InPerson

A key does not know who is holding it. A script left running overnight can issue a thousand records, and nothing on any of them separates that from you sitting at your desk.

InPerson puts one more fact on the record: that a person was at this machine and passed its own check at the moment of signing.

The answer was for this exact record and no other. If any check fails, no record is issued.

It does not establish who the person was; the name is still your declaration. InPerson is not attention.

File a document

A matter goes wrong eighteen months from now. The question is whether you signed off, or whether someone issued it under your login while you were away. The record says a person at that machine passed its check at that second.

On the key alone, the record says a key signed. With InPerson, it says a person at that machine passed its check at that second.

InPerson, when the signature must be a person.

Evidence of your work comes in three strengths. Each receipt identifies the assurance level of the evidence it contains.

1. Declared. A signed statement of how the work was made, over a name.
2. Observed. The creation facts recorded at creation: typed live versus pasted, the moment generated text entered.
3. Present. At the moment of sealing, a named, enrolled person passes a fingerprint or passkey check on their own device, and the seal binds that person, that material and that moment. This is InPerson, and it is the difference between a key and a person.

It does not say the person read the work.

The device’s own check passed. The device does not report which check it was: it can be a fingerprint, a face, or the device’s PIN. The record says so in those words, and the free verifier prints it.

InPerson does not establish who typed every word. It establishes that a named person passed the check on their own device and took responsibility for the record at the moment of sealing.