SIGIL, an AVOWAL product. Home

How it works

You write it. SIGIL keeps it.

Anyone with the receipt can check it. Only fingerprints are checked. Your words are never published.

Join the waitlist Check a record
  1. Step 1

    Your order sets the terms

    When a channel is set up, the communication terms in your order are entered once. They sit at the top of every thread, and both parents see the same words.

    What each parent sees at the top of a thread DEMO

    Your order: case-related matters only. SIGIL checks each message against it.

    Typical terms include case-related matters only, no harassing or threatening language, and no contact relayed to a protected person. SIGIL uses the words of your order, not its own.

  2. Step 2

    A check before you send

    Automated screening by a large language model reads each draft against those terms. It flags potential issues for human review, and every prompt ends with the choice you have. Try it with five sample drafts.

  3. Step 3

    Sent, and it stays said

    Once sent, a message can't be edited or deleted in the app. Both of you see when it was sent and when it was first viewed. A correction is a new message, and the original stays.

    What the sender sees after sending DEMO

    • Sent at 2:40 PM. It can't be edited or deleted.
    • Recorded. Joins the next signed checkpoint at 3:00 PM.
    • Message 7, in checkpoint 000421.
    • First viewed 2:52 PM.
  4. Step 4

    Signed, held, anchored

    On a regular schedule, SIGIL signs a checkpoint that covers every message so far. Signed checkpoints go to both parties and a neutral custodian.

    Checkpoints are timestamped by independent timestamp authorities and anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain through OpenTimestamps. Only fingerprints are anchored, never content.

    Planned: a checkpoint every hour while messages are being sent, and one at the close of each day.

    Both parties

    The same signed checkpoint, so neither side depends on the other's copy.

    A neutral custodian

    A copy SIGIL can't take back, or the court's, where it agrees to hold them.

    Timestamp authorities

    Independent services that confirm when each checkpoint existed.

    OpenTimestamps

    Anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain through OpenTimestamps. Fingerprints only.

  5. Step 5

    Read, report, check

    Judges receive message reports with the verification printed on the page. GALs, parenting coordinators, mediators and attorneys can be given read-only access. Anyone with a receipt can check it.

    For attorneys For courts and neutrals Check a record

    Two sides. One record.

    Both parents, and every professional with access, read the same messages, times and checkpoints. Nobody gets a different version, and nobody can change it without it showing.

What is kept

What SIGIL keeps, and what it never keeps

Kept, for both of you

  • Every sent message, exactly as sent
  • Subjects, threads and attachments
  • Sent and first-viewed times
  • A case reason, when a sender adds one
  • Signed checkpoints and receipts
  • A log of every professional view

Never kept

  • Unsent drafts
  • Messages SIGIL held back
  • Style tips

Screening results are shown only to the person writing, before they send. They never appear on the shared message, a receipt or a report.

Proposed, not promised

Ideas still being tested

Some features are proposals. They are labelled that way here, and they won't be described as part of SIGIL until they are built.

Proposed feature: quiet hours
It's 11:48 PM. Send now, or send at 8:00 AM?
Proposed feature: billing that follows the order
When an order splits the cost, each parent is billed their share.
Planned: more states
SIGIL is launching in Connecticut first. Other states follow only after their rules have been reviewed.

Say it once. It stays said.

In development. Launching in Connecticut first.

Join the waitlist Read the questions