Treasury Proposal: Retroactive Funding for JAM Search
Dear Polkadot Community,
We’re excited to submit our proposal for retroactive funding of the JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine—an open-source platform designed to unify and simplify access to JAM-related knowledge scattered across different data sources. With multiple search options, it significantly reduces the time JAM developers spend hunting for information, captures historical context from discussions, and lowers onboarding barriers for the 20+ teams building in the JAM ecosystem.
Full proposal text:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-noNYatvQqAw3w0o2yl0cGLxFlVYQamBLCPUjMsV33c/edit?usp=sharing
General Project Information
Project Category / Type: Software development
Proponent: FluffyLabs.dev
USDC address: 15fGrDWmFoaApnZXEw1Zg45zuCqpkbMS9YPzczeU9dHseUUu
Requested allocation: 25.000 USDC - Income taxable: 19% tax on "virtual currencies" tax in Poland: https://www.podatki.gov.pl/en/your-e-pit/pit-38-for-2022/
Discussion date: 13th July 2025
Onchain publish date: scheduled for 20th July 2025
Previous treasury proposals: none
Context
The JAM ecosystem faces a critical information fragmentation problem. JAM-related content is scattered across multiple platforms: Gray Paper specifications, Matrix chat discussions, documentation websites, and GitHub repositories. Over 20 teams participating in the JAM Prize Contest need efficient access to this distributed knowledge base.
We built the JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine to solve the major pain points we identified while working on JAM projects and participating in community discussions.
Problem
While developing JAM-related projects, we identified the following issues:
- Information fragmentation: Critical content scattered across Gray Paper, Matrix chats, docs, and GitHub
- Search limitations: No unified search across platforms; existing tools don't understand JAM context
- Context discovery: Difficulty finding discussions that led to implementation decisions
- Onboarding barriers: New developers struggle to discover relevant resources efficiently
- Knowledge continuity: Important historical context gets lost in chat logs and archived discussions
Proposal
We propose retroactive funding for the development of the JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine hosted at https://search.fluffylabs.dev with open source code available on GitHub (https://github.com/fluffylabs/jam-search).
Unlike the JAM prize, which focuses on client implementations, no existing funding covers the creation of ecosystem tools like comprehensive search engines.
Discussion about this kind of solution started on #jam:polkadot.io:
Available Solutions
Existing search solutions have significant limitations:
- GitHub Search: Limited to code repositories, doesn't index community discussions
- Matrix Search: Restricted to individual rooms, no cross-room or semantic capabilities
- Documentation Site Search: Each site has separate, limited search functionality
- General Search Engines: Cannot index private Matrix rooms or understand JAM-specific context
The JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine is the first solution providing unified, intelligent search across all JAM content sources.
Features
The JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine features:
- Multi-source search: Unified search across Gray Paper, Matrix chats, Discord channels, JamCha.in documentation, and GitHub
- Advanced search modes: Strict text matching, fuzzy search, and AI-powered semantic search
- Real-time synchronization: Automatic updates from all content sources
- Advanced chats filtering: Filter by source, date ranges, channels, and GP versions
- RESTful API: Integration endpoints for other ecosystem tools
- Responsive interface: React app optimized for desktop and mobile
Deliverables
Web Application: https://search.fluffylabs.dev
Open Source Code:https://github.com/fluffylabs/jam-search
Backend API: RESTful endpoints with comprehensive documentation
Data Pipeline: Automated collection systems for all JAM content sources
Adoption
The search engine is already being used by JAM development teams and has proven effective in reducing time spent searching for technical information across multiple platforms.
Timeline
This proposal seeks retroactive funding for the development of the JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine, which was developed during March-May 2025 based on git commit history:
- March 2025: Initial project setup and foundation
- April 2025: Core development - API, database, frontend, Matrix integration
- May 2025: Advanced features - semantic search, GitHub integration, optimization
- June 2025: Discord integration
Budget
The JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine development is complete, and we are seeking retroactive funding for 250 hours of work, covering full-stack development, AI integration, and deployment.
Budget Breakdown
| Task | Time (Hours) | Rate ($/hour) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Development | API development, database design, Matrix integration, Discord integration, Websites integration, Graypaper indexing | 120 hours | $100 |
| Frontend Development | Design, React app, UI components, search interface | 80 hours | $100 |
| AI Integration | Semantic search with OpenAI embeddings | 30 hours | $100 |
| DevOps & Deployment | Docker setup, database optimization, production deployment | 15 hours | $100 |
| Project Management | Planning, QA, documentation, coordination | 5 hours | $100 |
Total Budget:
Developer Hours: 245 hours × $100/hour = $24,500
Project Management Hours: 5 hours × $100/hour = $500
Total: $25,000
This budget reflects the full scope of work required to develop and deliver the open-source JAM Knowledge Base Search Engine.
Infrastructure cost
- Server - 7 USD per month
- Database - 19 USD per month
Total - 26 USD per month. The infrastructure cost is covered until July 2026
Proponent
USDT Address: 15fGrDWmFoaApnZXEw1Zg45zuCqpkbMS9YPzczeU9dHseUUu
Requested Allocation: 25.000 USDC
Governance Referenda Origin Call: Small spender
Contact Information
Team Member: Krystian Fras
Email: krystianfras95@gmail.com
Matrix: @krystian50:matrix.org
GitHub: https://github.com/krystian50
Team
The JAM Search was built by the FluffyLabs team, a group involved in the development of decentralized tools for the Polkadot ecosystem:
- Krystian Fras
Krystian led the complete development of the application, from initial concept through production deployment. He’s a PBA Alumni (certificate) and developer of the PVM Debugger (treasury proposal).
- Piotr Wojciechowski
Piotr was responsible for search engine implementation, data mapping and AI capabilities. He took a part in both frontend and backend development.
- Marcin Raczyński
Marcin designed the application and was responsible from maintaining a proper UX through the whole implementation process.
- Tomasz Drwięga
Tomasz was a core developer at Parity Technologies, where he worked on various core parts of Substrate. Now, as founder of Fluffy Labs contributing to Polkadot Ecosystem, including leadership of the JAM implementation. Tomasz brought the initial search application idea and guided through the process to achieve a valuable application.
Comments (2)
Hello team,
It looks like this JAM search engine does not include the official JAM Prize website and the JAM milestone delivery repo as sources.
Could you please add these in your feed? Both contain important info on the key stages of the competition that implementers need to reference while working on their codebases.
Thanks!
The tool you're looking for is called Notion, you don't need $25k to reinvent the wheel. Learn to use Notion.
The W3F should be funding your Notion subscriptions, not Polkadot treasury.
Many of the JAM implementer want to launch their own token which will compete with DOT, so why on earth should Polkadot Treasury pay for anything like this?
The W3F should be on top of this issue and it's a testament to their incompetence that they would launch a JAM prize pool like this and not provide a basic collaboration platform, like a Notion workspace.
No thanks.