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Creating Bounties for Your Community

Bounties are how Sage Protocol incentivizes contributions. They create a permissionless marketplace for prompt improvements, letting anyone signal "this needs work" and put money behind it.

Why Bounties?

Good prompts don't appear fully formed. They need iteration:

  • Edge cases discovered through real use
  • New use cases that weren't anticipated
  • Better examples and constraints
  • Integration with new tools

Bounties let DAOs fund improvements without requiring full-time contributors.

Understanding Bounty Modes

Before creating a bounty, choose your mode:

Mode Description Best For
open Anyone can claim and submit General improvements, community participation
direct Pre-assigned to a specific contributor Known contributor, contracted work
competitive Multiple submissions, voting selects winner Complex tasks, quality competition

Creating a Bounty

Basic Bounty

sage bounty create \
  --title "Improve SQL prompt edge case handling" \
  --description "Add handling for CTEs, window functions, and subqueries" \
  --reward 100 \
  --deadline 30 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Required flags:

  • --title - Brief description of what's needed
  • --description - Detailed requirements and acceptance criteria
  • --reward - Amount in SXXX tokens (escrowed on creation)
  • --deadline - Days until bounty expires
  • --dao or --subdao - DAO context for governance

With IPFS Specifications

For complex bounties, store detailed specs on IPFS:

# Upload specifications first
sage ipfs upload ./bounty-spec.md

# Create bounty referencing the spec
sage bounty create \
  --title "Build data validation prompt system" \
  --ipfs QmYourSpecCID \
  --reward 500 \
  --deadline 60 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Direct Assignment

Assign a bounty to a known contributor:

sage bounty create \
  --title "Fix SQL injection vulnerability" \
  --description "The query-builder prompt doesn't properly escape user input" \
  --reward 100 \
  --mode direct \
  --assignee 0xContributorAddress \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Competitive Bounty

Allow multiple submissions with voting:

sage bounty create \
  --title "Create best-in-class code review prompt" \
  --description "We'll vote on the best submission" \
  --reward 200 \
  --mode competitive \
  --voting-duration 7 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Bounty Lifecycle

1. CREATE
   └─▶ Funds escrowed in SimpleBountySystem contract

2. CLAIM (open/competitive modes)
   └─▶ Contributor signals they're working

3. SUBMIT
   └─▶ Contributor submits deliverable (usually IPFS CID)

4. APPROVE/VOTE
   └─▶ DAO approves or votes on submissions

5. PAYOUT
   └─▶ Winner receives reward automatically

Claiming and Submitting

Find Open Bounties

# List bounties for a DAO
sage bounty list --dao 0xYourDAO

# Filter by status
sage bounty list --status active --claimable --dao 0xYourDAO

Claim a Bounty

Claiming signals you're working on it (prevents duplicate effort):

sage bounty claim --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO -y

Submit Your Work

sage bounty submit \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --deliverable "ipfs://QmYourDeliverable" \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Or use the complete command which combines status update and deliverable:

sage bounty complete \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --deliverable "ipfs://QmYourDeliverable" \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Approval Process

Different DAOs use different approval methods. Check your DAO's configuration with:

sage bounty doctor --dao 0xYourDAO

Board/Operator Approval

For small teams where an operator or Safe multisig approves directly:

# As operator/admin
sage bounty approve \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --submission 0 \
  --winner 0xContributor \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Token Voting Approval

For DAOs using token governance:

# Create approval proposal
sage bounty propose-approve \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --submission 0 \
  --winner 0xContributor \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Competitive Bounty Voting

After deadline passes:

# Start voting period
sage bounty start-voting --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO

# Vote for a submission
sage bounty vote --bounty-id 42 --submission 0 --dao 0xYourDAO

# After voting ends, finalize
sage bounty finalize --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO

Setting Bounty Mode

Configure how your DAO handles bounty approvals:

sage bounty set-mode \
  --mode auto \
  --fast-track-limit 100000000000000000000 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO
Mode Description
auto First valid submission wins (up to fast-track limit)
board Board/operator selects winner
token Token holders vote

Submission Gates

Control who can submit with gates:

# Require minimum SXXX balance
sage bounty set-gates \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --min-balance 100 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

# Require a specific badge
sage bounty set-gates \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --badge-id 1 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Whitelist Specific Addresses

# Add to whitelist
sage bounty add-whitelist \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --addresses 0xAddr1,0xAddr2 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

# Check if you can submit
sage bounty can-submit --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO

Library Integration

Bounties can automatically add accepted prompts to a library:

sage bounty create \
  --title "Create documentation prompt" \
  --reward 50 \
  --library-action add-to-library \
  --library-key prompts/docs \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Library actions:

  • payment-only - Just pay the contributor (default)
  • add-to-library - Add deliverable to library
  • payment-and-add - Both payment and library addition

Payouts

ETH Payouts

Some bounties pay in ETH from treasury:

sage bounty payout-eth \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --to 0xWinner \
  --amount 0.1 \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

ERC20 Payouts

Pay in SXXX or other tokens:

sage bounty payout-erc20 \
  --bounty-id 42 \
  --to 0xWinner \
  --amount 100 \
  --token 0xSXXXAddress \
  --dao 0xYourDAO

Bounty Templates

Use templates for common bounty types:

# List available templates
sage bounty templates

# Scaffold a template
sage bounty templates --scaffold evals --out ./my-bounty.json

# Upload to IPFS for use
sage bounty templates --scaffold doc-fix --pin

Available templates: evals, doc-fix, bug, and more.

Interactive Wizard

For guided bounty creation:

sage bounty wizard --dao 0xYourDAO

This walks you through: 1. Announce the bounty 2. Optionally select a winner 3. Optionally process payout

Checking Bounty Info

# Detailed info for a specific bounty
sage bounty info --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO

# Get submission details
sage bounty get-submission --bounty-id 42 --submission 0 --dao 0xYourDAO

# Check leading submission (competitive)
sage bounty leading --bounty-id 42 --dao 0xYourDAO

Agent Participation

Agents can participate in the bounty system. See Agent Prompt Workflows for how agents discover, claim, and submit to bounties.