---
title: "Agora"
url: "https://caper.network/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/agora"
updated: 2026-08-22
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Agora

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Category** | On-chain governance platform — proposals, voting, delegation & execution front-end |
| **Launched** | 2022 |
| **Model** | Open-source (MIT); a hosted interface over on-chain Governor contracts, [free to fork](https://github.com/voteagora/agora-next) and self-deploy |
| **Powers** | [Optimism](/wiki/daos/networks/optimism-collective), [Uniswap](/wiki/daos/dexs/uniswap-dao), [ENS](/wiki/daos/infrastructure/ens-dao), [Nouns](/wiki/daos/social/nouns-dao), Scroll, Ether.fi, Derive and others |
| **Notable** | Acquired governance-analytics rival [Boardroom](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/boardroom) in January 2025 |
| **Scale** | 800k+ votes processed across its governor contracts; ~103k monthly users (Agora, 2026) |
| **Related** | [DAO tooling stack](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/dao-tooling-overview), [Tally / Cactus](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/tally), [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) |

**Agora** is an open-source, on-chain governance platform that gives a protocol a full voting stack — [proposals](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/proposal-lifecycle), [voting and delegation](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/voting-and-delegation), and execution — without the DAO writing its own governance front-end. It is the interface most of the largest [on-chain](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/on-chain-vs-off-chain-governance) DAOs use to run binding votes: [Optimism](/wiki/daos/networks/optimism-collective), [Uniswap](/wiki/daos/dexs/uniswap-dao) and [ENS](/wiki/daos/infrastructure/ens-dao) all govern through Agora deployments. ([agora.xyz](https://www.agora.xyz/))

## What it does

Agora sits on top of a DAO’s on-chain Governor contracts and turns them into a usable product: [delegation](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/voting-and-delegation) management, gasless voting, multiple-choice and standard proposals, delegate directories, transaction simulation before execution, and governance primitives such as security councils and dual governance. The whole codebase is [MIT-licensed](https://github.com/voteagora/agora-next) — a protocol can fork and self-host rather than depend on a hosted vendor, which matters for a system meant to [outlive its operators](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/analysis/dao-security-and-governance-attacks). Agora positions this as letting engineers "progressively decentralize" while it carries the governance infrastructure. ([Agora](https://www.agora.xyz/))

## Where it sits in the stack

Governance tooling splits along the [on-chain / off-chain](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/on-chain-vs-off-chain-governance) line. [Snapshot](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/snapshot) owns the off-chain signaling layer — cheap, wallet-signed temperature checks with no binding effect. On the on-chain side, where a passed vote executes a transaction directly, Agora and [Tally (now Cactus)](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/tally) are the two dominant interfaces to OpenZeppelin-style Governor contracts. Agora’s niche is bespoke, deeply-integrated deployments for large L2 and protocol DAOs rather than a self-serve directory; a DAO typically pairs it with a [Safe](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/treasury/safe) treasury and Snapshot for early signaling, as the [tooling-stack map](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/dao-tooling-overview) lays out.

## The Boardroom acquisition (2025)

On [23 January 2025](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/01/23/dao-governance-platform-agora-acquires-older-competitor-boardroom) Agora acquired [Boardroom](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/boardroom), one of the oldest governance-analytics dashboards — a delegate-and-proposal aggregator whose API tracked over 2 million delegates across more than 300 protocols. Agora committed to [keeping Boardroom running as-is](https://www.agora.xyz/blogs/6-boardroom-acquisition), with founder Kevin Nielsen staying on as an advisor. Nineteen months on, that has held for the API and not for the app: checked 22 August 2026, `api.boardroom.info` still authenticates requests while [boardroom.io](https://boardroom.io/) renders an error on every data-bearing route – measured on the [Boardroom page](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/analytics/boardroom). Agora's own deployments are unaffected. The deal is part of a wider 2025–26 consolidation of governance tooling — the same period in which [Tally wound down its hosted product](/wiki/dao-governance/tooling/voting/tally) into Cactus — as the once-fragmented vendor landscape contracts toward a few full-stack governance providers. ([Boardroom’s announcement](https://governance.substack.com/p/boardroom-joins-the-agora-governance))

## How Caper approaches this

Agora exists because on-chain governance is normally a _separate layer_ bolted onto a protocol — a front-end and a set of Governor contracts a DAO adopts, integrates, and can later migrate off of. A [caper](/wiki/foundations/what-is-a-caper) folds that layer into the protocol itself: [proposal](/wiki/governance/proposals), [vote](/wiki/governance/voting) and [execution](/wiki/governance/execution) are native methods on the DAO’s own on-chain component, so there is no governance vendor to choose, wire up, or trust to stay live. The trade-off is the usual one — less pick-your-own-interface flexibility in exchange for no seam between the tool and the treasury it governs. For DAOs that do want a dedicated, battle-tested governance UI over standard Governor contracts, Agora is among the strongest choices.

## References

- Agora, [Great Onchain Governance](https://www.agora.xyz/) (product site); [agora-next](https://github.com/voteagora/agora-next) (source, MIT).
- Agora, [Boardroom joins Agora](https://www.agora.xyz/blogs/6-boardroom-acquisition) (23 Jan 2025).
- CoinDesk, [DAO Governance Platform Agora Acquires Older Competitor, Boardroom](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/01/23/dao-governance-platform-agora-acquires-older-competitor-boardroom) (2025).