> ## 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.

# Recovery overview

> Understand how death verification leads to beneficiary recovery.

Recovery is the process that lets beneficiaries reconstruct your vault key after death verification.

## Recovery actors

| Actor           | Role                                                                                           |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Owner           | Creates the vault, trusted contacts, beneficiaries, and recovery shares.                       |
| Trusted contact | Confirms status and releases a protected share after verification.                             |
| Beneficiary     | Starts a claim session and reconstructs the vault key in-browser.                              |
| Platform        | Stores encrypted data, releases platform-held share material, and enforces verification state. |

## Recovery path

<Steps>
  <Step title="Owner misses check-ins">
    The verification pipeline escalates through reminder and contact stages.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Signals are collected">
    Trusted-contact confirmations and document review contribute signals.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Challenge window opens">
    A challenge period gives contacts a chance to contest false verification.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verification completes">
    The pipeline reaches verified status.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Trusted contacts release shares">
    Active contacts decrypt their share locally and re-encrypt it to the beneficiary recovery session.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Beneficiary reconstructs the key">
    The beneficiary combines enough shares in the browser and decrypts vault items.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Recovery depends on enough activated shares being available. Add trusted contacts early and confirm they complete activation.
</Warning>