phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

You can not sign a document on behalf of a corporation unles

Error message

You can not sign a document on behalf of a corporation unless you are logged in.

What it means

LegalpadDocumentSignController::readCorporateSignatureForm() records which user signed on the corporation's behalf, so it requires an authenticated viewer and throws immediately when $viewer->isLoggedIn() is false. Anonymous visitors can sign documents individually, but the corporation flow has no anonymous path.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/legalpad/controller/LegalpadDocumentSignController.php:608

          $field_errors['email'] = pht('Invalid');
          $errors[] = pht('A valid email is required.');
        } else {
          $field_errors['email'] = null;
        }
      }
    }
    $signature_data['email'] = $email;

    return array($signature_data, $errors, $field_errors);
  }

  private function readCorporateSignatureForm(
    LegalpadDocument $document,
    AphrontRequest $request) {

    $viewer = $request->getUser();
    if (!$viewer->isLoggedIn()) {
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'You can not sign a document on behalf of a corporation unless '.
          'you are logged in.'));
    }

    $signature_data = array();
    $errors = array();
    $field_errors = array();

    $name = $request->getStr('name');

    if (!strlen($name)) {
      $field_errors['name'] = pht('Required');
      $errors[] = pht('Company name is required.');
    } else {
      $field_errors['name'] = null;
    }
    $signature_data['name'] = $name;

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

Log in (or restore the session) and submit the corporate signature again.
If scripting, authenticate first or use Conduit/CLI paths that operate as a real user.
In custom controllers, gate the corporate flow on $viewer->isLoggedIn() before rendering the form (see exampleFix).

Example fix

// before
$signature_data = $this->readCorporateSignatureForm($document, $request);
// after
if ($viewer->isLoggedIn()) {
  $signature_data = $this->readCorporateSignatureForm($document, $request);
} else {
  return $this->newDialog()
    ->setTitle(pht('Log In Required'))
    ->appendParagraph(pht('Corporate signatures require a logged-in account.'))
    ->addCancelButton('/login/');
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Gate corporate signing before reading the form:
$viewer = $request->getUser();
if (!$viewer->isLoggedIn()) {
  return id(new Aphront404Response()); // or redirect to /login/
}
$signature_data = $this->readCorporateSignatureForm($document, $request);

Prevention

Never render the corporation signature form to anonymous viewers; branch on isLoggedIn() at the action level.
For long signing forms, warn before session expiry so submissions do not die on this check.
Use Conduit or authenticated CLI paths for scripted signatures.

When it happens

Trigger: A POST to the legalpad document sign endpoint with signatureType=corporation from a logged-out session -- curl, an expired session mid-form, or a scripted client that never authenticates.

Common situations: Session expiring while a long corporate-signing form was being filled; custom integrations hitting the sign controller without a logged-in cookie; UI flow bugs that render the corporate form to anonymous users.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/55e227a57e4d3ce5. Report an issue: GitHub.