> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.archivecircle.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Beneficiary claim

> How beneficiaries recover vault contents after verification.

A beneficiary claim starts after death verification completes and a claim token is generated.

## Claim flow

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the claim link">
    The beneficiary opens the claim URL from their notification or from the owner account's beneficiary tools.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start a recovery session">
    The browser generates an ephemeral recovery key pair and registers the public key with Eternum.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait for shares">
    Trusted contacts release beneficiary-bound shares to the recovery session.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add an optional printed share">
    If available, the beneficiary can paste or scan a printed offline share — either the cold backup or a printed device share.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Combine enough shares">
    The browser combines at least three shares to reconstruct the master key.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Decrypt vault items">
    The browser decrypts item keys and vault blobs locally.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Threshold

Eternum uses a 3-of-5 share model. Recovery needs at least three valid shares.

<Warning>
  The claim page reconstructs the master key in the beneficiary browser. Treat the recovered session as sensitive and use a trusted device.
</Warning>