Certificates

Certificates are shareable proof that someone finished a program, passed an assessment, or met a competency. The module separates three things: the template (how it looks), the credential (what it means), and the rules (where it applies and when it fires). Every issued credential gets a public verification page anyone can open without signing in.

This works the same whether you run corporate training, a customer academy, a university course, or a school.

What this does

Certificates records that a person earned something, renders an artwork file for it, and publishes a verification page at a permanent link. Depending on your context that might be a course completion certificate, a professional credential, a micro-credential, or a training record. Holders find their credentials in My credentials, where they can download a PDF, copy the verification link, or add the credential to LinkedIn.

Certificates is a single entry in your navigation. Inside it, an in-page side menu holds five sections:

Templates — the artwork. System gallery styles you clone, plus your own.
Credentials — what each credential means: title, code, type, validity, description.
Rules & triggers — where a credential applies (program, assessment, competency…) and when it is earned, released, and issued.
Issued — every credential ever issued, searchable, with revoke and reissue.
Issuers & branding — the issuer identity that signs every credential.

Before you start

You need permission to read certificate templates to open the module at all, and permission to manage templates, rules, or issuance to change anything.
The program, assessment, or competency you want to attach a credential to must already exist.

Design a template

Templates start from Lurno’s system gallery — system styles are read-only, so you always work on a copy.

Open Certificates. You land on Templates.
On a system style, choose Clone & theme (this copies it into your organization and opens the editor). New template clones the default system style instead. Use the eye button to Preview a style before cloning.
In the editor, work in Easy or Advanced mode — both edit the same document.
- Easy gives you Accent, Theme (Dark / Light), and Fields shown toggles. The toggles you get are the ones the style actually contains — typically score / grade, credential ID, QR + verify link, and signature.
- Advanced adds Zones — add, move, resize, and restyle individual text zones, and pick merge fields, typeface, size, weight, colour, and alignment.
A live preview with sample data sits beside the controls the whole time.
Choose Save draft or Publish. Be careful here: both save a new version and make it the one that renders from that moment on. The only difference is that Publish also flips the template’s own status from Draft to Active. There is no way to park an unfinished version, so if you don’t want your edits reaching new certificates yet, work on a clone and switch the credential over when you’re happy.

Branding is inherited: the editor shows Branding — Inherited from your org brand and links to Issuers & branding for logo, signature, and seal. See Branding & theming.

Set up the issuer

Issuers & branding holds the identity that appears on and signs every credential. Fill in Display name, Legal name, Support email, Default locale, and Website, upload Logo, Signature, and Seal (each falls back to your org theme until you upload one), and optionally add a LinkedIn organization ID so holders can use “Add to profile”. Choose Save issuer. If you have no issuer yet, saving these details creates one.

Define a credential

A credential is defined once, independently of any template revision.

Go to Credentials and choose New credential.
Fill in Title and Code, choose a Type — Cert, Badge, or Micro (each card explains when to pick it) — and pick the Template it renders with.
Add a Description and an Instructor (Taught by) if you want one shown — Use course instructor fills it from the linked course.
Set the Public visibility default: Private or Public page.
Choose Validity: Perpetual, Expires after a period (valid for N days), or Renewable / recertification (auto-recertifies on a set cadence).
Optionally record compliance details — credit hours (CEU/CPD) and Open Badges alignment.
Choose Save credential.

Credentials can be archived and restored from the row actions menu.

Attach it and set the rules

Rules live on the credential, not on the template.

Choose Rules & triggers in the side menu. It lands on the credentials list with the prompt “Pick a credential to edit where it applies and when it fires” — rules always belong to one credential, so open that credential’s Rules & triggers action to get to its own rules page.
Under Where does it apply? choose Add target and pick a target type, then the entity. Programs, assessments, competencies, and modules have working pickers today; lessons and assignments show a “coming soon” note because their lookup ships with those modules.
Picking a target attaches it immediately with the default policy (Complete / Immediately / Auto). Each attachment then gets its own rule card:
- When is it earned? — Complete, Score ≥ (with a minimum percentage), or Pass. Percentages are computed for you from raw ÷ max, not raw points.
- When is it released? — Immediately, On a date, or After window. “After window” asks for a scheduling window and a number of days after it closes; there is no window picker yet, so you paste the window’s ID.
- How is it issued? — Auto (fires the moment someone qualifies), Manual (nothing fires; you award it from Issued), or Bulk backfill.
Choose Save rule on each card you change.

Attaching the same credential to two targets gives you two attachments on one credential — that’s an “or”. Issuance is exactly-once per person.

Some rules use a scheduled trigger edited elsewhere; those show read-only so they aren’t changed by accident.

From a program or an assessment

You can also set this from the learning surface without opening the module:

Program → Completion rules → Certificate: choose No certificate, Issue automatically on completion, or Issue manually after teacher review — the third option is worded that way whatever your context, and simply means a person releases the credential. Then pick which credential. See Building a course.
Assessment → Certificate panel: No certificate, Issue automatically, or Issue manually, with Earned when set to Passed, Score at least…, or Completed. See Building an assessment.

