off-limits.
Read · Interview
Marginal cost to serve and the free alternative's true cost
Everything downstream is unfalsifiable without them.
Read · Step 1: the two numbers
Tests each metric family five ways and offers 2-3 architectures
The five tests: moves with value, already counted by the customer, forecastable, not gameable, correlated with cost.
Write · Step 2: value metric
Free surface, self-serve paid, team and enterprise rungs with triggers
A rung with no trigger event is a price list, not a ladder.
Write · Step 3: package ladder
Bounds each price by a margin floor and a self-host or build-it ceiling
With no data at all, price from the floor plus target margin and label it an experiment with a review date.
Write · Step 4: price points
Public price page, calculator, alerts, cap styles and itemized invoices
Offers hard and soft caps, with defaults stated.
Write · Step 5: predictable bills
Plans a price change cohort by cohort with grandfathering and notice
Only when repricing. Never moves an existing capability from free to paid.
Write · Step 6: change plan
Ten sections, each validated with you before the next
Inputs, value metric, ladder, free surface, price points, mechanics, predictability, change plan, measurement and revisit triggers.
Write · Step 7: pricing memo

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

devtools-pricing-strategy is interview and planning instructions with no scripts, and it may save notes to devrel-context.md. Our advice: check that file before you commit it.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders, and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. This skill bundles no scripts and the tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account, key or token.
Scopes	Claude writes a pricing memo in the conversation Cost, margin and usage numbers you paste go into the conversation Writes devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file

Questions

What does devtools-pricing-strategy do?

It designs how a developer tool is priced: what is counted, what each tier contains, the price points and how the whole thing changes over time. It ends with a written memo and a margin and predictability check.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo, because the skills point to each other. The box shows the whole-set routes the README documents.

Does it give me a price?

It gives a price range bounded by a margin floor and a self-host or build-it ceiling, with the evidence behind each number. With no data, SKILL.md says to price from the floor plus target margin and label it an experiment with a review date.

Are the numbers it quotes sourced?

Some are. SKILL.md says to state which numbers are sourced and which are its own baselines each time. references/pricing-evidence-base.md holds each citation, its limits and the list of self-set defaults.

Do I need to decide my business model first?

Yes. SKILL.md assumes the model is already chosen. The collection's kickoff skill lists devtools-business-model for "how the tool makes money".

Is it safe to install?

The skill bundles no scripts. Pricing, cost and usage numbers you paste go into your conversation. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, some of which bundle scripts; the permissions section has the count.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder: skills/devtools-pricing-strategy

samber/developer-relations-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 4

devtools-pricing-strategy SKILL.md · github.com
README · github.com
LICENSE · github.com
developer-relations-kickoff file · github.com