Nhoma documentation

#Overview

Nhoma turns everyday deals between people — a personal loan, a used-couch sale, a kitchen renovation paid in stages — into structured, versioned, signable documents. There are no accounts: a document lives at its links, both parties sign from their phones, and every change is tracked as a new version until the document is signed by both.

Two things stay true everywhere in Nhoma:

• The other party never needs anything. No account, no app, no payment. They click a link, review, and sign.
• Links are the keys. Whoever holds a link has the access that link grants — which is why Nhoma keeps reminding you to keep your way back in.

A typical agreement goes through four steps:

#Getting started

The homepage asks one question: Put it on paper! Fill in one sentence — lend, borrow, sell, buy, or work in stages — or describe the deal in your own words, and your paper appears already filled in: the wizard then walks you through whatever is still missing (staged work opens in the editor instead). Inside the app, three plain-language cards name their two chairs — because either side of a deal can be the one to put it in writing:

• Lending money — I'm the lender / I'm the borrower.
• Selling something — I'm the seller / I'm the buyer.
• Work in stages — I'm the client / I'm the provider.

For lending money and selling something, picking your chair opens the guided builder: three steps — the deal, the terms, sign & send — with the finished document building itself beside you as a live paper preview while you answer. At the end you sign & continue, landing on your document page ready to deliver — or save the draft & exit to finish later. Picking the other chair (buyer, borrower) flips the builder around: fill in what you know, then send the other party a ready-made request — ask the seller for this receipt, offer to put the loan in writing — over WhatsApp or any chat.

Work in stages opens the structured editor directly — milestones want the full canvas. Every document, whichever door it came through, appears in My Documents, your on-device list, and can be reopened in the editor for changes. Below the cards you will also find real-example templates to start from — a loan to a family member, a room rental, a plumber contract, and more — and the door to the Builder, which drafts the whole agreement from a spoken or typed description.

#Lending money

A personal loan, in writing — a promissory note. Use it when one person lends money to another and both want the amount, the repayment target date, and the agreed payment channels captured before the money moves.

• Principal amount in any of the supported currencies.
• Lender and borrower named exactly as they will sign. Tap It's me on your own row and Nhoma fills your name in.
• Repayment target date and agreed payment channels (bank transfer, mobile money, cash…).
• Optionally, interest and instalments.

#When it's a gift

Tick This is a gift and the note becomes a record of a transfer with no repayment expected: the parties become giver and recipient, the date becomes the date of the gift, and the document states explicitly that nothing is owed back. Useful when a family gift needs to be distinguishable from a loan later.

#Receipts & payment proof

When money actually moves — the loan is handed over, an instalment comes back — attach the proof to the document: a screenshot of the transfer, a photo of the cash. Either party can attach, free — the borrower's Cash App screenshot of the money leaving is proof just as much as the lender's — and both of you see the same set. Each receipt can carry a label ("First instalment — March"), shows who added it, and opens full-size on its own canvas.

Receipts are added evidence, not terms: attaching one never voids a signature, and unlike the terms they can still be added after both parties have signed — which is exactly when repayments happen. Because they are evidence, they cannot quietly disappear either: once the document has been sent, removing a receipt takes both of you — one side asks, the other agrees, and only then is it gone.

Once signed, the owner can later mark the note as Defaulted if repayment fails — or record that everything is on track. See document statuses.

#Selling something

Sell a couch, a car, anything used — or get paid for work you did. The receipt names the thing in plain words: what was sold, who sold it, who bought it, the total price, how it was paid, and the condition it changed hands in.

Product Sold:
Seller Name:
Buyer Name:
Total Price:
How It Was Paid:
Condition: Sold as-is — the buyer accepts it as it is

The receipt opens on Products (physical item sold). Pick Services (delivery, haircut, tutoring, house cleaning, etc.) instead — the two are exclusive, so choosing one greys the other — and the template asks the service questions instead — what work was done, who did it, who paid — and the condition line becomes an acceptance: "Work Accepted: As delivered — nothing further is owed."

