# Claims & decisions

A bound buyer claim and a designated-reviewer decision precede refund execution.

Cleard provider API · 1.4.0 · Base Sepolia test USDC.

## File a qualifying claim

The beneficiary files the exact evidence hash onchain before the creation-based claim deadline and submits payload, personal signature and transaction_hash to /claims. The payload includes purchase_id, terms_hash, requested, reason and evidence. It must match the accepted reason and payment; another wallet or modified evidence is rejected.

## Review and approve

Only the accepted reviewer’s Ed25519 signature can authorize /decisions. Its payload binds purchase_id, terms_hash, evidence_hash, decision_id, approved, beneficiary and expires_at. Approval cannot exceed the requested/purchase amount or alter the beneficiary. This route supports positive approvals; rejection/case-management workflows are not implemented.

The claim, decision and collection deadlines are distinct frozen values. A timely claim permits review until the already frozen decision_deadline; it does not extend or restart any deadline. A first award must be accepted onchain before that decision deadline. Existing approved debt can recover only through its separate collection deadline. In V4, the first accepted decision’s expires_at is an additional collection upper bound, together with the signed mandate expiry. Signatures verify authority, not whether real-world evidence is true.

[Routing OpenAPI](https://cleard.ai/docs/routing-openapi.json): Exact claim and decision envelopes.

[Refund execution](https://cleard.ai/docs/api-refunds.md): Record approval, pay eligible funds and track shortfalls.