1. Notification System Updates

2. New Knowledge Base Content

3. Financial Infrastructure

4. Under the Hood Improvements

5. Upcoming events

This is the big one.

Our notification system was fragmented. Different parts of the app were creating notifications through different code paths, some skipping push delivery entirely, others ignoring your preference settings, others not firing at all. If you ever felt like you were missing activity in your community, you weren't imagining it. The system had gaps, and we've spent this week closing all of them.

Here's what changed:

Unified notification pipeline. Five separate API routes were writing directly to the database, bypassing push notifications and preference checks. We built a shared server-side handler that every notification now flows through . Your preferences are respected and your push notifications actually arrive.

Governance voting reminders. A new automated system checks for proposals approaching their deadlines and sends reminders at 48 hours, 24 hours, 6 hours, and 1 hour before voting closes — but only to members who haven't voted yet. The final two reminders are marked urgent and bypass quiet hours. Every preference window has its own toggle. Your voice in governance shouldn't be lost because you forgot to check the calendar.

Event reminders. Registered attendees now receive reminders at 7 days and day-of before an event. Built-in deduplication ensures you'll never get the same reminder twice.

Marketplace in the Explorer. Marketplace purchases were invisible in the Pulse feed. They now appear with a purple badge, and you can filter to a dedicated Marketplace tab.

Bounty submissions and hat minting in Explorer. When someone submits work on a bounty, it now shows in the Pulse feed under the Bounties tab. And when someone receives a Hats Protocol role token, it appears with an orange badge — making onboarding moments visible to the whole community.

Event notification types corrected. The event dashboard was mislabeling notifications with wrong types, which confused the preference system. All event-related notifications now use the correct event types.

Event registration notifications. Previously, when someone registered for an event, nothing happened — there was a placeholder in the code where the notification should have been. Now both organizers and attendees are notified.

1,312 lines of dead code removed. Three legacy notification service files that were never imported anywhere. Gone.

Push Notifications: When you install the application you are asked if you want to enable 'Push Notifications', we strongly recommend you enable them (if you already said no you can turn them on via your app settings on your device) if you intend to engage with / lead communities within the SpiritDAO ecosystem.

This wasn't a feature addition. It was a foundational rebuild. The notification system is now the connective tissue it was always supposed to be and the platform is meaningfully more alive because of it.

We've added a new set of video guides to the Knowledge Base covering core platform features: Pulse, SensemakerAI, using and adding content to Knowledge Bases, how to donate, and the SpiritDAO donation structure. We also built infrastructure to support video thumbnails so content displays properly in the KB interface.

The Knowledge Base is how communities build shared memory. These videos lower the barrier for new members and give existing members a reference point when they want to go deeper. If you haven't explored the KB yet, now is a good time.

Additionally, Knowledge Bases allow communities and groups to coordinate around collective intelligence, pods can create and upload custom content to the KB that is exclusively accessible by their members.

Several updates this week that strengthen the economic layer of the platform:

Token circulation tracking. We've integrated a total circulation count for both $SYSTEM and $SELF tokens directly into Pulse. Members can now see the live state of the ecosystem's token economy in one place, how much has been minted, how much is moving. This moves helps extend our philosophy of transparency beyond principle into practice.

ACH donation fee fix. ACH donations were incorrectly being charged a credit card processing fee. That's been corrected, ACH donations now carry a significantly lower fee, which means more of your contribution goes directly to the work.

Donation processing reliability. We fixed an issue where donations were being processed successfully but occasionally surfacing an error message to the user. The money was arriving; the confirmation wasn't. Now both work.

Executive Pod minting infrastructure. We've added more robust tooling for Executive Pod members to approve and mint $SYSTEM tokens following donations. Smoother backend, faster processing.

Peer-to-peer transfers in Pulse. Member-to-member transfers and donations now appear in the Pulse feed, making the flow of support within the community visible to everyone.

Login deduplication. We resolved a bug where using two different login methods (direct email vs. Google) could create duplicate accounts. The system now checks both authentication paths against a single existing account.

Sensemaker context upgrade. We've significantly expanded the operational documents that power Sensemaker, our AI knowledge system. It now has a much deeper understanding of SpiritDAO's current infrastructure, offerings, and community context, which means better, more accurate answers when members ask questions.

Most of the work this week is invisible to the casual user. You won't see the unified notification pipeline. You won't see the dead code that's been removed or the corrected event types. What you'll notice is that the platform works the way you'd expect it to, notifications arrive, digests land in your inbox, governance reminders show up before it's too late, and the Pulse feed reflects what's actually happening in your community.

That's the goal. Not features for the sake of features. Infrastructure that earns trust by working quietly and correctly.

Upcoming Events This Week

We strongly recommend registering for events within the SpiritDAO app (Events section) at app.spiritdao.org — it's how we gauge attendance and shape the flow of each session.

Town Hall — Mon, Apr. 27 · 8:00 PM A standing community gathering for conversation, questions, and shared presence. Join here

First Contact — Wed, Apr 29 · 12:00 PM The official starting point for new members — a peer-to-peer orientation into how participation works. Join here

Feedback Loops — Fri, May 1 · 12:00 PM A live working session where the community helps shape the app — bring your bugs, your questions, and your ideas. Join here

The best way to get in touch is within our community: https://app.spiritdao.org
If it's easier, send us an email: community@spiritdao.org

Thank you for reading!
Please share this email with any friends you think might enjoy this newsletter. We are spreading the message one curious person at a time.

Connect with SpiritDAO

🧠 SpiritDAO App
🌐 SpiritDAO.org
▶️ YouTube
🐦 Twitter
TikTok
📜 Docs

SpiritDAO is a registered 501(c)(3) EIN #99-1308806.