Fees & Economics

AURA includes a comprehensive fee system that supports protocol-level revenue, integrator economics, and flexible billing models for treasury operators.

Fee Model Overview

AURA's current on-chain fee path accrues execution fees during finalize_execution when a FeeVault is supplied. Fee schedules also carry creation, subscription, AUM, discount, and integrator fields used by templates and off-chain billing surfaces.

Fees are:

• Prepaid into a FeeVault attached to the treasury
• Accrued into the vault's accumulated_fees_lamports bucket during finalization
• Split according to a FeeSplit table on collection

Fee Vault

Each treasury has an optional FeeVault PDA storing:

import { instructions } from "@aura-protocol/sdk-ts";

await instructions.fees.sendInitFeeVault(client, owner, initFeeVaultInput);
await instructions.fees.sendDepositFees(client, owner, depositFeesInput);

Vault state:

• fee_balance — prepaid lamports available for future fees
• accumulated_fees_lamports — accrued fees not yet collected
• fee_debt_usd — shortfall recorded when low-balance mode is Degrade

Low-balance mode:

• Block rejects finalization when prepaid balance cannot cover the fee
• Degrade accrues the covered portion and records the shortfall in fee_debt_usd
• Warn skips accrual when the vault is short

Fee Schedules

A FeeSchedule sidecar defines per-treasury fee rates:

await instructions.fees.sendInitFeeSchedule(client, owner, initFeeScheduleInput);

Validation:

• Rates must fall within ProtocolConfig bounds (integrator limits)
• Sum of all fees cannot exceed protocol-defined cap

Updates:

await instructions.fees.sendUpdateFeeSchedule(client, owner, updateFeeScheduleInput);

Billing Templates

Pre-defined fee structures that can be applied to multiple treasuries:

await instructions.fees.sendCreateBillingTemplate(client, owner, createTemplateInput);
await instructions.fees.sendApplyBillingTemplate(client, owner, applyTemplateInput);

Built-in profiles:

• Payroll
• TradingDesk
• DaoTreasury
• GrantProgram
• VendorPayments
• ColdStorage
• Specialty

Forking: Templates can be forked from built-in profiles and customized:

await instructions.fees.sendCreateBillingTemplate(client, owner, forkTemplateInput);

Fee Splits & Recipients

Revenue is split across multiple recipients via a FeeSplit table:

await instructions.fees.sendSetFeeSplits(client, owner, setFeeSplitsInput);

Rules:

• bps sum must equal 10,000 (100%)
• Up to 4 recipients
• Split table applies to all fees accrued after it's set

Collection:

await instructions.fees.sendCollectFees(client, collector, collectFeesInput);

Protocol Configuration

The ProtocolConfig singleton governs global fee economics:

await instructions.lifecycle.sendInitProtocolConfig(
  client,
  protocolAuthority,
  initProtocolConfigInput,
);

Staged updates: All economic changes are timelocked via a two-step process:

// 1. Stage change (48h timelock)
await instructions.lifecycle.sendUpdateProtocolConfig(
  client,
  protocolAuthority,
  updateProtocolConfigInput,
);

// 2. Commit after timelock
await instructions.lifecycle.sendCommitProtocolConfig(
  client,
  protocolAuthority,
  commitProtocolConfigInput,
);

Org Profiles

Combine policy templates and billing templates into a single "org profile":

await instructions.fees.sendApplyOrgProfile(client, owner, applyOrgProfileInput);

Profiles are validated atomically — both templates must be compatible and within protocol bounds.

Withdrawing Prepaid Surplus

Treasury owners can withdraw unused prepaid balance:

await instructions.fees.sendWithdrawUnusedFees(client, owner, withdrawInput);

Restrictions:

• Cannot withdraw accrued fees (only prepaid surplus)
• Must preserve rent and any accrued-fee bucket

Use Cases

Protocol operators:

• Set global fee floor to fund development
• Adjust integrator bounds to control ecosystem economics
• Collect protocol revenue periodically

Integrators (wallets, dashboards, APIs):

• Define custom billing tiers for their users
• Earn revenue share on execution fees
• Apply templates across customer treasuries

Treasury owners:

• Prepay fees to avoid per-proposal friction
• Switch between billing tiers as usage scales
• Monitor accumulated_fees_lamports to budget operational costs

Referral programs:

• Add referral address to fee split table
• Referrer earns bps on every execution
• Tracked on-chain with immutable split history

Related Instructions

• init_fee_vault / close_fee_vault — Vault lifecycle
• deposit_fees / withdraw_unused_fees — Prepaid balance
• init_fee_schedule / update_fee_schedule / close_fee_schedule — Per-treasury rates
• create_billing_template / update_billing_template / close_billing_template — Template authoring
• apply_billing_template / apply_org_profile — Apply templates
• set_fee_splits / collect_fees / update_fee_recipient — Revenue collection
• init_protocol_config / update_protocol_config / commit_protocol_config — Protocol governance