---
title: Document signatures
description: Ask somebody outside the workspace to sign a section of a wiki page — the private link, the blanks they fill in, declining, expiry, and the signed copy both sides keep.
section: Wiki
order: 3
---

# Document signatures

A wiki page can be sent to one named person to sign. They get a private link by
email, read the document in the browser, fill in whatever blanks it asks for,
type their name and sign. They need no Laver account and never see the rest of
your workspace.

Contracts, policies, permission slips, a statement of work at the end of a
brief: anything you would otherwise print, sign, scan and email back.

## Before you start

- You need **edit access to the page**. Whoever is asked to sign a document is a
  decision about the document, so read access is not enough — see
  [Roles and permissions](/docs/workspaces-and-access/roles-and-permissions).
- Signatures are on **both plans**. A workspace that is behind on payment,
  archived or suspended stops answering its signature links until it is put
  right.
- **A private page can be sent for signature.** Publishing a page is a different
  decision with a different switch — see
  [Wiki pages](/docs/wiki/wiki-pages) — and a signature request is a send to one
  address rather than a publication.
- The signature routes take **session tokens only**. An API key gets a `401`, so
  an agent cannot send your documents to anybody.

## Ask somebody to sign

1. Open the page and choose **Get a signature** from the `⋯` menu.
2. Type **their email address**. One address per request; send a second request
   for a second signatory.
3. Choose the **section to sign**. The list is the page's top-level headings as
   they are right now, plus **The end of the document**, which is where a
   whole-page sign-off belongs.
4. Add a **message** if there is something they should know before signing —
   500 characters, optional.
5. **Send request**.

They are emailed a private link. It opens that one page, read-only; the
signature is the only thing they can add.

## The blanks they fill in

A document that needs a company name, a date and a hand-drawn signature at the
bottom used to have those written in afterwards by somebody who was not the
person agreeing to it. Instead, mark the blanks while you write the page. In the
editor, type `/` and choose:

| Command                   | What the signatory gets                        |
| ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| `/signature-input-text`   | One line of text                               |
| `/signature-input-number` | A number                                       |
| `/signature-input`        | A signature they draw with a finger or a mouse |

Give each blank a label — up to 80 characters — so it reads as a question:
_Signed on behalf of_, _Date_, _Job title_.

Only the blanks **inside the section being signed** are asked of that signatory.
A section may carry up to **20** of them, of which **8** may be drawn
signatures; a request that asks for more is refused when you send it, so the
error lands on you rather than on the stranger who has just filled it all in.

Answers are kept with the request, not written into the page, along with the
label each one had at the time. The page goes on being edited afterwards; what
somebody agreed to does not.

### Your own signature, for documents you sign yourself

`/signature` is the other one, and it is unrelated to a request: it draws your
own signature on a pad and keeps it, so signing the next document is a click
rather than a hunt through your downloads folder. Up to **12** saved signatures
per person, reusable in any page, ticket or note, and deletable from the same
menu — deleting one stops it rendering everywhere it was used.

## What the signatory sees

- The title of that one page, its body, the name of the wiki and workspace it is
  in, who asked, what they said, and the images the page draws.
- **Nothing else.** Not the page's comments, its history, its parent, its
  children, its other attachments, and no other page — including other pages
  under signature.
- If the section has been **moved** since the request was sent, they are told so.
  If it has been **deleted**, the signature goes at the end of the document and
  they are told that too. A signature is never quietly slid under a paragraph
  somebody has not read.

They fill in the blanks, type their full name, and press **Sign**. Then they can
**Download a copy (PDF)** — the document they signed, with their answers drawn
into it and a receipt at the top. The link keeps working for them, so reopening
it later shows their own signature rather than a blank page.

## If they say no

The other button is **I am not going to sign this**, with an optional sentence
of up to 500 characters. It is quoted back to you exactly as typed, in the
signature list and in the email that tells you. Nothing is required: a form that
insists on a reason is one people answer by closing the tab.

Somebody who declined and opens the link a week later is shown that they
declined, and what they said.

## The link expires after thirty days

Long enough to survive a holiday, short enough that a forgotten request is not a
permanent door into a document.

- **Three days before it runs out**, the person you asked gets one reminder.
- **When it runs out unanswered**, you get one notice saying so.

Each is sent once. An expired request stays in the list as expired; send a new
one if it still matters.

## Following it up

The same dialog lists everything sent from this page, with its address, the
section and its state — waiting, signed, declined, expired or withdrawn.

- **View document** opens what a signatory actually signed, with their answers
  in place. If the page has been edited since they signed, it says so, on screen
  and in the file.
- **Download** takes that away as a PDF, for filing with the contract.
- **Withdraw** cancels a request nobody has answered yet and its link stops
  working. A signature that has been given cannot be withdrawn — it is the
  workspace's record that somebody agreed to something.

You are emailed when a request is signed, declined or expires, and every request
you send writes `wiki_page.signature_requested` to the workspace audit log with
the address it went to.

## Limits

|                              |                      |
| ---------------------------- | -------------------- |
| Email address                | 320 characters       |
| Message on the request       | 500 characters       |
| Name typed to sign           | 200 characters       |
| Reason for declining         | 500 characters       |
| Blanks in one signed section | 20, of which 8 drawn |
| Label on a blank             | 80 characters        |
| Answer in a text blank       | 500 characters       |
| Unanswered requests per page | 25                   |
| Requests you may send        | 20 an hour           |
| Life of a link               | 30 days              |
| Saved signatures per person  | 12                   |

## What this is not

Laver records who signed, what they signed and when — the same click-through
standard as accepting a
[data processing agreement](https://laver.app/dpa/) online. There is no
identity check on the address the link was sent to, no certificate authority and
no qualified electronic signature. For documents where that is the requirement,
use a product built for it.