Sierrafy
An open-source SDK for checking Sierra Leonean identity documents. It runs offline, stores nothing, and is free to self-host.
NCRA built Sierra Leone's national identity infrastructure. Sierrafy is the developer layer above it: a clean API so any developer can use that foundation without specialised expertise.
What works today
| Layer | Status |
|---|---|
| NIN format validation | Shipped in v0.1.0 |
| Document OCR for the National eID | Experimental, see OCR |
| Face matching | In development |
| Fraud signals | In development |
| NFC chip reading | In development |
| Live registry lookup | Phase 2, needs an NCRA partnership |
What it does not do
Sierrafy checks whether an identity document is structurally valid. It does not query the NCRA database, so it cannot tell you a NIN is registered or active. That is Phase 2, as a hand-off to NCRA's own service.
NCRA remains the authority. Sierrafy is the developer layer that sits above it. Read the full scope before building on it.
Start here
npm install @sierrafy/sdk
import { validateNin } from '@sierrafy/sdk/nin';
validateNin('ABCD1234');
// { valid: true, nin: 'ABCD1234',
// checks: { length: true, charset: true, checksum: true, blacklist: true } }
Install covers the optional dependencies, and NIN validation covers the full API.