Jambhala Suite: Haskell Dev Nirvana

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Ian Burzynski

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Individual

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

57000

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

9

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Jambhala frameworks offer end-to-end solutions for developers of all skill levels, guiding through Haskell/Cardano fundamentals, Plutus scripting/testing, and prod-ready Plutarch development.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

All components of the project are released under an MIT License strictly for the benefit of the Cardano community, and no aspect of the project will be commercialized.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Support for a diverse range of languages and approaches is healthy for the growth of the Cardano community; nevertheless, Haskell is the mother-tongue of Cardano and PlutusTx its foundational scripting language. The long-term success of Cardano requires skilled Haskell programmers equipped not only to produce optimized contracts but also make open-source contributions to the protocol and third-party projects written in Haskell.

Cardano's commitment to rigorous functional programming principles and avoidance of a "success at all costs" mentality are unique strengths that are vital to its success, and should continue to be preserved moving forward. However, these objectives continue to be obstructed by the challenging user experience of the Haskell/Nix-based Cardano toolchain, combined with the prevalence of tribal knowledge and fragmented, outdated documentation over clear, unified and up-to-date learning materials.

This proposal holds that the benefits of pure functional technologies like Haskell and Nix should be made accessible to a wider base of developers, rather than relegating them to power users and steering new entrants to more mainstream replacements. If not, we risk contributing to a widening knowledge gap that threatens continued innovation and development in the ecosystem writ large.

Jambhala responds to this challenge with a full-featured environment for learning and developing on Cardano in Haskell, emphasizing opinionation, automation and abstraction to ease user burden. The project's mission is two-fold:

• Provide a unified framework for experienced developers to develop Cardano projects without struggling with arcane tooling
• Provide a single-track learning journey that allows even those with little or no prior programming knowledge to progress toward mastery of Cardano at their own pace

Jambhala works on all Unix-like systems, leveraging the power of Nix while reducing its complexity through automation.

A fully usable Jambhala MVP is already available and has been received enthusiastically by the EMURGO Academy community, where it has been used successfully to teach several cohorts of EMURGO Academy's Cardano Developer Professional Program, and has incorporated many improvements based on student feedback and contributions.

Jambhala's core features, implemented over a period of 9 months, include the following:

• Complete auto-loading reproducible developer environment, using Direnv to automate configuration and manage environment variables
• Large menu of concise "j commands" for common developer tasks (implemented as "recipes" using Just)
• Bundled "Cardano-EZ-Installer" utility streamlines installation and configuration of cardano-node, cardano-cli, and Ogmios into a single step process via Nix, which can be easily upgraded
• Integrated, preconfigured instance of VS Codium allows users to begin coding immediately with full IDE support (syntax highlighting, linting, code suggestions, auto-formatting)
• Hoogle server provides easy search and documentation
• Custom Prelude and 'Jambhala.Plutus' module harmonizes Plutus and Haskell functions without name clashes, removing need for complex imports
• Robust Utils module and Haskell CLI simplify exporting Plutus scripts and related data, generating script addresses, testing contracts and more
• Custom emulator provides easy unit-testing with minimal boilerplate, hiding the complexity of the plutus-apps emulator beneath intuitive abstractions
• "Cardano CLI Guru" submodule provides a wealth of shell scripts to simplify usage of cardano-cli for learning and testing, plus 8 guided tutorials
• 12 sample contracts demonstrate Plutus fundamentals and advanced uses/design patterns
• "Jambhalucid" submodule (work-in-progress) demonstrates a comprehensive front-end UI built with Next.js and Lucid for interacting with sample contracts
• "Haskell Dojo" curriculum (used in EMURGO Academy's free Haskell MOOC) can be integrated as an add-on for learning Haskell concurrently with Cardano/Plutus

Funds requested will be used to advance the core project toward a stable 1.0 release accompanied by a professional website and support community, as well as the following:

• Developing "Jambhalarch": an advanced variant of Jambhala for Plutarch contracts featuring an industry-standard approach to unit testing. After familiarizing themselves with the framework and mastering fundamentals of Haskell, Cardano and Plutus, users can smoothly "graduate" to this more advanced framework to develop industry-standard contracts
• Developing "Jambhala Lite": a lightweight successor to Jambhala decoupled from plutus-apps, replacing the current emulator with an industry-standard utility for unit testing

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

The project will bring value to the Cardano community by increasing the talent pool of developers programming in Haskell, PlutusTx and Plutarch, and providing existing developers a unified framework for pain-free development in these technologies. More broadly, it will contribute to maintaining a presence of Cardano's core technologies within the wider developer community beyond the protocol level.

Project impact will be measured with the following:

• Github metrics (stars, follows, forks)
• Website traffic
• Discord server membership/participation
• Webinar attendance

I will share outputs and opportunities by soliciting testimonials from users of Jambhala and its companion projects, showcasing how the technology has contributed to positive outcomes in their learning and career journeys. Testimonials will be presented on the Jambhala website, and user stories will also be incorporated in a community webinar at project completion.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

As lead developer, my capabilities include:

• 2+ years of Haskell development experience and involvement in Cardano community
• 1.5+ years teaching Haskell professionally
• 6+ months teaching Cardano and Plutus professionally
• 10+ years experience in web development
• Strong proficiency with Nix, Typescript, HTML/CSS, Python, Bash
• 10+ years experience in financial management and bookkeeping for charities and small businesses

My unique, user-centered approach to development comes from my own journey as a self-taught functional programmer and web developer, my experience as an instructor and developer at EMURGO Academy, and my participation in ongoing dialogue with a diverse community of new developers about their needs and challenges.

