---
title: Sheaf docs
description: How to use Sheaf: in the app, over the API, and from an agent.
section: 
order: 0
---

Sheaf takes a packet of scanned documents exactly as it arrived and turns it into a filed, checked case. These pages say how to use it. They describe what exists today, not what is planned.

## What Sheaf does, in order

1. **Receives** the packet. Every file lands as an immutable source file, and pre-flight checks flag pages that will read badly.
2. **Splits** it into documents whose page spans tile the packet end to end.
3. **Identifies** each document by what it says about itself.
4. **Files** each document against the case's expected document list, so what is missing is named.
5. **Extracts** field values, each traceable to the page it was read from.
6. **Records** every step and decision in the case's ledger.

## The five words

| Word | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Packet | The files as they arrived: merged, out of order, photographed. |
| Case | One application: its files, its documents, its decisions. The API calls it an `application`. |
| Expected document list | What a complete case must contain. Versioned, and copied into the case when the case starts. |
| Workflow | A saved recipe of steps and models. Attached at the start of a run, it lets the run go unattended. |
| Ledger | The append-only record of who did what on a case, and under whose authority. |

## Where to go

- New here: [create an account](/docs/getting-started/create-an-account), then [run your first packet](/docs/getting-started/first-packet).
- Connecting your own software: start at the [API overview](/docs/api/overview). The [quickstart](/docs/api/quickstart) is three commands.
- Building or instructing an agent: [using Sheaf from an agent](/docs/agents/using-sheaf-from-an-agent).