How do I use Needine?
This guide explains everything from getting your first account to issuing cryptographically signed documents, running compliance reports, and integrating via API. No technical background required for most tasks.
Getting your first account
From zero to your first issued document in under 10 minutes.
- 1
Request access
Needine is invite-only. Your organization admin creates your account with an email, initial password, and role. If you are the admin setting up a new organization, contact the Needine team to provision your workspace.
- 2
Sign in
Go to /auth and sign in with your credentials. You land directly in the console. Your role determines which sections are visible and what actions you can take.
- 3
Register your models (admin only)
Before issuing any document, register the AI models your organization uses in Console → Models. Without a registered model, you cannot create certificates or drafts. This typically takes 2 minutes.
- 4
Issue your first document
Create a draft (for documents that need approval) or a certificate (for direct emission). Attach your evidence files — their SHA-256 hash is computed in your browser, the files are never uploaded.
- 5
Verify and share
Once issued, every certificate has a public URL at /verify/:id. Share it with your client or regulator. They can verify authenticity without a Needine account.
Who does what
Each user in Needine has a role that controls what they can see and do.
Sets up the organization: creates users, registers AI models, configures API keys and webhooks, and generates compliance reports.
- ✓Create and manage users
- ✓Register AI models
- ✓Issue certificates directly
- ✓Manage API keys & webhooks
- ✓View audit logs
- ✓Generate EU AI Act reports
- ✓Create Audit Rooms
Day-to-day document work: creates drafts, reviews and approves pending steps, issues certificates after full approval.
- ✓Create drafts with evidence
- ✓Review and approve drafts
- ✓Issue approved certificates
- ✓Export documents (PDF / JSON)
- ✓Verify any certificate
Read access to certificates, drafts, reports, and audit logs without the ability to create or modify anything.
- ✓View all certificates
- ✓View audit logs
- ✓View provenance reports
- ✓Download exported evidence
- ✓Access Audit Rooms (no login needed)
Every section, explained
A detailed walkthrough of each area of the console and what you can do there.
Models
AdminRegister your AI models
Before issuing any certificate, register the AI models your organization uses. Each model has a provider, name, and version. This links every future certificate to the exact model version that generated it — a key requirement for EU AI Act traceability.
What you can do
- ›Add a model: provider + name + version
- ›View the full registry of registered models
- ›Link models when creating certificates or drafts
Even if you use a public model (e.g., GPT-4o, Claude 3), register it. The specific version makes the audit trail complete.
Drafts
Admin · OperatorCreate a certificate with approval workflow
All certificates are created through the drafts workflow, which enforces a formal review chain before issuance. You define the approval steps and assign a user to each role. Nobody can issue the certificate until every step is completed in order. The platform signs it with Ed25519, assigns a trust score, and queues it for blockchain anchoring.
What you can do
- ›Select certificate type (ai_report, ai_audit, ai_evaluation, generic…)
- ›Choose the AI model used
- ›Upload input evidence — the file stays local, only its SHA-256 hash is stored
- ›Upload output evidence the same way
- ›Define approval steps: Reviewer → Approver → Signatory
- ›Assign a specific user to each step
- ›Each reviewer approves, rejects, or delegates their step
- ›Only after all steps are approved can the certificate be issued
- ›The entire approval chain is embedded inside the signed payload
- ›Export as PDF or self-contained JSON bundle
Your files never leave your machine. Needine only stores the hash. The certificate proves the file existed and was unaltered — without uploading sensitive data. The 'Pending' tab shows only the items waiting for your action — your personal inbox for approval tasks.
Verification
Anyone — no login requiredVerify any certificate
Any certificate issued by Needine can be verified publicly at /verify/:id — no account needed. You can also use the Verification section inside the console to check certificates by ID and see the full detail: signature, trust score, approval chain, and blockchain anchor status.
