Guides

These guides describe workflows that are currently present in the repository. They are not a promise of API stability: Witness is pre-1.0, unaudited, and not Byzantine-fault-tolerant. Read the threat model before relying on an attestation for a high-stakes use case.

Start here

• Timestamp a file
• Timestamp a message
• Timestamp a release
• Journalist workflow
• Research priority
• Human-rights records
• Software distribution
• Freebird rate limiting

The documentation home, quick start, and operator documentation provide the broader feature set, local testing, and deployment references.

General caveats

• Submit a SHA-256 hash, not the source content. Hashes can still be guessed for public or low-entropy content.
• A gateway response is not a substitute for local verification. Verify against the correct, independently reviewed network configuration when the trust decision matters.
• Witness does not hide request metadata such as IP address, timing, or proxy logs.
• A pending job is durable work, not a completed signature. Poll until the job is confirmed before treating it as a signed attestation.