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What is Agora?

Agora is a powerful, open-source onchain governance platform designed for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). It provides a complete solution for transparent, efficient governance with proposals, delegation, voting, and community forums.
Agora powers governance for leading DAOs including ENS, Optimism, and Uniswap.

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Key Features

Agora offers a comprehensive suite of governance tools that enable your DAO to make transparent, efficient decisions onchain.

Proposal Management

Create, manage, and execute governance proposals with full onchain support. Track proposal lifecycle from draft to execution.

Delegation System

Delegate voting power to trusted representatives. Build a robust delegate network with profiles, statements, and endorsements.

Flexible Voting

Support multiple voting mechanisms including standard voting, approval voting, and ranked choice. Enable gasless voting through meta-transactions.

Community Forums

Integrated discussion platform powered by Duna. Enable community discourse with topics, posts, reactions, and moderation tools.

Multi-Tenant Architecture

Run multiple DAOs on a single platform with isolated configurations, data, and customizations for each tenant.

EAS Attestations

Verify delegates and actions using Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) for added trust and transparency.

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Who Uses Agora?

Agora is trusted by some of the most prominent DAOs in the ecosystem:
1

ENS (Ethereum Name Service)

Manages governance for the Ethereum naming system with delegate voting and proposal execution.
2

Optimism

Powers the Optimism Collective’s governance including RetroPGF rounds and token house voting.
3

Uniswap

Handles governance proposals and voting for the leading decentralized exchange protocol.
Additional DAOs using Agora include Derive, Cyber, Xai, Boost, Scroll, Linea, EtherFi, B3, and Protocol Guild.

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Why Choose Agora?

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Built for Scale

Agora’s multi-tenant architecture allows you to run multiple DAO instances on a single platform. Each tenant has:
  • Isolated data: Separate PostgreSQL schemas for each DAO namespace
  • Custom configuration: Tenant-specific contracts, tokens, and UI settings
  • Flexible deployment: Support for different chains and governance models

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Production-Ready

Agora is a battle-tested platform with:
  • PostgreSQL + Prisma ORM: Robust data persistence with views and materialized views
  • Next.js App Router: Server-side rendering and optimal performance
  • TypeScript: Type-safe codebase with comprehensive interfaces
  • OpenTelemetry: Built-in observability and monitoring

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Developer-Friendly

  • REST API: Comprehensive API for proposals, delegates, votes, and analytics
  • React Components: Reusable UI components with SCSS modules and Tailwind
  • Extensible: Add custom features, voting mechanisms, and integrations

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Architecture Overview

Agora follows a modern web application architecture: 
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Next.js Frontend                    │
│  (React, TypeScript, Tailwind, ConnectKit)      │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Next.js API Routes                  │
│     (REST API, Server Actions, Prisma)          │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
        ┌────────┴────────┐
        ↓                 ↓
┌───────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐
│  PostgreSQL   │  │  Blockchain RPCs │
│   (Prisma)    │  │  (Alchemy, etc.) │
└───────────────┘  └──────────────────┘
Learn more about the architecture in the Architecture Guide.

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Technology Stack

Agora is built with modern web technologies:
  • Next.js 14: React framework with App Router
  • React 18: UI component library
  • TypeScript: Type-safe JavaScript
  • Tailwind CSS: Utility-first CSS framework
  • ConnectKit: Wallet connection library
  • Wagmi & Viem: Ethereum interactions
  • Next.js API Routes: Serverless API endpoints
  • Prisma: Type-safe ORM for PostgreSQL
  • PostgreSQL: Relational database with multi-schema support
  • OpenTelemetry: Distributed tracing and observability
  • Ethers.js v6: Ethereum library
  • Alchemy: RPC provider
  • EAS (Ethereum Attestation Service): Onchain attestations
  • SIWE (Sign-In with Ethereum): Authentication
  • Pinata: IPFS storage for proposal metadata
  • Tenderly: Transaction simulation
  • WalletConnect: Multi-wallet support
  • Snapshot: Off-chain voting (optional)
  • Meilisearch: Full-text search for forums

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Core Concepts

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Tenants

Each DAO is a “tenant” with its own:
  • Namespace: Unique identifier (e.g., ens, optimism, uniswap)
  • Contracts: Governor, token, timelock, and optional staking contracts
  • Token: ERC20 or ERC721 governance token
  • UI Configuration: Custom branding, features, and toggles
  • Database Schema: Isolated data in PostgreSQL

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Proposals

Proposals are the core governance primitive:
  • Types: Standard, temp checks, approval voting, ranked choice
  • Lifecycle: Draft → Active → Succeeded/Defeated → Queued → Executed
  • Metadata: Title, description, transactions, voting parameters
  • Storage: PostgreSQL + optional IPFS for descriptions

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Delegation

Voting power can be delegated:
  • Direct Delegation: Delegate to a single address
  • Partial Delegation: Split voting power (Alligator)
  • Sub-delegation: Delegates can re-delegate (chain of authority)
  • Profiles: Delegates create statements with social links

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Voting

Multiple voting mechanisms are supported:
  • Onchain Voting: Direct contract interactions
  • Gasless Voting: Meta-transactions with signature verification
  • Vote Types: For, Against, Abstain
  • Advanced Voting: Approval voting, ranked choice (Optimism)

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Getting Started

Ready to deploy Agora for your DAO? Follow our comprehensive guides:

Quickstart Guide

Set up Agora locally and create your first proposal in minutes.

Architecture Guide

Understand Agora’s system design, database schema, and key components.

Configuration Guide

Configure environment variables, contracts, and tenant settings.

API Reference

Explore the REST API for proposals, delegates, votes, and more.

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Community and Support

Agora is open source and actively maintained by the team at Agora.

GitHub Repository

View source code, open issues, and contribute to development.

Discord Community

Join the community for support, discussions, and collaboration.
Before deploying to production, make sure to review the security best practices in the Deployment Guide.

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Next Steps

Now that you understand what Agora is, choose your path:

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