What checking a seal actually shows

The short answer

Checking a seal answers one question: is this the exact thing that was sealed, and has it stayed that way? A pass means yes. A fail means this file is not that thing, or the signature does not hold. Neither result is a verdict about the writer.

The check lives on the site, and it does not need an account. Start at What do you have? and pick the thing you were actually given.

Three different things people get sent

They are not interchangeable. Using the wrong checker is how a real seal gets reported as "nothing here."

What you were given	Where to check it	What a pass means
A link with /r/rec_…, or a record ID starting with rec_	The record lookup	You opened that record's own page
A PDF downloaded from a record	Check a sealed PDF	The file's fingerprint matches a file Authmarks signed. The PDF stays on your device; it is not uploaded
A sealed PDF or a detached .c2pa file, when you want the signature itself	The C2PA checker	The signature chain verifies

C2PA is the open standard for signed content credentials — a tamper-evident envelope that says where a file came from and what was done to it. Authmarks uses that envelope so a reviewer can check the signature without taking the vendor's word for it. The writing-process record is what is inside the envelope. Signing the finished file alone would only tell you who exported it. The longer distinction is in what writing provenance is.

What a pass is allowed to mean

• This is the sealed file. The bytes match what was signed. A later edit, a re-export, or a "cleaned up" copy will not pass as that same file.
• The seal is intact. Changing the sealed record after the fact leaves a mark a checker can see. That property is tamper-evidence, not tamper-proofing.
• You did not have to trust the person who emailed it. The check runs from the public page. "Our support team looked at it" is not the check.

What a pass is not allowed to mean

• It is not an AI-detector score, and it does not cancel one. Detectors look at finished prose and return a probability. A seal looks at a file and returns a match. Those are different questions, ranked in the evidence hierarchy.
• It does not say the writer never used a tool, never looked something up, or never pasted a quotation. A process record can show that a passage arrived as a paste rather than as keystrokes. It cannot see work that happened off the recorded document. The limits are spelled out in what a record cannot prove.
• It does not grade the essay, assign intent, or replace a conversation about the work.

What a fail is allowed to mean

A fail means this file is not the sealed one, or the signature does not verify. Common honest reasons:

• The writer exported a fresh copy from Google Docs or Word after sealing. That new file was never the sealed file.
• Someone edited the PDF, or the download was truncated.
• You opened a .c2pa sidecar without the PDF it signs. The checker will say so; it is not an accusation.

A fail is not evidence that the person cheated. It is evidence that the file in your hand is not the sealed artifact. Ask for the record link or the original sealed PDF and check that.

If you are the person who wrote it

Seal once, then send the sealed file or the record link — not a later export you made because the formatting looked nicer. If a reviewer says the check failed, send them the record link from the sealed record and point them at the public check. Do not argue from a screenshot of a green tick. The check is the evidence; the screenshot is a picture of it.