Get feedback on a Cardano governance proposal before you submit it

Q: How do I connect my draft to the governance action?

Before you submit, add the link to your draft thread to body.references in the action's metadata document, early in the list. Once the action is on-chain and its metadata document can be read, DRepTalk connects both threads.

A governance action is hard to change once it is on-chain. The metadata is fixed, the deposit (100,000 ada on mainnet) is locked until the action is enacted, expires or is dropped, and DReps can only vote Yes, No or Abstain. The best time to hear what they think is before you submit.

Proposal Drafts is the place for that. You describe the action you plan to submit, DReps and other governance participants reply, and you refine the proposal before it goes on-chain.

Open a draft

Sign in with your governance role. Drafts can be opened by DReps, SPOs, Constitutional Committee members, proposers who have submitted an action before, and co-proposers they have authorized. See Signing in.
Go to Proposal Drafts and start a new thread.
The editor starts with a short outline: summary, action type, requested amount for treasury withdrawals, motivation and planned submission. Fill in what applies and delete the rest.

Drafts are public. Anyone can read them, and anyone with a governance role can reply. Not sure which action type fits? See Governance action types.

What makes a draft useful

Say what you will actually submit. The action type, the amount and the recipient for a treasury withdrawal, the parameter and its new value for a parameter change.
Explain why now. DReps weigh a proposal against the budget, the Constitution and other open actions.
Name a submission date. Replies come faster when people know how long the draft is open for.
Update the opening post as the proposal changes, so a late reader sees the current version first.

Connect the draft to your governance action

When you are ready to submit, add the link to your draft thread to the references of the action’s metadata document. They sit inside body, as CIP-108 describes, next to the title, abstract and rationale:

{
  "body": {
    "title": "...",
    "abstract": "...",
    "references": [
      {
        "@type": "Other",
        "label": "Discussion draft on DRepTalk",
        "uri": "https://dreptalk.com/t/your-draft-thread/"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Put the draft link early in the list. DRepTalk reads up to 20 references per action, so a link further down is not seen.

Your draft shows its exact link with a copy button while you are signed in. Use that link as it is: a draft on the preprod test network has a preprod.dreptalk.com address and connects only to preprod actions.

Once the action is on-chain, DRepTalk opens its governance thread, usually within a few minutes, and connects it to your draft. That needs a metadata document DRepTalk can read and verify. If it cannot be read yet, the thread waits for it. Once connected:

the draft shows Now on-chain with a link to the governance thread,
the governance thread shows Discussed as a draft in its sidebar,
the draft closes for new replies and edits, so it stays a record of what was discussed before submission.

If you submit the same proposal again later, for example after it expired, reference the same draft. Both actions appear on it.

If someone else links your draft

The references are free text, so anyone can put your draft’s link into their own action. As the draft’s author you see Not your action? Unlink next to each connected action. Unlinking detaches that action permanently, and the draft reopens once no connected action remains.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get feedback on a Cardano governance action before I submit it? Yes. Open a thread in Proposal Drafts on DRepTalk and describe what you plan to submit. DReps, SPOs and Constitutional Committee members can reply before anything is on-chain.

Who can open a proposal draft? Anyone signed in with an on-chain governance role: a DRep, an SPO, a Constitutional Committee member, a proposer who has submitted a governance action before, or a co-proposer that proposer has authorized. Everyone can read drafts.

How do I connect my draft to the governance action? Before you submit, add the link to your draft thread to body.references in the action’s metadata document, early in the list. Once the action is on-chain and its metadata document can be read, DRepTalk connects both threads.

What happens to the draft once it is connected? Once DRepTalk connects the action to your draft, the draft closes and points to the governance action’s thread, where the discussion and the vote continue. The draft stays readable as it was.

What if someone else links my draft? As the draft’s author you see an Unlink button next to each connected action. Unlinking detaches that action for good, and the draft reopens once no connected action remains.