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A handful of concepts describe everything Atlas does. They are the same whether you drive Atlas from the REST API, the MCP server, or the dashboard.

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Objects

The unit of work: one document (or set of documents) routed to a set of participants for signature. An envelope moves through a defined lifecycle and carries its own policy — delivery mode, expiration, branding, legal framework, and metadata.
A person involved in an envelope (typically a signer, optionally a viewer or approver), with a signing order. Each participant gets a single-purpose, tokenized link — never an account.
A fillable thing on the document: signature, initials, date, text, checkbox. Detection proposes fields and assigns each to a participant; the sender is the final authority and can edit everything at review.
A frequently used document with a confirmed field layout and named signer roles. Repeat sends supply only recipients and prefill values — no detection, no review friction.
An append-only, hash-chained history of everything that happened to an envelope. On completion it backs the audit certificate — the evidentiary record companion to the signed PDF.
A registered endpoint that receives signed, retried notifications for lifecycle events and extraction results. See Webhooks.
Sending consumes a credit. Balance and ledger live in the dashboard; out-of-credit senders are blocked only at the send moment.

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The shape of a send

Whether a developer, an agent, or a human initiates it, a send follows the same arc:
1

Create

Submit the document (by URL, inline content, or upload) and the participant list. Atlas stores the document, starts detection asynchronously, and returns the envelope immediately with a review URL. The caller never waits on analysis.
2

Review

Detection assigns fields to participants and the envelope reaches review. A human inspects placement and clicks Send — the default contract. (Template sends and explicit auto-send opt-ins skip the gate.)
3

Send

A credit is consumed, the first participant is emailed their signing link, and the envelope is in_progress.
4

Sign

Each participant fills only their own fields and submits. Atlas advances to the next participant or completes the envelope.
5

Complete

Atlas stamps the final PDF, generates the certificate, notifies everyone, and fires webhooks. Structured extraction is available on request.
Review-first is the default everywhere: agents prepare, humans approve. This is a product guarantee, not a configuration default you have to remember.