Developer communities

Gate and reward developers with GitHub commit count, account age and stars, contract deployments, and hackathon or grant allowlists and forms, with Discord channels and Telegram groups.

To gate or reward a developer community with Guild, make roles whose requirements check what builders have done: GitHub requirements for commit history, account age or starring your repository, an Onchain activity requirement for wallets that deployed contracts, and allowlists, POAPs, attestations or forms for hackathon and grant participants. Each role unlocks a Discord role for your developer channels, a private Telegram group, a gated page or points. Members connect their GitHub account and wallets to Guild, and Guild keeps access in step with the requirements.

For setup steps, see Token-gate a Discord server, Token-gate a Telegram group and Manage an allowlist.

What Guild can check about developers

GitHub, from the member's connected GitHub account. See GitHub requirements.

  • Commit count: how many commits the account has authored, as GitHub's commit search finds them. That is mostly public work; private repositories usually don't count. It counts across GitHub, not in one repository.
  • Account age: the Registration Date before or after a date you pick. Useful against new throwaway accounts.
  • Star a repository: the member starred the exact repository you pasted. Stars on a fork don't count.

Guild doesn't check pull requests, issues, organization membership, the number of repositories or contributions to a specific repository.

Onchain, from the member's connected wallets. See Wallet activity.

  • Onchain activity with Contract deployment: how many contracts a wallet deployed on a chain, in a fixed date range or a Relative period such as the last 90 days. The deployer wallet must be connected to the member's Guild account.
  • Onchain activity with Contract call: how often a wallet called a method of your contract, such as your registry.
  • Contract query: any read function of your contract called with the member's address, such as isRegistered(address). See Contract query.

Wallet activity works on fewer chains than token balances; the form offers only the ones it supports. See Supported chains.

Other signals: Verify an email with domain for a company or university domain, Attend POAP event for meetups and hackathons, and Be attested by for EAS attestations your program issues.

Hackathon and grant participants

  • Allowlist: upload the registration list as wallet or email addresses, one per line. Add late registrations with Add new addresses or IDs. Free on every plan.
  • POAP or attestation: if the event gave out a POAP or your program attests winners on EAS, require that instead of keeping a list.
  • Applications: a public role unlocks an application form with Automatic approval off, and a "Grantee" role requires Submitted a form for it. Only approved submissions count. Forms are on the Pro plan and above. See Forms.
  • Limited seats: under How many get it, Only the first members closes a role once it is full, for example the first 200 builders.

Where developers get access

  • Discord: a Discord role per developer role, used to open your developer channels. Leave Keep role once earned off for access roles, and switch it on for achievements such as "Hackathon winner". See Discord roles.
  • Telegram: a private Telegram group for builders or grantees. Guild's bot lets qualified members in and removes those who lose the role. Keep the group private, so the link alone doesn't let anyone in.
  • Gated pages: a page set to Role holders under Who can see it, as announcements for grantees or a chat for builders.
  • Secrets: a link or code everyone with the role sees, such as a submission form or a credits code shared by all. A secret shows the same text to everyone, so it can't hand out unique API keys.
  • NFT credentials: an NFT reward set to Non-transferable as a badge for finishing a hackathon. It stays in the member's wallet.
  • Points: points for starring the repository or shipping, with a leaderboard. See Points and leaderboards.

Example: a protocol's developer community

Builder

  • Who gets it: two groups, with Any one of them enough. The first is GitHub Commit count at least 50 and Account age registered before 1 January 2025, both required. The second is Onchain activity, Contract deployment on Base, at least 1.
  • Unlocks: a "Builder" Discord role for your #dev channels and a private "Builders" Telegram group.

Hackathon 2026

  • Who gets it: Allowlist with the wallets and email addresses from registration.
  • Unlocks: a "Hacker" Discord role, a Secret with the submission link, and a non-transferable NFT badge.

Grantee

  • Who gets it: Submitted a form, your grant application, approved by hand.
  • Unlocks: a "Grantees" announcements page and a grantee Telegram group.

When the built-in checks aren't enough

If you track contributions yourself, for example merged pull requests per wallet, a Custom API call requirement asks your own API about each connected wallet and checks a field in the answer. It is on the Pro plan and above, and the request should be treated as public. See Custom API call.

FAQ

Can Guild check contributions to my repository?

Not directly. Commit count counts commits across GitHub, and Star a repository checks a star. For contributions to one repository, use an allowlist of contributors or a Custom API call to your own data.

Can I give each developer their own API key?

Not with a secret, which shows the same text to every role holder. Hand out unique keys another way, for example to members you export from Members.

How do I keep bot accounts out of a developer role?

Require a GitHub Account age and a minimum Commit count, or an old wallet. A GitHub account can be linked to only one Guild account at a time. See Keep bots and sybils out.

What needs a paid plan?

GitHub, onchain, allowlist, POAP, attestation and email requirements, Discord and Telegram rewards, secrets, NFTs and points work on the free plan. Forms, Submitted a form and Custom API call need Pro or above. See Plans.

All Guild docs