The condition line offers ready-made phrasings behind a small list button — sold as-is, new and unused, used and working, used with known faults — and you can always write your own instead.

Three shortcuts get the item onto the page for you:

• Search anything — type sofa, computer, pottery wheel… and Nhoma hands you a ready-made form for that item, with the fields that matter for it. Hundreds of items are covered, and the search understands meaning, not just spelling.
• Paste your ad — selling through Craigslist or Marketplace? Paste the whole listing and Nhoma reads it and fills the receipt in — title, price, condition, details. Uses one build.
• Buying, not selling? — flip the receipt around: fill in what you know and send the seller a ready-made request for the receipt.

You can also add a photo of the item to the document's evidence — it files alongside the payment proof, so both parties see the thing that changed hands, not only its description.

When the buyer pays, attach the proof of payment — a screenshot of the transfer, a photo of the cash — so the sale record and the payment evidence live on the same document, visible to both parties.

#Work in stages

Pay for work milestone by milestone. Define the overall project valuation, then break it into milestones — each with a title, a payout, and completion criteria.

Each milestone carries its own status:

#The editor

The editor is where Work in stages agreements are written and where any saved draft opens for changes — loans and receipts are usually born in the guided builder and come here only when you reopen them. It looks like the document it produces: each line is a row with a dark label, a grey hint, and your answer in blue. A few things worth knowing:

• Add a field adds any line the template didn't think of; every row can also be deleted — hover a row and use the circle-with-× at its end. Deleting is undo-able.
• It's me on a party row fills in your name (remembered on this device) and prefills the sender name when you later send the document.
• Date rows open a real calendar with one click and write the date out in words — never bare numbers, since 02/05/2026 reads differently in English and French.
• Undo (Cmd/Ctrl-Z) is one timeline for the whole document — title, body, amounts, settings.
• Nothing leaves your device until you press Save Draft.

#Amounts & currencies

Money fields are guarded so an amount can only ever mean one thing:

• Nhoma writes the thousands separators for you, in your country's notation — type digits, get 1,200.50 or 1 200,50 as appropriate. Typing the wrong separator is refused with a suggestion, not silently reinterpreted.
• The amount is read back in words under the field and inside the document — one thousand two hundred cedis — so a misplaced decimal is caught by a human before it is signed.
• Decimals follow the currency: none for XOF or JPY, three for KWD.

Under My currencies you can pick the default currency new agreements start with on this device, plus a quick list pinned to the top of every currency menu.

#Interest & instalments

On a loan (not a gift), the Interest & instalments card (a Premium feature) turns two questions into calculated terms:

• Total to be repaid — leave it blank and they simply repay what you lent. Enter more than you lent and the difference is the interest; Nhoma works out the rate for you and writes it into the document.
• Split into how many equal payments? — with a repayment date picked, Nhoma proposes one payment a month until that date. Type your own number to override, leave blank for a single payment.

The card summarises what the numbers mean in a sentence before anything is saved, and the resulting Interest and Instalments lines become ordinary rows of the agreement.

#Check my draft

Click Check my draft and Nhoma reads what you have written and returns a suggestion — missing fields, ambiguous terms, or local considerations worth fixing before you send the document. The check runs on Workers AI; your draft text is processed only to produce the suggestion.

#The Builder

Describe the deal in your own words — speak it or type it:

I'm lending my cousin Ama 1,200 cedis until the end of
March; she pays me back by mobile money…

The Builder picks the right agreement type, fills in the fields it heard, and opens the draft for you to review. Nothing is sent anywhere until you save and send it yourself. Each run costs one build — the Premium Pass includes some, and a build pack or add-on works on its own, no pass needed.

#The guide

A small tag follows you through the page, pointing at the next thing to do — name the document, fill the rows, save, send — and advances as each step completes. It is on by default for new visitors and follows you from the editor to the sending page. Toggle it any time with the Guide button in the header; dismissing it with × keeps it off until you ask for it again.

#Send it to them

A saved draft shows two choices: keep editing, or Send it to them. Sending hands them the document — like passing paper across a table. Your version locks, and you cannot edit until they respond.

