Skip to content
Proof of ThoughtBuild

How Proof works

View .md

Proof records how a document was written: who typed which words, what agents wrote, what was pasted, and whether a person was there. To do that it needs to be the one watching the writing. So the editor is Proof’s own, served from Proof’s domain and embedded in your page. Everything around it stays yours: accounts, sign-in, document lists, sharing screens and notifications.

Your server calls Proof's REST API with a secret key; your page hosts the Proof editor, which talks to Proof directly; Proof sends webhooks to your server; agents connect to Proof's MCP server.Your productProofYour serverAccounts, permissions, the secret keyYour pageProof editorAn iframe on Proof's own domainYour users' agentsClaude Code, Codex, any MCP clientREST APIapi.proof.exalto.aiEditor and recordEvery change as it happens,who made it, check-insMCP servermcp.proof.exalto.ai/acmeSeal pagesproof.exalto.ai, open to anyone12345

The five connections

Section titled “The five connections”
  1. Your server calls the REST API with your secret key. It tells Proof who your users are, creates documents, sets who may open them, starts editor sessions, approves agents and seals documents. See the REST API reference.
  2. Your page mounts the editor with the embed script. You pass a short-lived session token and a few options, and you hear events back: the title changed, someone followed a link to another document, a seal was made. See the Embed API.
  3. The editor talks to Proof directly. Every change goes from Proof’s code, on Proof’s domain, to Proof’s servers. Your page can’t see inside the iframe or type into it, and that is what lets a seal say where words came from. See the trust model.
  4. Proof sends webhooks to your server when something happens that your users should hear about: a comment, a reply, a mention, a new seal, an agent connected. You turn them into your own notifications. See Webhook events.
  5. Your users’ agents connect to Proof’s MCP server at your platform’s own address. When someone connects one, Proof sends them to your consent page to approve it, then issues the agent’s tokens itself. See Connect agents.

Who owns what

Section titled “Who owns what”
Proof Your product
Accounts and sign-in No accounts; a Proof id for each of your users Yours
Names and pictures Shown in the editor and on seals You send them, and vouch for them
Who may open a document Stored and enforced You decide, and set it through the API
Document text and its history Stored Read it through the API or exports
Where each word came from Recorded and classified Read it through the API
Check-ins and security keys Stored, on Proof’s domain You open the settings window
Seals and seal pages Made and served You trigger them or hear about them
Agent connections and tokens Issued and enforced You approve, list and revoke them
Document lists, folders, pins A user’s documents, by id Your screens, your folders
Notifications and email Webhooks Yours to send

From sign-in to seal

Section titled “From sign-in to seal”

  1. Ada signs in to Acme Notes, your product, as usual.

  2. Ada opens a document. Your server checks that Ada may, asks Proof for an editor session for Ada and that document, and sends the token to the page.

  3. The page mounts the editor with the token, and Ada writes. Grace, who Ada shared the document with, suggests changes in a session of Grace’s own. Ada’s Claude Code, connected to Acme Notes last week, drafts a section through MCP, credited to “Claude Code (Ada Lovelace’s agent)”.

  4. If Ada turned on check-ins, the editor asks now and then for a tap of Ada’s security key. Each tap is recorded with the writing around it.

  5. Ada seals the document, from the editor’s Seal button or from a button in your product that calls the API. Proof takes a snapshot of the text and its record and gives it a short address, like proof.exalto.ai/AH271NSHS.

  6. Your server hears seal.created. Ada pastes the essay and its seal line wherever it is going. Anyone who opens the link sees the seal, where the words came from, and that Acme Notes vouches for who Ada is.

What Proof doesn’t do

Section titled “What Proof doesn’t do”
  • Sign anyone in. Proof never sees a password or an email address unless you send one as a user’s detail line.
  • Send email. Every notification goes to you as a webhook.
  • Show lists of documents. Your product decides how documents are found, filed and ordered. Proof can list a user’s documents for you, but the screens are yours.
  • Decide who may open what. Your sharing screens make that choice. Proof stores the result and enforces it, for people and agents alike.

Proof of Thought, at app.proof.exalto.ai, is built on this same API. Its accounts, sidebar, folders and email are its own, and its editor is the one you embed.