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Referrals and invites

Sharing Nabu with other writers — letting people into the alpha with an invite code, and earning bonus credits when a friend joins and starts writing.

There are two ways to bring someone into Nabu, and they live on two different pages in your Settings. Invites are the live one during the alpha: each invite code is a key that lets a new writer in the door. Referrals is the credit-earning program — when someone you bring in starts writing, you both get a handful of bonus credits. This page walks through both, and tells you where to find your link.

Note: During the alpha, Invites is your live sharing surface — it's the one you'll actually use. The Referrals page may be dimmed with a "soon" label in your Settings menu for now (see A tour of your settings). The referral rewards are dormant during the private alpha — because everyone who joins now joins as an alpha tester, the bonus credits aren't granted yet. They switch on when Nabu opens to public (non-alpha) signup.

Inviting someone into the alpha

Right now, Nabu is in private alpha — new writers need an invite to sign up. When you joined, you were given a couple of invite codes of your own to pass along, so you can bring people you'd love to write alongside.

  1. Open Settings (the gear icon), then choose Invites from the menu.
  2. You'll see your invite codes listed — each with a claim link, a Copy button, and a row of share buttons.
  3. Pick an unclaimed invite and click Copy to grab its link, or type a friend's address into the email field and click Send invite to mail it straight to them.
  4. Send the link however you like. When your friend opens it and signs up, that invite shows as claimed, with the date it was claimed — and, if you set a recipient email when you issued it, the address you reserved it for.

Tip: There's a shortcut to this page from your dashboard. The Invite button on the project home screen takes you straight to your invites during the alpha.

Note: New testers are given a small number of invite codes (currently two) when they sign up. Once you've handed all of them out, the Issue another form won't let you make more — that's the quota doing its job. If you run out and want more to share, reach out and we'll sort you out.

What each control on the Invites page does

  • Copy — copies that invite's claim link to your clipboard so you can paste it into a message. The button briefly flips to ✓ Copied so you know it worked.
  • Send invite / Re-send email — the email field plus its send button mails the invite link directly to an address you type in. For a fresh invite the button reads Send invite; if you've already emailed it once, it reads Re-send email to send it again.
  • Issue another — when you still have invites left in your quota, this form lets you generate a fresh one. You can add a recipient's email, or just create the code and copy it yourself.
  • The share buttons / Save Image — a row of share options with a preview image of Nabu. (Social sharing is kept quiet during the alpha, so this is mostly for saving the image or copying the link.)

A claimed invite can't be reused — once a friend signs up with it, that code is spent. If you want to invite more people, use a different unclaimed code or issue a new one while you still have quota.

Earning credits by referring a friend

The referral program is the part that rewards you. When a writer you refer joins Nabu and actually starts working on a screenplay, you both earn bonus credits — currently around 200 credits each. Those bonus credits land in your Bonus balance bucket (see How credits work for what the buckets mean).

The key thing to know: the reward isn't for signing up. Your friend has to start writing — both create a project and write their first scene (their first actual page of writing). Doing just one isn't enough; a friend who makes a project but never writes a scene won't trigger the reward. That moment when both are done is called activation. It's a small bar, and it means the people you refer are the ones who genuinely give Nabu a try.

Note: Both sides earn the bonus — the writer who shares and the writer who joins. So referring a friend is a win for both of you, not just a thank-you to you.

Your referral link and your stats live on the Referrals page in Settings. When it's open for your account, you'll find:

  • A referral code card you can click to copy your share link. The link looks like a /join?ref= web address — when a friend opens it, they land on a welcome page that confirms the code and walks them into signing up.
  • A small pencil button to set a custom code (3–20 letters and numbers) so your link reads the way you want.
  • A stats row showing how many people you've Invited, how many are Active (they've started writing), and the Credits earned so far.
  • A milestone progress bar and a list of your referrals, each marked with the bonus credits when the reward is granted.
  • A how-it-works explainer and a preview image of your link, with a couple of styles to choose from.

Note: Depending on your plan, this page may not be visible yet. During the alpha the Referrals page is dimmed with a "soon" label in the Settings menu, and the share section there points you to Invites instead. Referral links fully open up once Nabu moves to public signup.

Good to know

  • Two pages, two jobs. Invites is about access — who gets into the alpha. Referrals is about credits — the bonus you both earn when a referred writer starts writing. During the alpha they overlap, because inviting a friend is how you bring people in.
  • The reward is per side, with a cap. Each side of a referral earns roughly 200 bonus credits. There's a limit on how many referrals can earn you a reward (currently up to 50), so the program has a ceiling — but that's a lot of writers.
  • Activation, not signup, triggers the credits. Your friend has to create a project and write a scene — both, not either — before either of you sees the bonus. A signup that never writes anything, or a bare project with no scene, won't grant credits.
  • Referral rewards stay with you until you use them. Nabu uses your monthly plan usage first, then purchased credits, then gifted credits, which never expire.
  • You'll see the bonus in your history. When a reward is granted, it shows up in your transaction history as a referral reward, with the credit amount added to your balance.

Tip: If you're not sure whether the Referrals page is open for your account, just look at your Settings menu — a dimmed item with a "soon" label isn't clickable yet. Invites stays active during the alpha, so that's the one to use today.