Both panels write the same attachment you’d create under Rules & triggers — the program panel does it when you choose Save completion rules, the assessment panel has its own Save certificate rule button. Templates and branding still live in the Certificates module.

Issue, revoke, and reissue

Issued lists every credential ever issued, a page at a time. Filter by credential and by status (Issued, Pending, Revoked, Expired) — those reload the list from the server. The search box narrows only the page you’re looking at, by name, serial, or credential; if you don’t find someone, page on or use the filters first. Download saves what’s currently on screen as a CSV, not the whole history.

Issue opens a manual award: pick the credential, add recipients (a group or a person), and record a Reason — it’s captured in the audit trail.
Bulk issue & backfill issues to everyone who already met the bar, with an option to backfill historical completions. It runs as a background job and skips people who already hold the credential.
Row actions: View, Retry render (only while a credential is pending or has failed), Replace & reissue (correct a name or move to a newer template version — the old serial then verifies as “replaced”), and Revoke (reason required and audited; the record is kept with a revoked timestamp, never deleted). Once a credential is revoked or replaced, reissue and revoke disappear from its menu.

Opening a row shows the Credential lifecycle — an immutable timeline of created / rendered / issued / downloaded / shared / verified / revoked events, plus the serial and the number of verification lookups.

Verification and the holder’s wallet

Every issued credential gets a permanent public page at /verify/<code>, where the code is a random string generated at issue — it is not the serial number. When the template’s QR field is switched on, that link is also encoded as a QR on the certificate artwork itself, so scanning a printed or downloaded certificate opens the page. The page itself shows the link as copyable text rather than a QR.

The page shows the credential, the issuer, the issue date, the serial, and how many times it has been looked up, and states whether it is Verified, Revoked, Expired, or Not found. It deliberately shows the minimum: no email, and the recipient’s name only when the holder has opted in. Verification is rate-limited to protect holders.

A Serial number box appears on the “no credential found” page so a visitor can try another link. It looks the value up as a verification code, so pasting a CERT-… serial into it will not find anything — share the verification link itself.

If your organization has a verified custom domain, verification links are built on your domain rather than the Lurno default, so a white-labelled credential verifies on your own host. See Custom domain.

Holders reach My credentials from their account menu, where they can download a PDF, Share (copy the verification link and toggle Show my name publicly), or add the credential to LinkedIn. See Progress & certificates.

Reference

Where	What it controls
Templates	Artwork only. Clone a system style, then set accent, theme, visible fields, and zones. Both Save draft and Publish make the new version live.
Credentials	Title, code, type, template, description, instructor, public visibility default, validity, compliance fields.
Rules & triggers	Targets the credential attaches to, plus earned / released / issued policy per attachment.
Issued	Filter and page through issuances, search within a page, download the visible rows; manual issue, bulk issue, replace & reissue, revoke; lifecycle timeline.
Issuers & branding	Display and legal name, support email, locale, website, LinkedIn org ID, logo, signature, seal.
Verification	Public page per issued credential. The QR that points at it is printed on the certificate artwork. Name shown only on opt-in.

Troubleshooting

Someone completed the program but got no certificate. Check the credential’s Rules & triggers: the program must be attached, and the attachment’s How is it issued? must be Auto. If it is Manual, nothing fires automatically — award it from Issued.

A credential is stuck on “Pending” or “Rendering”. Rendering happens in the background and can fail temporarily. Use Retry render from the row actions or the lifecycle page.

The certificate shows the wrong name. Use Replace & reissue from the row actions. The new issuance links back to the original, and the old serial verifies as “replaced”.

I can’t edit a template. System gallery styles are read-only. Use Clone & theme (or Clone to edit in the editor) to make a copy in your organization first.

I saved a draft and the change went live anyway. That’s how it behaves — Save draft activates the version it saves, exactly like Publish. Clone the template before experimenting.

There’s no way to rename a template. There isn’t one in the editor. A cloned system style keeps the original’s title and a new template is created as “New certificate” — distinguish them with the credential title instead.

The verification page doesn’t show the recipient’s name. That’s the default. Public pages show the name only when the holder switches Show my name publicly on for that credential.

I can’t attach a credential to a lesson or an assignment. Those target types have no picker yet. Attach to the program, module, assessment, or competency instead.

Looking up a serial number on the verification page finds nothing. That box matches verification codes, not the CERT-… serial printed on the certificate. Use the credential’s verification link, which the holder can copy from My credentials and you can open from the issuance’s lifecycle page.

A button is there but the action is refused. The module’s screens don’t currently hide what your role can’t do — a read-only role still sees Publish, Issue, and Revoke. The refusal comes from the server. Ask an organization admin to issue, revoke, or change rules for you.

“Too many lookups” on the verification page. Verification is rate-limited to protect credential holders. Wait a minute and try again.

Branding looks off. Certificate branding seeds from your org theme and is overridden in Issuers & branding. Update it there, or in Branding & theming, then re-check the preview.