SignetAcademicStop playing
AI detective.
Signet gives your students a way to show their work — and gives you evidence instead of a probability score.
Your student writes in Google Docs the way they always do. Signet records the shape of the process — sessions, timing, typed versus pasted, sources tagged — never the words. They submit a verified certificate with their paper. You check it in seconds, from any browser, no account.
Free for students and instructors · Chrome extension · Google Docs
What it does.
Students cite their AI use — in the record itself.
The most-requested feature from instructors, built in: when a student pastes anything from outside their document, Signet asks them to tag and declare the source — "ChatGPT — brainstorming," "quote from assigned reading." The declarations appear in the certificate’s Process & Sources appendix next to Signet’s own measurements, so disclosure is documented at the moment it happens, not reconstructed under pressure later.
It records the process, never the words.
Sessions, timing, typed versus pasted, revision patterns. The syncing code has no access to document text. The one exception is opt-in and plainly labeled: revision views a student chooses to include (see Rewind below) — rendered images of moments from their document’s history, shown to verifiers.
Two report types, honestly tiered.
Certify live-witnesses the writing as it happens — the strongest record. Rewind builds a report after the fact from the document’s Google Docs revision history — for papers written before Signet was installed. Rewind reports are clearly labeled Reconstructed tier, lower assurance than live witnessing, and say so on their face. The tier is never hidden from you.
Verification takes seconds and trusts no one.
Scan the certificate’s QR code, or drop the certificate — or the submitted paper itself — at getsignet.app/verify. The paper is matched to its certificate by a browser-side fingerprint, so you can confirm the exact file you’re holding is the certified one. No account, no upload, nothing leaves your browser.
One line in your syllabus.
That’s the whole lift.
Students install a free extension and write the way they always do. They submit one extra PDF with the paper. You verify it in seconds.
Written assignments in this course are submitted with a Signet Certificate. Signet is a free Chrome extension for Google Docs that documents your writing process — sessions, timing, what was typed versus pasted — and produces a verifiable record. It is not an AI detector and never reads the content of your writing. Install it before you begin drafting: getsignet.app/academic/students. Submit the certificate PDF with your paper.
Convergence towards process records
The major integrity tools now agree that detection alone failed and the writing process is the evidence that matters. Where they differ from Signet is structural — and the structure is the whole question, because a process record is only as trustworthy as the party holding it.
As of July 2026, from each vendor's published documentation.
| Feature | Signet Academic | Grammarly Authorship | Turnitin Clarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who chooses it | The student installs; the professor requires | The student enables, inside Grammarly | The institution purchases and deploys |
| Access to the writing | Never — architectural. The syncing code has no access to document text | Collects the text you write when enabled — including deleted text, pasted content with source names, and AI prompts | Full document, composed inside Turnitin's own environment |
| Where the record lives | A sealed, portable certificate the student holds; verification runs locally, no account | Report data stored on Grammarly's servers (up to 12 months when shared); tracking data tied to a single device | Institutional platform and repository |
| AI judgment | None. No scores, no classification, no AI in the pipeline | AI & plagiarism detection included in reports on paid tiers | Probability scoring remains a core product |
| Who the vendor is | An independent witness — Signet sells no AI writing tools and makes no judgments | An AI writing company documenting use of its own category of product | A detection company graded on catching people |
| If the vendor disappears | Binding Wind-Down Protocol: verifier and spec go open-source; certificates stay verifiable | Report links depend on Grammarly's servers | Records live in the institutional contract |
The pattern: every other process tool asks you to trust a party with a stake in the answer, holding a copy of the writing. Signet is built so there's nothing to trust — the witness can't see the words, sells no verdict, and the record verifies without us.
Open beta.
Signet Academic is in open beta and under active development — interfaces and record formats will keep improving, and you may find rough edges. One thing is fixed: certificates issued during the beta remain permanently verifiable at their verification URLs. Verification never depends on version-specific software.
Try it on one assignment this fall.
We’re working with individual instructors, writing programs, and teaching centers piloting Signet this semester — free, with hands-on setup help from us. Tell us about your course and we’ll have you running in a day.
Students: looking for install instructions? Start here →