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Creating and Configuring a DAO

This guide walks through creating and configuring your own DAO using governance playbooks.

Choose a Playbook

Sage provides versioned playbooks that set sensible governance defaults:

Playbook Use Case Governance Members
personal Solo publisher Operator (direct control) 1
council Small team Safe multisig 3-10
community Token holders Governor + Timelock 50+
community-long Large communities Extended voting periods 100+

1. Preview the Plan

First, see what will be deployed:

sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook community \
  --name "My Community DAO" \
  --dry-run

This generates a plan file (dao-plan-*.json) showing: - Contracts to deploy - Roles to grant - Parameters to set - External actions required (e.g., Safe transactions)

2. Review the Plan

Open the generated dao-plan-*.json and review: - Governance parameters (voting period, quorum, threshold) - Role assignments (PROPOSER, EXECUTOR, LIBRARY_ADMIN) - Timelock delays

3. Apply the Plan

Execute the deployment:

sage dao create-playbook --apply dao-plan-*.json

The CLI: 1. Deploys all contracts 2. Grants necessary roles 3. Configures governance parameters 4. Returns your DAO address

4. Verify Configuration

Check that everything is set up correctly:

sage dao doctor --subdao 0xYourNewDAO

Playbook Details

Personal Playbook

Best for: Solo operators who want direct control over their library.

sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook personal \
  --name "Personal Skills Library"

Features: - No voting required - Instant updates via operator - Direct control over library - Timelock still provides safety delay

Council Playbook

Best for: Small trusted teams (3-10 members) who coordinate via multisig.

sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook council \
  --name "Team Skills"

Features: - Safe multisig for proposals - Fast execution (short timelock) - Requires threshold approval - Board-based decision making

Community Playbook

Best for: Decentralized communities with token-weighted voting.

sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook community \
  --name "Community Intelligence DAO"

Features: - Token-weighted voting - Standard voting periods (3-7 days) - Quorum requirements (typically 4%) - Proposal threshold for spam prevention

Community-Long Playbook

Best for: Large communities wanting extended deliberation.

sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook community-long \
  --name "Large Community DAO"

Features: - Extended voting periods - Higher quorum requirements - Longer timelock delays - Maximum decentralization

Interactive Wizard

For guided creation:

sage dao wizard

This walks you through: 1. Choosing governance type 2. Setting parameters 3. Configuring roles 4. Deploying contracts

Advanced: Direct Creation

For full control, use sage dao create directly:

sage dao create \
  --name "Custom DAO" \
  --description "A custom governance setup" \
  --type community \
  --voting-period "3 days" \
  --quorum-bps 200 \
  --proposal-threshold 10000

Options: - --type <kind> - Governance type: personal, council, community - --voting-period <duration> - E.g., "3 days", "36 hours", "720 minutes" - --quorum-bps <bps> - Quorum in basis points (200 = 2%) - --proposal-threshold <amount> - Tokens needed to propose - --manifest <pathOrCID> - Initial library manifest

Adding a DAO Profile

Set up a profile with avatar, description, and metadata.

At Creation Time

# Create profile and upload to IPFS
sage dao profile upload 0xYourDAO \
  --name "My DAO" \
  --description "A community for prompt engineering"

# Create DAO with profile
sage dao create-playbook \
  --playbook council \
  --name "My DAO" \
  --profile-cid QmYourProfileCID

After Creation

# Upload profile
sage dao profile upload 0xYourDAO \
  --name "My DAO" \
  --description "Updated description" \
  --avatar "ipfs://QmAvatarCID"

# Set profile via governance proposal
sage dao profile set 0xYourDAO --cid QmNewProfileCID

Configuration After Creation

Set Governance Mode

sage dao mode set community --subdao 0xYourDAO --exec

Configure Membership

# Set membership policy
sage dao members policy admin --subdao 0xYourDAO --exec

# Add members (council mode)
sage dao members add 0xMember --subdao 0xYourDAO --exec

# Batch add members
sage dao members batch-add 0xA,0xB,0xC --subdao 0xYourDAO --exec

Adjust Parameters

Governance parameters are updated via governance proposals targeting the Governor.

Common examples include proposalThreshold, minVotesToVote, quorum, and proposer cooldown.

Diagnostics

Check DAO Health

sage dao doctor --subdao 0xYourDAO

This verifies: - Governor/Timelock roles - LibraryRegistry wiring - Prompt registry permissions - Role assignments

Check Roles

sage dao roles --subdao 0xYourDAO

Shows your role assignments (PROPOSER, EXECUTOR, ADMIN).

Quick Reference

# Create with playbook
sage dao create-playbook --playbook <type> --name "Name" --dry-run
sage dao create-playbook --apply dao-plan-*.json

# Interactive
sage dao wizard

# Direct create
sage dao create --name "Name" --type community

# Configuration
sage dao doctor --subdao 0xDAO
sage dao mode show --subdao 0xDAO
sage dao roles --subdao 0xDAO

# Profile
sage dao profile upload 0xDAO --name "Name"
sage dao profile set 0xDAO --cid QmCID

Next Steps

After creating your DAO:

  1. Publish your first prompt 

    sage prompts publish --dest team --dao 0xYourDAO

  2. Invite members (for council/community) 

    sage dao members add 0xMember --subdao 0xYourDAO

  3. Monitor proposals 

    sage proposals inbox --dao 0xYourDAO