> 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/intents.md).

# Intents

An **intent** is a signed, published statement of what a participant wants to do in a market — the terms they are looking for, ahead of any financing request. Intents let originators, depositors and borrowers signal interest and find a counterparty before anything is committed on-chain. If your address is on a market's viewers list, intents show you the deals that market is lining up before you commit capital.

Intents are available in the app under **Intents**.

> Not to be confused with [**Intents & Liquidity**](/intents-and-liquidity.md), which covers how your pool's capital is matched against a draw-down once a financing exists. This page is about publishing and discovering intents in the first place.

***

### What an intent contains

Each intent has two parts:

* A **public summary** — visible to anyone browsing the market, so the intent can be discovered.
* A **private detail document** — the full terms, readable only by addresses permitted to view it.

The document is stored in content-addressed storage and its hash is recorded on-chain, so an intent cannot be altered after publication without the change being visible.

***

### Who can do what

| Action                  | Who                                         |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| Publish an intent       | Addresses on the market’s **creators** list |
| View the public summary | Anyone                                      |
| View the private detail | Addresses on the market’s **viewers** list  |

Both lists are held on-chain and controlled by the market. If your address is not on the creators list, the publish action is unavailable; if it is not on the viewers list, you see the summary but not the detail.

***

### Publishing an intent

1. Open **Intents** and choose **Create Intent**.
2. Fill in the intent — the public summary and the private detail.
3. **Sign** with your wallet. The signature authorizes publication and binds the intent to your address.
4. The detail is encrypted for the market’s viewers list, the document is stored, and its hash is written on-chain.

Once published, an intent is visible in the market’s intent list. Discovery is the point: a counterparty who can read the detail can act on it, typically by opening a [financing request](/financing-request-lifecycle.md).

***

### Relationship to financing

An intent is **not** a commitment and moves no money. Nothing is borrowed, supplied or approved by publishing one. It is a discovery step that sits before the [request → approve → draw down → repay](/financing-request-lifecycle.md) lifecycle, which remains the only path by which capital actually moves.