Proposal: Cantool — Open-Source Canton Developer CLI

CLOSEDPull Request
by ericmann12-03-2026Declined
1.9M CC requested
daml-toolingSecurity/needs review
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Development Fund Proposal Submission

Proposal file: /proposals/cantool.md

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Summary

Cantool is an open-source CLI tool covering the complete Canton application development lifecycle: project scaffolding, DAML package management, integration testing, deployment automation, and an MCP server for AI-assisted development.

Requested funding: 1,875,000 CC (~$300,000 USD) over 12 months across 4 milestones. Scope is complementary to PR #18 (DevKit) and PR #10 (Daml Code Assistant) — see "Relationship to Existing Tooling" in the proposal.

This proposal was updated on March 23 to align more closely with the review and delivery structure visible in the first approved grants, including milestone validation gates, sub-milestone structure, adoption-based acceptance criteria, ecosystem feedback reporting, and an explicit staged-funding option.

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Checklist

  • [x] Proposal file added under /proposals/
  • [x] Milestones and funding amounts defined
  • [x] Acceptance criteria included
  • [x] Alignment with Canton priorities described

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Notes for Reviewers

Updated March 23 with milestone validation gates, sub-milestone structure, adoption-based acceptance criteria, upstream issue reporting, and a staged funding option, informed by the review framework visible in the first two grant awards.

This proposal targets the application-level development lifecycle that sits between DAML authoring tools and LocalNet infrastructure management. The "Relationship to Existing Tooling" section details how Cantool complements PR #18 (DevKit) and PR #10 (Daml Code Assistant). Cantool delegates to DevKit for local environment lifecycle when available.

The proposal now includes external developer validation at each milestone, Developer Experience Reports covering upstream bugs/docs gaps discovered during implementation, and payment-gated milestone summaries for Tech & Ops review.

The author has production Canton experience including Ledger API, PQS, cn-quickstart, Canton Enterprise deployments, DAML contract integration, authentication flows, and internal CLI tooling that directly informs the proposed architecture.