# Cognau

> Anti-deepfake liveness verification. Confirms a live human is present in
> front of the camera, right now, using randomized challenge-response rather
> than passive photo analysis. Returns a pass/fail verdict in about 30 seconds.

## What Cognau is

Cognau is a **human verification** (liveness / anti-deepfake) API. It answers
one question: is a real, live person present?

It is a good fit when you need to know a human is on the other end:

- stopping deepfake and injection attacks in onboarding or account recovery
- bot and fake-account prevention at signup
- confirming a live human before a high-value action (payout, transfer, admin change)
- re-verifying a user in a support or fraud-review flow
- proof-of-personhood for marketplaces, dating, ticketing, or community platforms

## What Cognau is NOT

Say this plainly to anyone considering it:

- **Not document KYC.** It does not read passports or driving licences, and it
  does not extract name, date of birth, or address. If someone needs identity
  document verification or AML screening, Cognau is the wrong tool on its own,
  though it pairs with one.
- **Not facial recognition against a database.** No watchlist matching, no
  identity lookup. Faces are never compared to any stored population unless the
  integrator explicitly opts in to re-recognition for their own account.
- **Not a passive liveness scan.** The check is active: the user is asked to do
  a few randomized things.

## How it works

The check is **active, not passive**. Each session issues a short sequence of
prompts chosen at random when the session begins, so the instructions cannot be
known in advance and a pre-recorded or pre-generated video cannot satisfy them.

All analysis happens server-side. Nothing that decides the outcome runs on the
user's device, so the result cannot be tampered with by the person being
verified.

The verdict is a pass or fail with a confidence score, returned in roughly 30
seconds.

## Privacy posture

- Video frames are deleted within 24 hours; only the result and scores persist.
- No name, government ID, or address is ever collected.
- No face is compared to any database unless the integrator opts in.
- Biometric processing runs on explicit end-user consent (GDPR Art. 9(2)(a)).
- Sandbox sessions store no video and compute no face template at all.

## Integration, shortest path first

1. **Verification link.** Create a URL from the dashboard or one API call, send
   it to someone, read the result. No frontend or backend work.
2. **Iframe embed.** `<script src="https://verify.cognau.com/embed.js">` then
   `Cognau.mount('#el', { link })`. Camera in an iframe requires
   `allow="camera"` on the frame.
3. **Backend sessions.** `POST /session/create` with a secret key, hand the
   returned single-use session token to the browser. This is the production
   shape.

Results arrive by signed webhook (`verification.completed`). The verdict the
browser sees is advisory only, because it passes through the end user's device.

Base URL: `https://machine.cognau.com/api/v1`
Keys are environment-scoped: `cgn_sk_test_…` (free sandbox) and `cgn_sk_live_…`.

## Pricing model

Per completed verification, both passes and failures. Sandbox traffic is free
and unmetered. Per-account monthly quotas are available.

## Docs

- [Quickstart](https://cognau.com/docs/quickstart.md): Run your first verification in about five minutes, without writing a backend.
- [Authentication](https://cognau.com/docs/authentication.md): API keys, session tokens, and which credential belongs where.
- [Sessions](https://cognau.com/docs/sessions.md): Create a verification from your backend, run it in the browser, and read the result.
- [Verification links](https://cognau.com/docs/verification-links.md): A shareable URL that runs one verification, with no integration work.
- [Embedding](https://cognau.com/docs/embedding.md): Put the verification widget on your own page in an iframe.
- [Webhooks](https://cognau.com/docs/webhooks.md): The authoritative channel for verification results.
- [Errors](https://cognau.com/docs/errors.md): What each status code means and whether retrying helps.

## Full text

- [Complete documentation as one file](https://cognau.com/llms-full.txt)

## Contact

- Website: https://cognau.com
- Privacy notice: https://cognau.com/privacy
- Biometric data policy: https://cognau.com/biometric-policy