Before it goes, Nhoma asks one question — Who should receive it? Their email or phone is optional, but with it the delivery buttons open straight to the right person. Below the question, a sentence shows the other side of the envelope: “They will see it arriving from your name” — click Change if that is not who should be on it.

#Ways to deliver

Once sent, the document is in their hands — you just have to get the link to them. Three free ways, plus one that uses your pass:

Telegram, SMS, and email-from-your-own-app live under More ways. The message names you as the sender, and only the signing link ever travels — never the document's content.

When the other party signs, Nhoma emails you at the address on the document — the first signature notice per document is free; later ones use your pass, and they stop after four per document.

#Your two links

Every sent document has exactly two keys:

#The review cycle

Nhoma documents are turn-based, like handing a paper contract across a table:

1. Send it to them locks your version and hands it over. You cannot edit until they respond.
2. The other party either accepts and signs or proposes amendments with an optional note.
3. Every amendment creates a new version. Compare versions as inline highlights or side-by-side before / after.
4. Sending amendments voids any existing signature — both parties re-sign the new version.

When both parties have signed the same version, the document records the agreed version and date, and each of you can download a copy.

#Signatures

There are three ways to sign, in one tabbed widget:

• Type — type your name and pick a signature style. Stored as text plus a font, so it stays sharp at any size, on screen and in print.
• Draw — sign with your finger or mouse. Four pens are available — ballpoint, fountain, brush, and fine liner — and switching pens redraws the signature you just made; the strokes you actually drew are what is stored.
• Sign on my phone — on a desktop, scan the QR code and draw the signature on your phone instead. The phone only sends the ink back to the screen you scanned from; nothing is agreed to from the phone, and the handoff expires after 15 minutes.

Each signature is recorded with the name typed exactly as written on the document, the date, and how it was made.

#The optional ID check

A signer can optionally add an ID check: photograph an ID card with the device camera, and Nhoma computes a SHA-256 fingerprint of it entirely on the device.

• The photo never leaves your phone.
• Only the fingerprint — a short code — is recorded next to the signature.
• Either party can later re-scan the same ID to check it matches the recorded fingerprint.

#Document statuses

#Your backup file

There are no accounts here. If this browser forgets — a cleared cache, a lost phone — your links are the only way back to a document. So every sent document offers Download my backup: a small file, free, containing

• your private link and the link for them,
• your recovery code for getting the whole list back later.

Anyone holding these links has the same access you do — keep the file somewhere private, and keep it.

#Email me my link

Prefer an inbox to a file? Add your own email address on the document page and press Email me my link, and your private link arrives in your inbox, where it survives a cleared cache or a new phone. Emailing uses one of your pass's ten emails — the backup download is the free path and does the same job. With a pass, saving your address mails the link to you once automatically.

#Get back in

Lost the device but kept your backup file? Get back into your documents asks for two things: your email address, and the recovery code from the backup file. Both, because an email address on its own is not a password — anybody could type yours. The matching documents are shown to you right there in the browser, with links that open them as the owner. Nothing is emailed, so there is nothing to intercept.

#My Documents

My Documents, in the header of every page, lists the agreements this browser knows about — drafts and sent documents alike. The list itself is stored only on your device; the documents it points to live on the server at their links. Clearing site data clears the list, not the documents — which is exactly what the backup file and recovery are for.

#Pricing: one document, or the year

Everything about drafting, sending, and signing is free — and nothing ever auto-renews. When one document deserves the full treatment, Seal it right ($3.99, one-time) upgrades just that document; Nhoma Plus ($19.99, one prepaid year) upgrades every document you make. Both through secure hosted checkout:

• Seal it right — $3.99 / document (or $5.99 with both sides ID-verified): export & print, Nhoma-sent emails and reminders (10 per document), one counterparty identity check (government ID + selfie, run by Didit, free for the signer — their signature then carries the verified name), and Interest & instalments on loans.
• Nhoma Plus — $19.99 / year, prepaid: every document upgraded all year, 12 identity checks (then $0.99 each), Builder builds (5 a month), voice and photo extraction, 5 gift cards for friends, and no sponsor messages. The year simply ends unless you buy again — we never charge without a new purchase.

