How We Work
How Arrow contributors collaborate — async-first, open source, and community-driven.
Arrow has no hierarchy in the traditional sense. There's no manager telling you what to work on, no approval chain before you can start something. If you see something that needs doing and you think you're the right person to do it, do it.
The flip side is that you need to take initiative, communicate proactively, and hold yourself accountable.
How work gets organized
Work at Arrow is self-directed. Most organized work flows through three channels.
Bounties are funded tasks posted on the DAO Forum. Complete one and have the work accepted, and you receive payment in ARROW tokens or USDC. Good starting point if you want a defined scope before diving in.
Proposals are how contributors bring new ideas to the community. Have an idea - a new feature, a new project, a process change - write it up on the Forum. Significant proposals go through the AIP process and are voted on by token holders.
Self-directed work is anything you take on because you think it matters. Fix a bug. Write a doc. Improve a process. You don't need permission - the expectation is that you communicate what you're doing so the community stays informed.
Where things happen
| Tool | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Discord | Day-to-day chat, questions, coordination, community calls |
| GitHub | Code, hardware designs, issues, pull requests |
| DAO Forum | Governance, grants, bounties, proposals |
| Snapshot | On-chain voting |
Discord is home base - where the community lives, questions get answered, and informal decisions happen. But Discord is ephemeral. Anything important that happens there should be written up somewhere permanent: GitHub, the Forum, or the docs.
GitHub is where the work lives. If you're working on something technical, it should have a corresponding issue or PR.
The DAO Forum is for governance and funded work. Proposals, bounties, and formal decisions all happen there.
Working async
Most contributors work irregular hours across many time zones. Don't expect a 9-5 rhythm - expect bursts of focused work at unpredictable times.
A few things that make this work:
- Write things down. If you made a decision, document it. If you changed direction, explain why. Don't assume a conversation counts if it only happened in Discord.
- Don't block on responses. Ask for what you need, then move on to other work while you wait.
- Give context. When you open a PR or post on the Forum, assume the reader hasn't been following your thought process. Give them enough to understand without asking follow-up questions.
- Set clear handoffs. If you're stepping away from something, say so and make it easy for someone else to pick up.
Community calls happen regularly and are announced in Discord. They're the fastest way to get up to speed, raise something with the group, and meet people you haven't worked with asynchronously yet.
How decisions get made
Day-to-day decisions belong to whoever is doing the work. If you're building something, you make the calls about how to build it.
Significant decisions - new projects, major changes, governance, treasury spending - go through the AIP process. Anyone can submit an AIP. They're discussed on the Forum and voted on by token holders.
Conflicts are handled through the process described in the Code of Conduct.
Staying aligned
The main risk in a permissionless community is people building in different directions without realizing it. A few habits help:
- Say something before you start something significant. Post in Discord or the Forum before investing major effort in something new. Someone may already be working on it, or may have context that changes your approach.
- Share work in progress. Draft PRs, Forum posts, and Discord updates keep the community informed and invite feedback before work is finished.
- Show up consistently. Arrow works better when contributors are engaged over time, not just for a sprint.