> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.arenas.fi/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.arenas.fi/atomica/intents-and-liquidity.md).

# Intents & Liquidity

When a borrower draws down an approved financing, the money doesn’t come from a single undifferentiated pool balance — it comes from **intents**. An intent is a standing offer of liquidity from a pool at a specific rate. This page explains how intents fill a draw-down.

***

### What an intent is

An **intent** is a pool’s commitment to lend:

| Property             | Meaning                                             |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Source pool**      | The financing adapter (pool) providing the capital. |
| **Available amount** | How much of the intent is still unfilled.           |
| **Rate**             | The rate at which this capital is offered.          |
| **Validity window**  | The time range during which the intent can be used. |

A single market can have **many intents** at different rates, from one or several pools.

***

### Cheapest-first filling

When a borrower draws down, Atomica fills the requested amount from intents **sorted by rate, ascending** — the cheapest capital is used first, then the next cheapest, and so on until the draw-down amount is covered:

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    R[Draw-down: need 100k] --> S{Sort intents by rate}
    S --> I1[Intent A · 6% · 40k]
    S --> I2[Intent B · 8% · 40k]
    S --> I3[Intent C · 11% · 50k]
    I1 --> F[Fill 40k @6%]
    I2 --> F2[Fill 40k @8%]
    I3 --> F3[Fill 20k @11%]
```

* Each intent fills to capacity before the next is used.
* Filling stops once the draw-down amount is reached — leftover intents stay available for others.
* The borrower’s effective rate is the **blended** rate of the intents that filled the loan.

***

### Automatic selection

In the standard borrower flow, **intent selection is automatic**. The app picks the optimal set of intents and packs them into the draw-down transaction; the borrower simply confirms. A read-only preview may show the selected capacity, the number of intents used, and the resulting rate. Manual intent picking exists only as an advanced option.

***

### Guardrails

Because intents are priced offers with limited capacity, a draw-down respects the request’s terms:

| Guardrail          | Effect                                                                                                                                                          |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Rate ceiling**   | For interest-accrual requests, intents priced above the borrower’s ceiling are not used (and if that’s all there is, the draw-down fails with *rate exceeded*). |
| **Minimum amount** | If the achievable fill is below the request’s `minAmount`, the draw-down is rejected rather than partially settled.                                             |
| **Capacity**       | If total usable intent capacity is short, the draw-down either partially fills or fails with *lack of capacity*.                                                |
| **Validity**       | Expired or not-yet-valid intents are skipped.                                                                                                                   |

Because on-chain intent capacity can be consumed by other borrowers between approval and draw-down, the final fill is only known once the transaction settles — see [Financing Request Lifecycle](/atomica/financing-request-lifecycle.md).

***

### Where intents come from

Intents are created on the **liquidity side** of a market. LPs [supply](/atomica/financing-markets/supply.md) capital into a pool, and the pool (arranged by a **Curator**) makes that capital available as intents. This is how Arenas connects **passive LP deposits** to **program-specific borrower demand** without either side pricing the other manually.