The Urbit project relies on our community to help realize its potential. While the Foundation specifies the direction of development through bounties, we encourage anyone with an idea about how to improve Urbit to submit a grant proposal. This guide will describe the different types of proposals, the requested format, and the entire workflow for a successful project.
Types of Proposals
While we will entertain just about any idea that comes from the community, we are particularly interested in "capital goods": projects that provide new capabilities to the widest number of users or developers or add tooling to the platform. Recent examples are Bitcoin integration, WebRTC integration, or the Urbit Large File Storage project.
Proposal types include:
- Core Development - kernal or runtime development
- Application Development - userspace development of specific applications
- Developer Tools - Libraries, APIs, unit tests, etc.
- Design Work - design work for the urbit.org website
- Documentation - writing guides or website content
- Community - organizing events and meetups, staffing the help desk
We have need for lots of different skill sets—not just coding.
Proposal Format
Your proposal should include the following sections:
- Project name
- Brief description of project
- Proposal body including:
- Project Overview
- Project Scope
- Detailed behavior description
- Detailed design description
- Your experience
- Why you are the right person for this project
- Milestones:
- Any sub-goals of project
- Specific deliverables
- Expected timeframes
- Expected compensation in Stars
Proposal Submission and Project Workflow
Once you have your proposal in order, submit it using the Propose a Project form. From this point, your project will go through these stages:
- Draft: A team member will reach out to schedule a meeting with you to discuss your proposal in detail. There may be some modifications requested to get approval. Once we come to agreement, feel free to edit and submit this pre-filled pull request on GitHub.
- Paperwork: Once your proposal pull request is merged, you will need to submit some paperwork (contract, IRS forms, etc.)
- Live: When the paperwork is complete, you can start work on your project.
- Milestone: When you complete a milestone (or the entire project), you will create an invoice an submit it using the Submit Invoice form.
- Payment: If your work is approved by your reviewer, your payment will enter the payment queue. It can take up to 2 weeks to receive your payment, since we make transfers on the 2nd and 17th of the month.
Don't be concerned if you are unclear about any of these details. We will be happy to guide you once your project enters the workflow.