tutorial.md

Deploy Your First DAO on Stellar with NebGov

In this tutorial, you'll deploy your first NebGov governance instance to the Stellar testnet in under 10 minutes. You'll learn how to set up contracts, initialize a DAO, and execute your first governance proposal.

Prerequisites

• Stellar CLI: Install from https://developers.stellar.org/docs/cli
• Futurenet account with testnet credentials (get free XLM at https://friendbot.stellar.org)
• Node.js 20+ and pnpm 9+ (for SDK interaction)

Step 1: Build Contracts (5 minutes)

Clone and build the NebGov contracts:

git clone https://github.com/nebgov/nebgov.git
cd nebgov

# Install Rust if needed
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

# Install Stellar CLI
cargo install --locked stellar-cli

# Build all contracts to WASM
stellar contract build

Step 2: Deploy Governor Contract (2 minutes)

Set your testnet credentials and deploy:

export STELLAR_NETWORK=futurenet
export SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key-here"

# Deploy governor contract
stellar contract deploy \
  --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/sorogov_governor.wasm \
  --network futurenet \
  --source $SECRET_KEY

# Save the returned contract address
export GOVERNOR_ADDRESS="CAD..." # Copy from output above

Step 3: Initialize Governor

Create init_governor.json:

{
  "proposal_duration": 604800,
  "timelock_delay": 86400,
  "quorum_numerator": 40,
  "quorum_denominator": 100,
  "voting_token": "native",
  "treasury": "CAD..."
}

Initialize via Stellar CLI:

stellar contract invoke \
  --contract-id $GOVERNOR_ADDRESS \
  --network futurenet \
  --source $SECRET_KEY \
  -- initialize \
  --config init_governor.json

Step 4: Deploy Token Votes (1 minute)

Deploy voting power contract:

stellar contract deploy \
  --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/sorogov_token_votes.wasm \
  --network futurenet \
  --source $SECRET_KEY

export VOTES_ADDRESS="CAD..." # Copy from output

Initialize with your token:

stellar contract invoke \
  --contract-id $VOTES_ADDRESS \
  --network futurenet \
  --source $SECRET_KEY \
  -- initialize \
  --token $TOKEN_ADDRESS \
  --governor $GOVERNOR_ADDRESS

Step 5: Create Your First Proposal (1 minute)

Use the TypeScript SDK to create a proposal. First, set up the SDK:

cd sdk
pnpm install
pnpm build

Create deploy.ts:

import { Governor } from "@nebgov/sdk";

const governor = new Governor({
  rpc: "https://soroban-futurenet.stellar.org",
  network: "futurenet",
  contractId: process.env.GOVERNOR_ADDRESS!,
});

const proposal = await governor.propose({
  title: "Mint 1M tokens to treasury",
  description: "Initial funding for governance operations",
  actions: [
    {
      target: process.env.TOKEN_ADDRESS!,
      action: "mint",
      params: { amount: "1000000000000" },
    },
  ],
});

console.log("Proposal created:", proposal.id);

Run it:

export GOVERNOR_ADDRESS="CAD..."
export TOKEN_ADDRESS="CAD..."
npx ts-node deploy.ts

Next Steps

• Vote on proposals: Learn more in Governance Workflow
• Set up local development: See Local Development Guide
• Integrate with your protocol: Check out the SDK documentation
• Review contract architecture: Read Architecture Guide

Troubleshooting

"Contract not found" error: Verify the contract address is correct and deployed to the right network.

"Insufficient balance" error: Fund your account at https://friendbot.stellar.org

"Invalid parameter" error: Check the contract initialization JSON against the contract's expected types in contracts/governor/

For more help, see Troubleshooting Guide.

Congratulations! 🎉

You've deployed your first DAO on Stellar. You can now:

• Create and vote on proposals
• Delegate voting power
• Execute proposals through timelock
• Extend with optional modules (conviction voting, optimistic governance, etc.)

For questions or issues, open a discussion on GitHub.