Here Not There Labs

Here Not There Labs (Here Not There, Inc., operating as hntlabs.com) is the a16z-backed company behind Towns Protocol, an open, decentralized messaging protocol built on Base (an Ethereum L2) that powers ownable, programmable group chat spaces, memberships, direct messages, and decentralized finance. The protocol is delivered to builders as a set of first-party TypeScript packages under the @towns-protocol npm scope (client SDK, React SDK, bot framework, encryption, and generated protobuf bindings), a Connect/gRPC Stream RPC surface defined in public .proto files, a bot/app framework with a webhook-driven event model, and end-to-end message encryption. Spaces, memberships, roles, and entitlements are enforced by on-chain smart contracts, and a network of Stream Nodes run by node operators carries encrypted message streams. This profile was surfaced as an a16z portfolio lead and enriched from the company's public developer surface (docs.towns.com, app.towns.com, the towns-protocol GitHub organization, and npm).

Here Not There Labs publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Messaging, Decentralized, Web3, and Blockchain.

The Here Not There Labs catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification.

Here Not There Labs’ developer surface includes documentation, API reference, getting-started guide, signup flow, CLI, authentication, and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

32.8/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 21/100 agent aware saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

1 APIs

Company Messaging Decentralized Web3 Blockchain Protocol Chat Bots Encryption SDK

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

Composite quality — 32.8/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.4 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 11.3 / 20

Access Clarity 1.6 / 20

Operational Transparency 1.4 / 13

Contract Governance 0.5 / 12

Discoverability 7.6 / 10

Agent readiness — 21/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 6 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Create-or-Update Ergonomics could not be measured. We hold no machine-readable contract for this provider to read, so there is nothing to measure a write surface against. Excluded rather than scored zero: never-measured and measured-empty are different facts. Publishing an OpenAPI is what makes this facet — and several others — scorable at all.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/here-not-there-labs: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 1

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Towns Protocol

Towns Protocol is an open, decentralized messaging protocol built on Base. Builders integrate via first-party TypeScript SDKs, a React SDK of hooks, and a bot/app framework. Und...

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Here Not There Labs Bot Events

ASYNCAPI

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Here Not There Labs Authentication

5 schemes

SECURITY

Here Not There Labs Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal

DeveloperPortal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

SignUp

SignUp

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

AgentSkill

AgentSkill

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Webhooks

Webhooks

Conventions

Conventions

Conformance

Conformance

Build 4

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

Packages

SDKs

CLI

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Compliance

Compliance

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Protobuf

Protobuf

Source (apis.yml)

aid: here-not-there-labs
name: Here Not There Labs
description: Here Not There Labs (Here Not There, Inc., operating as hntlabs.com) is the a16z-backed company behind Towns
  Protocol, an open, decentralized messaging protocol built on Base (an Ethereum L2) that powers ownable, programmable group
  chat spaces, memberships, direct messages, and decentralized finance. The protocol is delivered to builders as a set of
  first-party TypeScript packages under the @towns-protocol npm scope (client SDK, React SDK, bot framework, encryption, and
  generated protobuf bindings), a Connect/gRPC Stream RPC surface defined in public .proto files, a bot/app framework with
  a webhook-driven event model, and end-to-end message encryption. Spaces, memberships, roles, and entitlements are enforced
  by on-chain smart contracts, and a network of Stream Nodes run by node operators carries encrypted message streams. This
  profile was surfaced as an a16z portfolio lead and enriched from the company's public developer surface (docs.towns.com,
  app.towns.com, the towns-protocol GitHub organization, and npm).
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/here-not-there-labs/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://towns.com/ogtowns.jpg
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- a16z
x-tier: profiled
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead-enriched
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-19'
tags:
- Company
- Messaging
- Decentralized
- Web3
- Blockchain
- Protocol
- Chat
- Bots
- Encryption
- SDK
apis:
- name: Towns Protocol
  description: Towns Protocol is an open, decentralized messaging protocol built on Base. Builders integrate via first-party
    TypeScript SDKs, a React SDK of hooks, and a bot/app framework. Under the hood the network exposes a Connect/gRPC Stream
    RPC service (StreamService, AppRegistryService, AuthenticationService) defined in public protobuf files, with end-to-end
    encrypted message streams carried by Stream Nodes and spaces/memberships/entitlements enforced by on-chain smart contracts.
  humanURL: https://docs.towns.com
  baseURL: https://app.towns.com
  tags:
  - Messaging
  - Web3
  - Protocol
  - Bots
  - gRPC
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.towns.com
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.towns.com/build/bots/getting-started
  - type: Protobuf
    url: grpc/here-not-there-labs-protocol.proto
  - type: Protobuf
    url: grpc/here-not-there-labs-apps.proto
  - type: Protobuf
    url: grpc/here-not-there-labs-auth.proto
  - type: Protobuf
    url: grpc/here-not-there-labs-payloads.proto
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/here-not-there-labs-bot-events.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/here-not-there-labs-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/here-not-there-labs-conventions.yml
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/here-not-there-labs-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.towns.com
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://app.towns.com/developer
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.towns.com
- type: APIReference
  url: https://docs.towns.com/build/react-sdk/getting-started
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://docs.towns.com/build/bots/getting-started
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/towns-protocol
- type: SignUp
  url: https://app.towns.com/developer
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/here-not-there-labs-llms.txt
- type: Packages
  url: packages/here-not-there-labs-packages.yml
- type: SDKs
  url: packages/here-not-there-labs-packages.yml
- type: CLI
  url: cli/here-not-there-labs-cli.yml
- type: Protobuf
  url: grpc/here-not-there-labs-protocol.proto
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/here-not-there-labs-bot-events.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/here-not-there-labs-conventions.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/here-not-there-labs-authentication.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/here-not-there-labs-conformance.yml
- type: Compliance
  url: conformance/here-not-there-labs-conformance.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence

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