Getting started with Seal: publish a Markdown doc for review in 5 minutes

To share a Markdown doc for review online, sign in to Seal with an email magic link, create a review at /new from a .md upload or a GitHub file, and invite reviewers by email — they read a role-tailored summary, comment inline, and (in approval mode) give identity-verified sign-off. Seal isn't an editor: your agent or editor writes the file, and Seal is the review layer on top. This guide walks the whole path from first sign-in to a signed-off doc.

How do I sign in to Seal?

Go to /signin and enter your email. Seal sends a magic link — there is no password to create, and signup and signin are the same flow, so the first magic link also creates your account. Google OAuth is available as an option. Once you're in, everything starts from /new.

How do I create a review from a Markdown file?

At /new, either upload or drag a .md file, or pick a file straight from GitHub — choose the repo, branch, and file — after installing the sealmd-app GitHub App. The GitHub path also enables sync: pushes to the watched branch become new versions in Seal automatically (see syncing reviews with GitHub). At creation you choose one of two modes:

Simple review. Comments and suggestions on the rendered doc, no approval gate.
Approval workflow. Staged sign-off: sequential or parallel stages, each with named approvers and a quorum (all or any), plus a separate comment-only reviewer list. Activating the workflow notifies stage-1 approvers.

The choice isn't permanent — you can switch modes later and nothing is lost.

How do I invite reviewers?

Two ways. Add reviewers by email during setup, or @-mention them inside any comment — type @ followed by their email: Seal asks which role they should get and sends an invite scoped to that document. Every reviewer has a role lens — Legal & Compliance, Risk, Engineering, GTM, Money Movement, or General — which keys the AI summary and change brief they see; the owner can change roles anytime. For people who just need to read, the public share link at /r/<token> is read-only with no login, showing Summary, Full doc, and Markdown views. If someone on that link wants to comment, an inline magic-link verify confirms their email and drops them back at the exact spot.

What does the review itself look like?

Instead of opening on a wall of text, each reviewer lands on a short AI summary written for their role, then reads the rendered document and leaves anchored comments on exact text spans and suggested changes. Seal never edits the document itself — suggestions stay tied to the source .md, and your agent or editor makes the actual changes. If your agent works over MCP, it can pull that feedback and publish revisions programmatically while the humans stay in the browser.

How does approval work when I need real sign-off?

In the approval workflow, sign-off is identity-verified (verified email today; SSO and WebAuthn step-up on higher tiers) and bound to the exact content_hash of the wording approved — each approver gives explicit "I approve this exact wording" consent. If the text changes later, approvals go stale automatically; approvers see a change brief covering what changed since they last approved, then re-approve. Everything lands in an append-only, hash-chained audit log you can export as JSON or PDF. For the full mechanics, see approving Markdown documents.

Do reviewers need an account?

Not to read. The /r/<token> link works in any browser with no login. Commenting requires only an inline magic-link email verification — no password, no signup form. Reviewers are free on every tier and never consume a paid seat.

Can I switch between simple review and approval later?

Yes. You pick a mode when creating the review, but you can switch between simple review and the approval workflow at any point, and nothing is lost on the switch — existing comments, suggestions, and history carry over.

What happens to approvals when I edit the doc?

They go stale — by design. Because each approval is pinned to the content hash of the approved wording, any edit invalidates it. Approvers get a change brief showing exactly what moved since their sign-off and re-approve the new text, so an approval always means the words on the page, not an earlier draft.

What does it cost?

Free covers up to 3 authors with unlimited docs and uncapped comments, and reviewers are always free on every tier. Identity-verified approval and the full change-brief history live on the Team plan — see pricing. If you'd rather run reviews entirely locally from your AI agent, the free open-source plugin covers comments and suggestions with git as the transport.

Create your first review →See pricing