Recipients use the Ceremony URL to access their signing ceremony and complete their actions. By default, SignatureAPI automatically creates a ceremony for each recipient using Email Link Authentication when you create an envelope. This automatically sends an email to the recipient with a link to their signing ceremony. You may need to obtain the Ceremony URL directly to integrate the signing process with your application or use your own delivery methods. Common use cases include:
  • Embedding the signing ceremony directly within your web or mobile application
  • Redirecting users to their signing ceremony from within your application workflow
  • Sending signing invitations through your own email infrastructure with custom branding and templates

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When Ceremony URLs are available

You can access a Ceremony URL when the ceremony is active for the recipient and not yet completed. If the first authentication method is email_link, the URL will be sent by email and the url property will be null.
When SignatureAPI sends the Ceremony URL directly to recipients (such as with Email Link Authentication), the url property will be null since you don’t need to handle the URL delivery yourself.

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How to obtain a Ceremony URL

To obtain a Ceremony URL, set the ceremony’s authentication method to one of these options: You can access the Ceremony URL through the url property of a Ceremony object. There are several ways to retrieve this URL.

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From Envelope Operations

When you create or retrieve an envelope, the Ceremony URL is available in the url property of each recipient’s ceremony object.
Envelope object
{
  "id": "abcdef12-3456-7890-1234-abcdef123456",
  "title": "Service Agreement",
  "recipients": [
    {
      "type": "signer",
      "key": "client",
      "name": "John Doe",
      "email": "john.doe@example.com",
      "ceremony": {
        "authentication": [
          {
            "type": "email_code"
          }
        ],
        "url": "https://sign.signatureapi.com/en/start?token=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR...",
        //...
      }
      //...
    }
  ]
  //...
}

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From Recipient Operations

When you retrieve a recipient, the Ceremony URL is available in the url property of the recipient’s ceremony object.
Recipient object
{
  "type": "signer",
  "key": "client",
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "ceremony": {
    "authentication": [
      {
        "type": "email_code"
      }
    ],
    "url": "https://sign.signatureapi.com/en/start?token=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR...",
    //...
  }
  //...
}

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From Ceremony Operations

When you create a ceremony using the Create Ceremony endpoint, the Ceremony URL is returned in the url property of the ceremony object.
Ceremony object
{
  "authentication": [
    {
      "type": "email_code"
    }
  ],
  "url": "https://sign.signatureapi.com/en/start?token=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR...",
  //...
}

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Short Ceremony URLs

Standard ceremony URLs are too long for some use cases, such as sharing the URL through space-constrained channels like SMS or push notifications. When creating the ceremony, set url_variant to short to generate a shorter URL. Example Request 
// POST https://api.signatureapi.com/v1/recipients/{recipient_id}/ceremonies
// X-API-Key: key_test_...

{
  "authentication": [
    {
      "type": "custom",
      "provider": "SuperApp",
      "data": {
        "Session Id": "a4f9e8b2-7c1d-4b2d-9a4b-e0c5d6f7a1b3",
        "Authenticated At": "Dec 31, 2025 23:59:59"
      }
    }
  ],
  "url_variant": "short"  
}
Example Response 
// HTTP Status Code 201

{
  //...
  "url": "https://sign.signatureapi.com/s/BgnexxxxxxxxIbRi"
}