What you can do
- ›Enter a certificate ID or paste a full verification URL
- ›See the cryptographic signature and hash
- ›See the full approval chain (if the certificate came from a draft)
- ›See the trust score and the factors that influenced it
- ›See the blockchain anchor — Merkle root + Arbitrum transaction hash
- ›Public verifier requires no account: share the link with clients or regulators
Share /verify/:id with clients, partners, or regulators. They can verify the certificate is genuine and unaltered without needing a Needine account.
Reports
Admin · Operator · AuditorProvenance and organization reports
The Reports section has two views: provenance search and organization report. Provenance gives you the full lineage graph of a specific certificate — how it was created, which model, who approved it. The organization report aggregates all certificates over a time range with trust-level distribution.
What you can do
- ›Search any certificate by ID to view its provenance graph
- ›See input → model → output → approval chain → anchor in a visual tree
- ›Generate an organization report for any date range
- ›Filter by trust level (high / medium / low)
Provenance reports are the key piece for explaining to an auditor or client exactly how a specific document was produced.
Compliance
Admin · AuditorEU AI Act compliance reports
The Compliance section generates EU AI Act reports automatically based on your certificate history. Each certificate type is mapped to a risk level (high / limited / minimal). The report includes the list of models used, signatories, percentage of certificates with blockchain anchoring, and percentage with a registered approval chain.
What you can do
- ›Set a date range and generate the report
- ›See risk distribution: high / limited / minimal by certificate type
- ›Download as PDF or JSON — ready to attach to a regulatory submission
- ›Each certificate in the table shows its risk classification badge
If you use Needine for high-risk AI use cases (medical, credit scoring, employment), this report is the starting point for your Article 13 transparency obligation.
Audit Rooms
AdminShare evidence with external auditors
Create a scoped, read-only Audit Room and share its time-limited access token with external auditors — lawyers, regulators, external compliance teams. They access the certificates you define without creating an account and without seeing anything outside the defined scope.
What you can do
- ›Go to Administration → Audit Rooms
- ›Create a room: name, scope (all certs / by type / by ID / by date), expiry date
- ›Copy the one-time token and share it with your auditor
- ›Auditor visits /audit/:token — no login needed
- ›Token expires on the date you set and can be revoked at any time
The token is shown only once at creation. Store it safely before sharing. You can always revoke and create a new one.
Administration
AdminManage users and the organization
Create and manage all users in your organization. Assign roles that control what each person can see and do. You can also manage API keys here — create, list, and revoke keys used by your integrations.
What you can do
- ›Create users: email, full name, initial password, role
- ›Edit user roles: ADMIN, OPERATOR, AUDITOR, READ_ONLY
- ›Delete users with confirmation
- ›Create API keys: name, scopes, expiry, owner
- ›Revoke API keys that are no longer needed
- ›View the complete audit log of all platform actions
API keys are shown only once at creation. If a key is lost, revoke it and create a new one. Each key is linked to a specific user for full traceability.
Developers
AdminIntegrate Needine into your pipelines
The Developers section provides everything your technical team needs: a quickstart guide, SDK snippets, webhook management, and a link to the full Swagger documentation. Use the TypeScript SDK for Node.js pipelines or the Python SDK for AI workflows (LangChain, custom scripts).
What you can do
- ›Read the quickstart guide with copy-paste code examples
- ›Install the TypeScript SDK: npm install @needine/sdk
- ›Install the Python SDK: pip install needine-sdk
- ›Register webhook endpoints per event type
- ›Set your webhook secret for HMAC-SHA256 signature verification
- ›Open Swagger docs at /api/docs for the full REST reference
Webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256. Always verify the X-Needine-Signature header before processing the payload on your end.
One thing requires no account at all
The public verifier at /verify/:id is open to anyone. If a company or individual shares a Needine certificate with you, you can verify its authenticity, check the approval chain, and see the blockchain anchor — without creating an account or logging in.
Ready to start?
Sign in to your account, or go back to the home page to learn more about what Needine offers.