# Who signs

URL: /systems/legal-and-corporate/who-signs · Id: `page:systems/legal-and-corporate/who-signs`

> Agents sign sales inside a Mandate; a natural person signs governance, securities, sworn filings, and identity checks; a credential holder signs Reserved Acts.

[Agents](/business/nouns/agent) sign a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup)'s sales; people sign only what the law reserves to a person. Every signature binds to the exact text the signer read, so each one proves what was agreed.

## The signing table
Each act has one signer, fixed by law rather than by preference. Agents prepare every act: they draft it, fill it from records, check it, and queue it with its [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence).

| Act | Signer |
| --- | --- |
| Checkout, click-through terms, order forms, renewals | An Agent, as an electronic agent inside its [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) |
| The other side's own statements: an investor's, a supplier's, a signer's identity | That party |
| Board votes, officer appointments, bank resolutions, a SOC 2 management assertion | A director or officer of the [Company](/business/nouns/company) |
| Equity, SAFEs, option grants, investor subscriptions | The board, and each investor for their own side |
| Tax returns and other sworn filings | The officer or person the agency names |
| Identity checks for payments, banks, and notaries | The natural person being checked |
| Insurance applications | An officer of the insured Company |
| A [Reserved Act](/business/nouns/reserved-act) | A [Human](/business/nouns/human) holding the named [Credential](/business/nouns/credential), as an [Attestation](/business/nouns/attestation) |

Sales sit at the top for a reason. The law lets an electronic agent form a contract for its principal, and buyers accept checkout and click-through paper every day. A Startup can sell a million times without a person touching a pen.

## Which person signs
Every row below the first names a natural person. Who that is follows the [entity](/systems/legal-and-corporate/entity) and the [operating model](/agents/operating-model):

- Held by a [Studio](/business/nouns/studio): the officer desk, the Studio's officers and directors, signs for every Startup the Studio holds.
- Self-serve: the holder of its Stripe connected account, or the officers that holder names.
- With cofounders: the cofounder [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement) names who signs each row.

The officer desk signs in batches. Its queue runs oldest first, each item carrying the prepared [Document](/business/nouns/document) and its Evidence. A floor act that waits holds only its own [Action](/business/nouns/action), never the Startup.

## How a signature binds
A signature attaches to a fingerprint: a hash of the exact text and filled answers the signer saw. If the Document changes after they open it, the signature is refused and they read the new version.

[Signing](/systems/legal-and-corporate/signing) records the signer's identity, email, network address, browser, the time they viewed, the time they signed, and their [Consent](/business/nouns/consent) to sign electronically. It seals the Document and that record into one [File](/business/nouns/file), stores it, and only then tells the signer it is signed. Answers lock to that one version; any change goes through the other side.

Two guards hold before anyone signs. A Document with a blank or an unfilled field never opens to signers. A countersignature on a revoked or refused signer is refused until that party is restored.

## An enterprise deal, signed end to end
A Startup sells a churn-prediction API to a 2,000-person retailer. The retailer's procurement team sends its own paper. The [Contracts Manager](/agents/legal/contracts-manager) runs [Review a contract](/workflows/processes/contracting/review-contract) and redlines four clauses within the Startup's fallback positions.

The liability cap sits outside the fallbacks, so it becomes an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) for the [Legal Lead](/agents/legal/legal-lead). Once approved, the Agent signs the order form as an electronic agent. The retailer's buyer signs their side in the page.

The retailer then asks for an officer's signature on a security questionnaire's attestation. That is a statement the Company makes as an entity, so it queues for the officer desk. Sales took no person; the one person act took one batch.

## Next
- [Legal floor](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor): every obligation, what wakes it, and the [Role](/business/nouns/role) that signs it.
- [Agents and the law](/systems/legal-and-corporate/agents): contracts agents form and what their principal answers for.
- [Mandates and limits](/agents/mandates-and-limits): the [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) every agent signature sits inside.