I deferred seeking Catalyst funding in Fund 10, so as to first present a high quality MVP and solicit sufficient user feedback. Given Jambhala's already successful MVP and its highly modularized architecture (which includes multiple reusable components structured as Git submodules), I can provide high assurance of feasibility within the proposed timeline. The project's approach allows easy iteration on its base design to swiftly implement variations like Jambhalarch and Jambhala Lite without requiring extensive reimplementation of core features.

My position as a prominent faculty member of EMURGO Academy and my reputation and goodwill within the Academy community will ensure a high level of accountability. I will also draw on my extensive non-developer experience in the NGO sector to provide a thorough project report, including a transparent, itemized financial statement detailing the project's use of funds.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

The project's first milestone prepares the core Jambhala project for full public (v1.0) release, and will include the following:

• Complete Jambhalucid UI for all sample contracts
• Complete markdown walkthroughs for all sample contracts (on-chain and off-chain code, transaction building with cardano-cli)
• Launch official Jambhala website with onboarding guide and documentation (development will continue into subsequent phases as needed)
• Launch Discord server to provide a central location for technical support and knowledge-sharing

Outputs for this milestone will support the success of subsequent phases: Jambhalucid will serve as a submodule in all frameworks; contract walkthroughs will be reused/repurposed in Jambhalarch/Jambhala Lite; website and Discord will be used to promote and onboard users to all subsequent products.

During this phase, solutions will also be explored to permit the export of parameterized scripts without applied arguments (to allow dynamic application with Lucid).

The second milestone will center on a new "Jambhalarch" framework (Plutarch variant of Jambhala). It will coincide with a release of an MVP with comparable user experience to Jambhala. Compatible modules from Jambhala will be reused, with the addition of:

• Plutarch versions of all Jambhala sample contracts (including markdown walkthroughs), allowing Jambhala users to smoothly transition to advanced Plutarch development
• A lightweight unit-testing component (built with Tasty, with base unit-testing library to be determined: i.e. plutarch-unit, plutus-simple-model, etc.), and abstraction layer/utility functions for reducing test boilerplate, with accompanying instructional materials
• Bespoke Nix tooling (using Liqwid Labs' Nix tooling as foundation but tailored to the project's specific needs)

Following this milestone, the integration of Jambhalarch as a learning technology for EMURGO Academy's Cardano Solutions Architect course will be explored (as Jambhala has been used in the Cardano Developer Professional course). This would simplify the transition for EMURGO learners from PlutusTx to Plutarch, and provide an initial user base for feedback and open source contributions.

Utilizing lessons learned during the Jambhalarch development phase, the third and final milestone will center on the production of "Jambhala Lite" and closure of project deliverables.

Jambhala Lite will preserve core components of Jambhala but decouple the framework from plutus-apps to minimize its dependency footprint and bring the project up to date with more recent versions of GHC and core Cardano libraries.

To achieve this the Jambhala emulator will be replaced with a new unit-testing utility based on the one developed in Phase 2 for Jambhalarch. Custom Nix tooling developed during Phase 2 will also replace the Haskell.nix/cabal.project-based setup currently employed by Jambhala.

Jambhala Lite may eventually supplant the original Jambhala framework as a 2.0 release (depending on parity of features and UX) or else be maintained in parallel as a lightweight alternative.

The project's final milestone will also include the following deliverables:

• Full completion of Jambhala website and documentation
• A 90 minute community webinar presenting all completed frameworks, including live demonstration and user stories
• A professional video showcasing project outputs
• Concluding report

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project lead/lead developer: Ian Burzynski, Haskell/Plutus developer and instructor (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-burzynski)

Designer/video producer: Salam Qumsiyeh, professional photographer, designer, video editor and producer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/salam-qumsiyeh)

If an additional developer is contracted, they will be selected from certified EMURGO Academy learners demonstrating aptitude with some combination of the following:

• intermediate Haskell proficiency
• experience with PlutusTx (ideally Plutarch)
• basic Nix proficiency (including flakes)
• Unix commands, shell scripting, basic Python scripting
• Typescript, React/Next.js and Lucid

Academy learners will be preferenced as they are most representative of the project's target user base, have familiarity with Jambhala from their coursework, and have firsthand insight into the challenges faced by Cardano newcomers.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 1: Jambhala 1.0

• Developer compensation (3 months): 16500 ADA
• Domain registration and web hosting: 150 ADA
• Graphic design: 250 ADA
• Community management (~2 hrs/week): 1500 ADA

Milestone 2: Jambhalarch MVP

• Developer compensation (3 months): 16500 ADA
• Graphic design: 250 ADA
• Community management (~2 hrs/week): 1500 ADA

Final Milestone: Jambhala Lite MVP & Presentation

• Developer compensation (3 months): 15600 ADA
• Video production and editing: 1500 ADA
• Graphic design: 250 ADA
• Community management (~2 hrs/week + webinar): 3000 ADA

As well as development of milestone-specific outputs, compensated developer time during all three phases will cover routine maintenance, improvements and bug fixes.

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

While difficult to quantify precisely, the project should provide significant economic value to the Cardano ecosystem relative to the investment, by increasing the number of proficient Haskell developers building Cardano projects and accelerating the process of developers attaining productivity.

The proposed budget includes fair compensation for me (a self-employed individual living in the United States) to focus on development of the project on a part-time basis. If additional developer support is required to meet the project milestones, another developer will be contracted on a part-time basis and compensated based on a fair wage in their country of residence. Graphic and video production work will be contracted to my wife Salam and compensated at a fair market rate for the USA.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept