Every signed document, sealed and findable.
One archive for everything you've completed — each document keeping its certification signature, SHA-256 fingerprint and OpenTimestamps anchor for as long as it exists. Search by party, date or type. Find the clause with AI help. Leave with everything, whenever you choose.
Completed documents stay verifiable at /verify — free, for anyone.
Every result keeps its fingerprint and timestamp — verify any of them at /verify.
Kept forever. Found in seconds.
Most document archives store files. Shelves stores documents whose integrity can be checked by anyone, years later — and makes them as easy to find as they are hard to tamper with.
Proofs, permanent
The seals don't expire when the subscription does.
Every completed document keeps its certification signature, its SHA-256 fingerprint and its OpenTimestamps anchor — and stays freely verifiable at /verify by anyone, with or without a KuduDoc account. That's true whatever plan you're on, then or later.
A fourth layer is coming: an RFC-3161 trusted timestamp* alongside the existing proofs. It's plumbed and configurable today — honest wording: not yet pointed at a paid timestamp authority.
Verify a document nowAI clause search*
Find the clause, not just the file.
Ask your own archive a plain question — "find the indemnity clause across every signed lease" — and Shelves points you at the clause, in the document, with the passage highlighted. Coming to Business and Enterprise plans, and honestly scoped: the AI helps you find; the sealed documents and their proofs are what you rely on.
More on document intelligenceRetention & export
Your documents leave with you.
Export everything, any time: the signed PDFs, the audit trails, the .ots timestamp proofs. There's no lock-in to engineer around — the proofs were designed to be checked without KuduDoc, so your archive is portable by construction. Keep documents as long as your compliance rules require, and take the lot with you whenever you choose.
What each plan includes* On our roadmap — in build, not live yet.
1
archive for every completed document — searchable by party, date and type
3 proofs
kept on every document, forever — certification, fingerprint, timestamp
R0
to verify — anyone can check any document at /verify, no account needed
SHA-256
the fingerprint each document keeps — independently recheckable, always
Paper when it must be. Proof either way.
Some documents the law still wants in ink — ECT Act Schedule 2 keeps wills, certain property transfers and long leases on paper — and some counterparties simply insist. Shelves doesn't pretend otherwise. It gives the paper path the same proofs as everything else.
Scan & Seal · wet-ink routing*
Sign it in ink. Seal the scan. Everyone holds the same copy.
A physical-signature envelope type: KuduDoc prints the pack, everyone signs on paper, and the scan comes back in. KuduDoc then seals that scan — certification signature, SHA-256 fingerprint, OpenTimestamps anchor — and every party receives the same sealed copy, free for anyone to check at /verify. With mutual confirmation* switched on, each party first taps "this matches what I signed" on the scanned copy, so the seal records multi-party acknowledgment, not just an upload.
And the honest part, up front: the seal proves the scan — that this exact copy existed at this moment and hasn't changed a byte since, and that everyone holds the same one. It does not authenticate the ink.
See how a sealed copy is checked unchanged since sealingSeal any document*
No signing flow required.
Some documents just need to survive: a marriage certificate, a degree, a paid-up letter. Drop them into Shelves and they're sealed, fingerprinted, timestamped and stored — no envelope, no recipients. You never lose the record, and if anyone's copy is ever altered, the sealed one settles it.
Check any sealed document at /verifyShelves & Vault*
Organised like a library. Locked like a safe.
Shelves* group your archive the way you actually think about it — Leases, Staff contracts, Family records. And for the crown jewels there's Vault* — the same idea as a deposit box at a bank: we hold the box, but only you hold the key. Zero-knowledge encryption, plainly caveated: we cannot open it, and if you lose your key, neither we nor anyone else can recover what's inside. That is the point.
See plans and add-ons* On our roadmap — in build, not live yet.
Anyone can check who holds the original, in the registry.
Some documents may only exist once. Shelves knows which.
A Controlled Original stored in Shelves stays linked to the KuduDoc registry — the record of who holds exclusive control of the document right now. Copies remain just copies; the registry records the one that counts, every transfer included.
Frequently asked questions
It proves three things, precisely: this exact copy existed at this moment, it hasn't changed by a single byte since, and every party holds the identical one. That is enough to settle the argument that actually happens — where one side produces a version with a different clause and says it's the original. The sealed copy and its timestamp show which came first.
What it doesn't do is authenticate the ink. The seal can't tell you a signature is genuine, or that the paper in the scanner was the paper everyone signed. We'd rather say that plainly than let you rely on something we can't back.
It finds. Ask a plain-language question and it points you at the passages in your own documents that answer it, with the clause highlighted and cited. It does not give legal advice, it does not decide what a clause means for you, and it never changes a document — the sealed file and its proofs remain the record. AI helps you find; the proofs are what you rely on. Clause search is on our roadmap — in build, headed for Business and Enterprise plans.
Yes. Shelves is your archive — searchable by you, across your own documents only. KuduDoc is hosted in South Africa and built with POPIA in mind; your documents aren't sold, scraped for advertising, or shared beyond the people you've sent them to. AI-assisted search works for you across your own archive and can be switched off for your account.
They stay yours, and they stay provable. Export everything — signed PDFs, audit trails and .ots timestamp proofs — and every completed document keeps its certification signature, fingerprint and anchor exactly as they were. Verification at /verify is free and public, so a document you exported years ago can still be checked, by anyone, without a KuduDoc account.
A document where being singular is the point — a compliance certificate, for instance. The KuduDoc registry records who holds exclusive control of it right now, and transfers are atomic: the new holder gains control in the same transaction the old holder loses it. A PDF copy proves nothing about control; the registry does. Controlled Originals in Shelves stay linked to that registry record — see it at the registry.
By the things you actually remember: who signed it (party), when it was signed (date), what kind of document it is (type), or its filename. And when what you remember is the wording rather than the file — "the lease with the one-month notice period" — plain-language clause search will take you straight to the passage once it ships.