--- title: "The DAO tooling stack" url: "https://caper.network/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/dao-tooling-overview" updated: 2026-08-31 license: CC-BY-4.0 license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # The DAO tooling stack | | | | --- | --- | | **What this is** | A map of the DAO operating stack — the software categories a DAO wires together to run | | **Core layers** | Voting · frameworks · treasury custody · funding · contributor comp · analytics · legal wrappers | | **Design reality** | No single app runs a DAO; most assemble best-of-breed tools around a [Safe](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/safe) treasury and a [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) vote | | **Related** | [What is a DAO?](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/what-is-a-dao), [Governance models](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/dao-governance-models), [Treasury management](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/treasury/dao-treasury-management) | Running a [DAO](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/what-is-a-dao) is not one product but a **stack**: a set of specialised tools, mostly independent of each other, that a community assembles to make decisions, hold money, pay people, control who takes part and stay legible. There is no “DAO operating system” that does all of it — instead a typical DAO layers a voting venue over a treasury wallet, bolts on funding and payroll modules, and points analytics and legal wrappers at the result. This page maps that stack by function and links to the deep page for each tool, so you can see how the pieces fit before diving into any one of them. ## Voting & signaling Before any of it, there is the **deliberation layer**: the forum where a proposal is drafted, argued and often killed. Most DAOs run a self-hosted [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/); [Commonwealth](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/commonwealth) is the crypto-native alternative, adding wallet login, token-gated topics and a two-way [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) integration — though it has since turned toward token launches, and the deliberation layer remains the least standardised part of the stack. The layer that turns members into decisions. **[Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot)** is the near-universal _off-chain_ venue — gasless, wallet-signed votes stored on IPFS — used for temperature checks and non-binding signaling. **[Tally (now Cactus)](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/tally)** covers the _on-chain_ side, providing the interface for [OpenZeppelin Governor](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/openzeppelin-governor) contracts where a passed vote executes a transaction directly. [Agora](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/agora) is the other major on-chain interface, running binding votes for Optimism, Uniswap and ENS. Most large DAOs run both layers: cheap Snapshot signaling first, binding on-chain execution second. A newer layer sits _beside_ the ballot rather than under it: [Futarchy Labs](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/futarchy-labs) attaches paired conditional markets to each proposal and shows the predicted price impact next to the Snapshot vote, an advisory signal now running at Kleros, Velora and GnosisDAO. A related layer resolves _subjective_ disputes a vote cannot settle — did the work ship, is this listing genuine — through decentralized arbitration such as [Kleros](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/kleros), whose crowdsourced jurors return a binding ruling that a contract can act on. ([Snapshot docs](https://docs.snapshot.box/), [Tally docs](https://docs.tally.xyz/)) ## Access & identity Deciding _who is in the room_ before any vote is cast. **[Guild](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/membership/guild-xyz)** is the widely-used authorization layer: it turns an on-chain fact — hold this token or NFT, complete this action — into an off-chain permission, automatically granting and revoking [Discord roles, Telegram access, and GitHub or Google permissions](https://docs.guild.xyz/guild/how-guild-works) as wallets meet or fall out of a role's requirements. It is the plumbing behind most token-gated communities, including social DAOs like [Friends With Benefits](/wiki/daos/social/friends-with-benefits), and pairs with [proof-of-personhood](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/membership/sybil-resistance-in-daos) signals such as [Human Passport](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/membership/human-passport) to keep one person from entering as many. This layer governs access, not vote weight — it decides who may participate, while the voting and framework layers decide what that participation does. ## Frameworks The scaffolding that defines what a DAO _is_ on-chain — its permissions, membership and upgrade rules. **[Aragon OSx](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/frameworks/aragon)** models a DAO as a lean permission manager with swappable governance plugins. The **Moloch** framework — minimal, audited contracts whose defining feature is [rage-quit](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/membership/rage-quit-and-exit-rights) — underpins a generation of grants DAOs and lives on today through [DAOhaus](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/frameworks/daohaus). [Colony](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/frameworks/colony) adds reputation-weighted, task-based structure — influence is earned reputation that decays, not tokens held. Frameworks trade flexibility for safety: you inherit battle-tested contracts instead of writing your own. [Hats Protocol](https://docs.hatsprotocol.xyz/) narrows this layer to roles and permissions alone: revocable, non-transferable ERC-1155 "hats" arranged in an admin tree, read by tools like [Safe](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/safe) and [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) to gate who may act ([Hats Protocol](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/membership/hats-protocol)). ([Aragon docs](https://docs.aragon.org/), [Moloch contracts](https://github.com/MolochVentures/moloch)) ## Treasury & custody Where the money actually sits. **[Safe](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/safe)** (formerly Gnosis Safe) is the default: an _m_-of-_n_ multisig smart-contract wallet that holds the treasury for most of the DAO world, extended by modules and guards — most commonly the [Zodiac](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/frameworks/zodiac) standard — so a passed [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) vote can execute against it without a trusted signer. Because Safe stayed deliberately minimal, a separate operations layer grew above it: [Den](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/den) adds no contracts at all and instead attacks the coordination bottleneck — reminder bots that tag signers who have not yet signed, decoded and simulated transactions, and gas reimbursed from the Safe. Custody is the highest-stakes layer — a treasury is a DAO’s most valuable and most attacked asset — which is why the ecosystem standardised hard on one well-audited account model. ([Safe docs](https://docs.safe.global/)) ## Funding & contributor comp Getting money _in_ and back _out_ to the people doing the work. **[Juicebox](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/juicebox)** is the programmable treasury/fundraising layer that powered ConstitutionDAO and thousands of crowdfunds. [Gitcoin](https://www.gitcoin.co/) runs [quadratic-funding](/wiki/daos/public-goods/gitcoin-dao) rounds for public goods. **[Coordinape](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/coordinape)** pioneered peer-allocated compensation — contributors reward each other’s work directly — though its app wound down in 2025. **[Sablier](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/sablier)** streams vesting grants, salaries and unlocking airdrops second-by-second, so a payment is earned over time instead of handed over up front. Once the work is done, the invoice and the books are their own layer: **[Request Finance](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/request-finance)** turns contributor and vendor claims into approved bills a multisig pays in a batch, then exports the result to ordinary accounting software. This layer is where governance meets payroll, and it is historically the least standardised part of the stack. ## Analytics & discovery The instruments that make a DAO legible to its members and to outsiders. The single cross-DAO index has fragmented: **[DeepDAO](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/deepdao)** was the canonical directory — treasury sizes, membership and voter turnout across thousands of DAOs — but its public site has been unreachable since mid-2026, and its role is now split across narrower tools. **[Boardroom](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/boardroom)**, acquired by [Agora](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/agora) in 2025, still serves proposals and delegates across ecosystems _as an API_, though its public app now errors on every data route (checked 22 August 2026), and [Messari Governor](https://messari.io/governor) covers similar ground in a browser; **[Karma](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/karma)** scores delegate participation; **[Token Terminal](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/token-terminal)** carries the financial half, standardizing fees, revenue and expenses so protocols can be compared on the same basis; and **[DAOstar](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/daostar)** works the layer beneath, standardizing how a DAO publishes its own data. Between them they answer “how healthy is this DAO?” — the metrics covered on [DAO metrics](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/analysis/dao-metrics-and-analytics) and [treasury management](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/treasury/dao-treasury-management). ## Legal wrappers The off-chain shell that gives an on-chain organisation legal personhood and limited liability. [MIDAO](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/midao) forms Marshall Islands DAO LLCs; Wyoming’s [DAO LLC statute](https://sos.wyo.gov/business/) offers a US equivalent. Without a wrapper, members of an unincorporated DAO can face unlimited personal liability — a risk the [legal-structures](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/membership/dao-legal-structures) page covers in depth. This layer is optional but increasingly standard for any DAO holding real assets or signing contracts. ## Choosing a stack The right stack follows the DAO’s _type_ and _size_. A small grants collective may need only a Safe plus Snapshot and a Moloch-style rage-quit. A large protocol DAO governing a live contract needs on-chain Governor execution (Tally/Cactus), a formal legal wrapper, and analytics for accountability. The rule of thumb: start minimal — a treasury and a way to vote — and add layers only when a concrete failure (a captured multisig, an unclear payout, a liability scare) demands one. Over-tooling an early DAO adds coordination cost without adding safety. Choosing also means choosing what to depend on. Several tools once considered obvious picks in this stack no longer exist, and what a shutdown costs depends on whether the tool held a view of on-chain state or the only copy of the record: see [DAO tooling discontinuity](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/analysis/dao-tooling-discontinuity). ## How Caper approaches this Caper collapses most of this stack into a single protocol. Custody, voting, execution and exit are not separate tools bolted together but one contract-governed flow: a [proposal](/wiki/governance/proposals) is [voted](/wiki/governance/voting) and [executed](/wiki/governance/execution) on-chain in one binding step, the treasury is a protocol-controlled vault rather than a separate [Safe](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/safe), and members can [exit](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/membership/rage-quit-and-exit-rights) for a share of it set by their canonical [vote weight](/wiki/governance/voting) `(t·v)/(V·T)` rather than by balance alone, consuming both their governance tokens and the soulbound vote tokens they earned by voting or by trading. The trade-off is deliberate: a caper gives up the pick-your-own-tools flexibility of the assembled stack in exchange for having no seams — no multisig to capture, no off-chain vote to later ratify, no gap between deciding and doing. For teams that want the modular approach, the tools above remain the reference. ## References - Aragon, [OSx documentation](https://docs.aragon.org/). - Snapshot, [Documentation](https://docs.snapshot.box/); Tally, [Documentation](https://docs.tally.xyz/). - Safe, [Documentation](https://docs.safe.global/). - DeepDAO, [DAO analytics directory](https://web.archive.org/web/20260520182310/https://deepdao.io/organizations) (Internet Archive, 20 May 2026). - a16z crypto, [DAO governance FAQ](https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/governance-faq/) (Andrew Hall, 2023).