No referral credits

Author: jahooma

common/src/constants/limits.ts

@@ -5,7 +5,12 @@ export const MAX_DATE = new Date(86399999999999)
 export const BILLING_PERIOD_DAYS = 30
 export const SESSION_MAX_AGE_SECONDS = 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 // 30 days
 export const SESSION_TIME_WINDOW_MS = 30 * 60 * 1000 // 30 minutes - used for matching sessions created around fingerprint creation
-export const CREDITS_REFERRAL_BONUS = 500
+// Referral credits disabled 2026-04-17: setting bonus to 0 stops new referral credit grants
+// without removing the referral-tracking records. See scripts/opus-or-bleed.ts for the
+// abuse pattern that motivated this (self-referral rings farming 1000 free credits per
+// signup and burning them on Opus). Development focus is shifting to freebuff which has
+// no credit system, so we don't need this growth lever going forward.
+export const CREDITS_REFERRAL_BONUS = 0
 export const AFFILIATE_USER_REFFERAL_LIMIT = 500
 
 // Default number of free credits granted per cycle

web/src/app/api/referrals/helpers.ts

@@ -138,7 +138,17 @@ export async function redeemReferralCode(referralCode: string, userId: string) {
 
       const operationId = referralRecord[0].operation_id
 
-      // 2. Process and grant credits for both users (one-time, never expires)
+      // 2. Grant credits for both users (skipped entirely when bonus is 0 — we still
+      //    record the referral above for tracking, but don't write 0-principal rows
+      //    into the credit ledger).
+      if (CREDITS_REFERRAL_BONUS <= 0) {
+        logger.info(
+          { operationId, referrerId: referrer.id, referredId: userId },
+          'Referral recorded; credit grants skipped (CREDITS_REFERRAL_BONUS=0).',
+        )
+        return
+      }
+
       const grantPromises = []
 
       const grantForUser = (user: { id: string; role: 'referrer' | 'referred' }) =>