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Witness

Getting started

Updated

Prerequisites

Connect the Scalpels team to the GitHub account that should own the deployment. The artisan-build/witness repository is public, so Scalpels can fork it into a different connected account; the Artisan Build account uses its existing repository directly.

Choose the permanent production domain before sending an envelope. A signing link keeps the host that existed when the link was generated, so changing domains later does not rewrite links already in email.

Deploy from Scalpels

Select Witness, review its Experimental status, and deploy. The recipe provisions:

Resource Why Witness needs it
Neon Postgres 18 Stores envelopes, fields, signers, templates, and PostgreSQL audit guards.
Managed queue Builds the completed PDF and delivers completion mail after the last signature.
Private object storage Holds source and completed PDFs away from the public web root.
Scheduler Sends due reminders, expires envelopes, retries deletion, reconciles mail, and recovers completion work.

After deployment, Scalpels runs php artisan migrate --force. There are no catalog environment values to enter. Resource connection values are injected by Laravel Cloud, and Witness uses the Scalpels mailer by default.

Finish setup

  1. Attach the permanent custom domain to the production environment.
  2. Open Witness and sign in through the Built for Cloud console.
  3. Create or select the team that will own envelopes and templates.
  4. Open Setup and send a test message. Resolve mail delivery before inviting a signer.
  5. Send a harmless test PDF to an address you control and complete the entire signing flow.

That final test exercises more than the form: the queue must assemble the completed PDF, object storage must accept it, and completion email must leave successfully.

Know the boundary

Witness proves access to an email inbox, records a verification-code challenge and consent, and preserves a completion record. It does not verify a person's government identity or create an advanced or qualified electronic signature. Decide with appropriate legal advice whether simple electronic signatures fit each document and jurisdiction.