Autheo Foundation Grants
The Foundation invites applications from developers, researchers, and teams building open-source tooling, ecosystem infrastructure, and public goods on the Autheo network. Grant funding supports work that strengthens the ecosystem, not commercial roadmap delivery.
Funding the Open Internet's Public Goods
The Autheo Foundation is a board-governed nonprofit. Grants support open-source code, public documentation, research, reference implementations, and ecosystem tooling that any developer can use, fork, or extend.
Applications are reviewed by Foundation staff and program reviewers against published criteria. Approved grants are funded against milestone delivery. The Foundation does not direct commercial product roadmaps and does not delegate governance to grantees, voters, or token holders.
Many active grant categories map to the Foundation's seven-layer agentic-commerce development program and five strategic gaps, but grants are also open to broader open-source work on the Autheo network where the project produces public-good output.
Who Should Apply
- Independent developers building open-source tools on Autheo
- Research teams exploring post-quantum cryptography, identity, or agent infrastructure
- Studios producing reference adapters, SDK examples, or merchant tooling
- Educators and technical writers contributing AI-readable docs and tutorials
- Security researchers producing reproducible disclosures and hardening guides
Seven-Layer Agentic-Commerce Development Program in development
Several grant categories advance components of the Foundation's seven-layer agentic-commerce program. Applicants should indicate which layer their proposal targets. Components shown here are research and reference work; production deployment depends on community implementation and merchant adoption.
Five Gaps the Foundation Wants Closed
The Foundation tracks five strategic gaps where ecosystem investment is most needed. Applicants are asked to map their proposal to one or more gaps, even if the work is broader open-source contribution.
1. Verifiable Agent Identity
Most agents transact without a portable, verifiable identity. The Foundation funds work that gives agents an auditable, user-bound identity layer rooted in TheoID and KYA.
2. Cross-Protocol Routing
Merchants and agents speak different commerce protocols. Reference adapters across ACP, UCP, AP2, and x402 reduce integration cost for both sides.
3. Merchant-Side Tooling
Without low-effort manifest and storefront tooling, agentic commerce stays a research demo. Plug-ins and generators close that gap.
4. Reputation and Mission Compliance
Buyers need a way to see whether an agent is operating within scope and within reputation. Reputation scoring and mission reporting are foundational public goods.
5. AI-Readable Surface Area
Developer docs, schemas, and endpoints need to be legible to LLMs and MCP clients, not only to humans. The Foundation funds the docs and extensions that make this real.
Four Open Prototype Bounties in development
The Foundation is highlighting four prototype grants tied to the agentic-commerce development program. Each bounty page lists summary, deliverables, MVP expectations, out-of-scope items, security and privacy expectations, applicant profile, and review criteria. Apply through the standard grant application form.
KYA Credential Validator
A reference validator for agent, controller, merchant, delegation, and mandate credentials. Checks expiry, revocation, authority scope, spend policy, merchant restrictions, and proof method against TheoID and KYA issuers.
View Bounty DetailsAgent Mission Compliance Report Generator
An exportable mission and transaction report covering identity, mandate, route, settlement, signatures, exceptions, and disputes. Supports procurement audit, dispute response, reconciliation, compliance review, and developer debugging.
View Bounty DetailsProtocol Route Planner
A route planning model that recommends viable agentic-commerce routes from intent, KYA credentials, merchant manifest, payment preference, jurisdiction, risk policy, and settlement preference. Planning only, not execution.
View Bounty DetailsMerchant Manifest Generator
A generator for machine-readable merchant manifests covering identity, canonical URL, catalog endpoints, product formats, checkout, payment routes, shipping, returns, support contact, agent access policy, and last updated timestamp.
View Bounty DetailsGrant Categories
Choose the category that best matches your proposal. Applicants can also propose work that spans multiple categories.
KYA and TheoID Tooling
SDKs, wallets, credential viewers, and verification flows for the KYA and TheoID identity stack.
Protocol Router Adapters
Adapters that bridge agent commerce protocols such as ACP, UCP, AP2, and x402 to Autheo primitives.
Merchant Readiness Tools
Manifest generators, e-commerce plug-ins, and storefront tooling that let merchants expose inventory to agents.
Agent Reputation Management
Reputation scoring, attestation registries, and feedback surfaces for agent behavior.
Agent Mission Compliance Reporting
Tooling that lets agents declare and report scope, policy adherence, and audit trails.
AI-Readable Docs and MCP/WebMCP Extensions
Machine-readable documentation, MCP and WebMCP endpoint extensions, and structured schemas for AI clients.
Post-Quantum Security Experiments
PQC credential signing experiments, hybrid key exchange, and quantum-resilient identity primitives.
Developer Experience and SDK Examples
SDK examples, route visualizers, sandboxes, tutorials, and reference code that lower the bar to building on Autheo.
Starter Ideas the Foundation Would Fund
These are illustrative, not exhaustive. The Foundation welcomes original proposals from applicants who see a sharper version of the problem.
KYA Credential Validator
A reference validator that checks KYA credentials against an issuer registry and produces a machine-readable verification result.
Agent Identity Wallet
An open-source wallet for storing, presenting, and rotating agent-side credentials issued through TheoID.
ACP, UCP, AP2, and x402 Adapter Mocks
Mock servers and adapter shims that let teams test cross-protocol commerce flows without real merchant infrastructure.
Merchant Manifest Generator
A CLI or web tool that produces standards-compliant merchant manifests from existing product catalogs.
Shopify and WooCommerce Manifest Tooling
Plug-ins that expose Shopify and WooCommerce stores to agentic clients with minimal merchant configuration.
Agent Reputation Scoring Prototype
An open scoring model and reference dataset for evaluating agent behavior across transactions.
Agent Mission Compliance Report Generator
A toolkit that produces signed mission compliance reports an agent can share with merchants and end users.
WebMCP and MCP Endpoint Extensions
Schema and reference servers that extend MCP and WebMCP for agent-commerce flows on Autheo.
PQC Credential Signing Experiment
A research-grade implementation of post-quantum credential signing for TheoID, with benchmarks and a write-up.
Developer Sandbox or Route Visualizer
An in-browser sandbox that shows live agent routing and credential exchange across Autheo services.
How Applications Are Reviewed
Applications are reviewed against published criteria by Foundation staff and external program reviewers. The Foundation invites applications and selects work that strengthens the ecosystem. The Foundation does not delegate governance to applicants, grantees, or token holders.
Complete the structured grant application form with project, technical, budget, and milestone detail.
Foundation staff confirm scope fit, completeness, and alignment with grant categories and strategic gaps.
Program reviewers evaluate technical approach, deliverables, public-good output, and security considerations.
Decision communicated to applicant. Approved grants move to a milestone-based funding agreement.
Grantees deliver milestones, publish open-source output, and submit short progress reports.
Ready to Apply?
Start a structured grant application. The form takes 20 to 40 minutes to complete and asks for project, technical, security, and budget detail. Applications are reviewed in rolling cycles.