Draft EIP

A Draft EIP is the first official status of an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) after it has been assigned a number but before it undergoes formal peer review. At this stage, the proposal is a work-in-progress document hosted in the Ethereum EIPs repository, typically in a pull request. The primary goal of the Draft phase is to solicit broad community feedback, identify potential issues, and iterate on the technical specification. Authors use this period to refine their proposal's logic, security considerations, and backward compatibility before seeking advancement. It is the most fluid and collaborative stage in the EIP lifecycle.

The path to becoming a Draft EIP begins when an author submits a properly formatted proposal to the EIP GitHub repository. A champion, often an EIP editor, will assign it a number and move it into the Draft state. Key requirements for a Draft include a clear title, abstract, motivation, and a detailed specification. Crucially, the specification does not need to be final; it is expected to evolve. Community members discuss the draft in the pull request and on Ethereum forums like Ethereum Magicians, providing technical critiques that shape the proposal's future direction.

A Draft EIP remains in this state until the author believes it is ready for the next stage: Review. There is no strict time limit, but prolonged inactivity may lead to the draft being marked as Stagnant. To move forward, the author must request a review by an EIP editor, who will assess if the draft has received sufficient community discussion and addresses all critical feedback. Not all drafts progress; many are abandoned or superseded. This rigorous early-stage filtering ensures that only well-vetted proposals advance toward potentially impacting the Ethereum network through a core EIP or an ERC standard.

A Draft EIP is the initial, pre-standardization stage of an Ethereum Improvement Proposal, where the author formalizes a technical specification or process change for community scrutiny. The process is governed by EIP-1, the meta-EIP that defines all procedures. An author creates a draft by submitting a pull request to the official EIPs repository using a specific template, which includes critical sections like the abstract, motivation, and technical specification. At this stage, the proposal is assigned a number and enters the "Draft" status, indicating it is open for early feedback and iteration but is not yet ready for broader consensus.

The core of the draft phase is collaborative refinement. The EIP editor assigns reviewers, often domain experts, who provide technical feedback on the proposal's clarity, feasibility, and alignment with Ethereum's design philosophy. This iterative process happens publicly on the GitHub pull request, where discussions, commits, and reviews are transparently logged. Key activities include resolving open questions, ensuring the specification is unambiguous, and checking for conflicts with existing standards. A draft only progresses when the author has addressed substantive feedback and the EIP editor is satisfied that the document is structurally and technically sound.

Not all drafts move forward. Some may be abandoned if the author loses interest, if the proposal is superseded, or if fundamental flaws are identified. A successful draft, however, undergoes a final editorial review for formatting, licensing, and compliance with EIP-1 rules. Once it meets all criteria, an EIP editor moves the proposal to "Review" status. This promotion signals that the draft is considered complete and ready for wider community evaluation, often involving core developers and client teams, which is a prerequisite for the subsequent "Last Call" and "Final" stages that lead to network adoption.

The submission of a Draft EIP is the first formal step in the Ethereum governance process for proposing a new feature, standard, or protocol change. A draft is a preliminary version of an EIP that is published to solicit community feedback and begin technical review before it can advance to a more mature state. To submit, an author must first create a well-researched proposal that follows the official EIP-1 specification, which defines the required structure, format, and templates for all EIPs. The core document must include sections for the abstract, motivation, specification, rationale, and backwards compatibility.

Once the draft document is prepared, the author submits it as a Pull Request (PR) to the official EIPs GitHub repository. The PR must target the correct directory—typically /EIPS for core protocol EIPs or /ERCS for application-level standards—and be formatted according to the repository's conventions. Upon submission, the EIP editor team will assign a unique EIP number and the Draft status. The PR then enters a public review phase where community members, including core developers and other stakeholders, can comment, ask questions, and suggest technical improvements.

The author is responsible for actively shepherding their draft through this feedback period, which is critical for identifying flaws and building consensus. Key actions include responding to comments on the GitHub PR, engaging in relevant forums like the Ethereum Magicians, and potentially presenting the proposal at All Core Devs meetings if it concerns the core protocol. A draft remains in this state until the editor, in consultation with the community, determines it is sufficiently polished and has addressed major concerns. Only then can it be merged into the repository and potentially progress to Review, Last Call, or Final status, marking its formal acceptance into the Ethereum standards track.