The full comparison lives on the pricing page; refunds and cancellation are in the Terms (15-day window, minus what was used).

If you were given an unlock code, enter it in the paywall dialog instead of paying.

#Builder builds & packs

Each time the Builder turns a description into a finished agreement, that is one build. The Premium Pass includes 5 builds a month. Need more?

#Voice & photo extraction

Two ways to move a deal that already exists into a structured document, both part of the Premium Pass:

• Voice — describe the deal out loud and Nhoma transcribes the recording and structures it into the matching agreement fields. Review the suggestion, then insert it or dismiss it.
• Photo — photograph a handwritten IOU, a receipt, or notes from a negotiation, and Nhoma reads the image and proposes the fields the same way.

#Exporting documents

Export Document produces a printable rendering of the current version, laid out like a paper agreement: a letterhead, the amount on its own row, terms as a ruled table, and signature blocks with each signer's name and any recorded ID fingerprint. The footer carries the document ID and a QR code pointing at nhoma.app — the code carries no key, so a printed copy grants nobody access. Export is part of the Premium Pass.

#Languages

The interface is available in English, French, and Spanish — switch with the EN / FR / ES control in the app header. The language applies to the interface and templates; the text you write stays exactly as you wrote it. One exception for now: the guided builder speaks English only — the editor, sending, and signing pages are fully translated.

#Privacy & storage

• My Documents is stored only in your browser. Clearing site data clears the list — the documents themselves remain reachable through their links.
• Document content lives server-side keyed by its unguessable ID; anyone with a link can access what that link allows, and nobody else.
• The other party's email or phone, typed for delivery, is routing information — it is not part of the agreement's terms, and correcting a typo in it never voids a signature.
• ID card photos are processed on the device only; servers see the SHA-256 fingerprint, never the image.
• Voice recordings, photos for extraction, and draft text sent to Check my draft are processed to produce their result and are not used for anything else.

#Frequently asked questions

#Is Nhoma free?

Drafting, sending, and signing agreements are free, and the other party never pays anything. Upgrading one document — export & print, Nhoma-sent emails and reminders, an identity check on your counterparty, interest & instalments — is a one-time $3.99, or $5.99 with both sides ID-verified. Nhoma Plus is $19.99 for a prepaid year: every document upgraded, 12 identity checks, 5 AI builds a month, voice & photo extraction, and 5 gift cards. Nothing ever auto-renews. Heavier AI use: a $3.49 build pack (25 builds, 7 days) or $4.99 for 100 builds (30 days) — no plan needed. Full details on the pricing page.

#Does the other person need an account or an app?

No. They open the link you send them in any browser, review the document, and sign — from their phone, with no account, no app, and no payment. Nhoma itself has no accounts at all: documents live at their links.

#Are agreements signed on Nhoma legally binding?

Signatures made on Nhoma are electronic signatures intended by the parties to bind them, and Nhoma records the signed version, the time, and the signing context so a signature can be verified later. Whether a particular document type also needs notarisation, witnesses, or wet ink depends on your jurisdiction — see the Terms of Use and the disclaimer below.

#What happens if I lose my link?

Links are the keys, so keep a way back in: every sent document offers a free backup file with your links and a recovery code, and you can email yourself your link. With your email address and the recovery code, Get back in restores your document list. If you lose the links and never kept a backup or an email, the document cannot be recovered — Nhoma's servers cannot reissue a lost link.

#What kinds of agreements can I make?

Personal loans and gift notes, sales receipts for products or services — with ready-made forms for hundreds of specific items — and staged-work agreements paid milestone by milestone. Real-example templates cover common cases like a loan to a family member, a room rental, or a plumber contract.

#What languages does Nhoma support?

The interface is available in English, French, and Spanish. The guided builder currently speaks English only; your document's own text is always exactly what you wrote, in any language.

#Disclaimer

Nhoma automates document structure matching. It does not provide statutory legal advice or professional legal representation. For high-stakes agreements, have a qualified professional review the document before both of you sign.