The FtI file format

profileRequired

Always fti.discovery/0.1-draft for this version. Readers report other versions as unsupported instead of guessing.

canonicalUrlRequired

The https address where this file lives.

publisherRequired

name and official https website of the funder publishing the file, or the team publishing it on the funder's behalf.

revisionRequired

Any text you choose. Change it every time the file changes.

scopeRequired

id, description and completeness (complete, partial or unknown) of what this file lists. A partial list doesn't mean you have nothing else.

reviewOptional

reviewedOn: the date someone actually checked the information. reviewDueOn: when you plan to check again. Leave them out if you don't know.

prioritiesOptional

text and guidanceUrl describing what you want to fund and what you don't. Priorities are never an open call.

entriesRequired

A list of what you fund: opportunities, programmes or references to other pages. It may be empty.

extensionsOptional

Your own extra data, under keys with a dot, such as org.example.notes. Readers keep it but never treat it as an eligibility rule.

Every entry has an entryId that you never reuse for a different call, a kind, and a guidanceUrl pointing to your official page.

opportunity

A call you can apply to. It carries a CommonGrants record: either the record itself, or the https address of one.

programme

A programme described in words, with a title, without claiming there's an open call.

source_reference

A title and a link to your official page, when you can't describe the opportunity in structured form yet.

Intake: can people apply?

Add intake to say plainly whether and how you accept applications. Leaving it out means "unknown", never "open to everyone".

mode

public_application, invitation_only, not_accepting or unknown

cadence

fixed_deadline, rolling or unspecified

statement

One plain sentence, for example the deadline with its time zone.

sourceUrl

The official page that says so.

Two more optional fields: applicationUrl, the real application page (not a contact page), and notes, a list of short explanations, each with a sourceUrl.

An opportunity's commonGrants object has version: "0.5.0" and exactly one of:

• record: a CommonGrants OpportunityBase. It needs an id (a UUID), title, description, status, createdAt and lastModifiedAt. Status is an object such as { "value": "open" }, with the values forecasted, open, closed or custom.
• url: the https address of a CommonGrants record you already publish. Readers treat it as unchecked until they fetch it.

Put amounts, dates, applicant types and funders in the CommonGrants fields, not in a second copy elsewhere in the file. Rolling and invitation-only intake belong in intake, not in the CommonGrants status.

Known issue: CommonGrants 0.5.0 rejects clock times without a time zone, such as 17:00:00. Give an offset, or state the deadline in the intake statement.

A fictional funder with one open call and one invitation-only programme. It passes the schema and FtI's validator.

{
  "profile": "fti.discovery/0.1-draft",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://funder.example.org/fti-manifest.json",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Example Foundation (fictional)",
    "website": "https://funder.example.org/"
  },
  "revision": "2026-11-11.1",
  "scope": {
    "id": "open-source-programmes",
    "description": "Our open-source maintenance programmes",
    "completeness": "complete"
  },
  "review": {
    "reviewedOn": "2026-11-11",
    "reviewDueOn": "2027-02-11"
  },
  "priorities": {
    "text": "We fund maintenance of shared digital infrastructure. We don't fund new startups.",
    "guidanceUrl": "https://funder.example.org/what-we-fund"
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "entryId": "maintenance-2026",
      "kind": "opportunity",
      "guidanceUrl": "https://funder.example.org/maintenance-2026",
      "commonGrants": {
        "version": "0.5.0",
        "record": {
          "id": "6f1d2c0a-3b4e-4c5d-9e8f-0a1b2c3d4e5f",
          "title": "Maintenance grants 2026",
          "description": "Grants for maintainers of widely used open-source tools.",
          "status": {
            "value": "open"
          },
          "createdAt": "2026-11-01T09:00:00Z",
          "lastModifiedAt": "2026-11-11T09:00:00Z",
          "funding": {
            "maxAwardAmount": {
              "amount": "40000.00",
              "currency": "EUR"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "intake": {
        "mode": "public_application",
        "cadence": "fixed_deadline",
        "statement": "Applications close 15 December 2026, 17:00 UTC.",
        "sourceUrl": "https://funder.example.org/maintenance-2026"
      },
      "applicationUrl": "https://funder.example.org/maintenance-2026/apply"
    },
    {
      "entryId": "partnerships",
      "kind": "programme",
      "title": "Strategic partnerships",
      "guidanceUrl": "https://funder.example.org/partnerships",
      "intake": {
        "mode": "invitation_only",
        "cadence": "unspecified",
        "statement": "By invitation only. We don't accept unsolicited proposals.",
        "sourceUrl": "https://funder.example.org/partnerships"
      }
    }
  ]
}

• Missing information is unknown, not permission to apply.
• Funding priorities are not open calls.
• Past awards don't mean applications are open now.
• If your page and your file disagree, readers show the conflict instead of picking the more favourable answer.
• Unknown fields are rejected, except under extensions.

The schema checks the file's shape. Any JSON Schema 2020-12 validator can use it, as long as it can load the CommonGrants schemas it links to. FtI's own validator also checks that entry IDs are unique and that a review is not due before it happened. A validator you can use in the browser is planned. Until then, send us your file and we'll check it.

Send us your file

The spec text, schema and examples are dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. CommonGrants is a separate project; FtI links to its schemas and is not endorsed by it.