Forge Terms of Service

Summary

This is a plain-language overview of the full Terms that follow. It is provided for convenience only and is not a substitute for the complete terms. If there is any conflict, the full terms control.

• You must be at least 13, able to enter into a contract, and not subject to applicable sanctions or export restrictions.
• You keep ownership of the code and other content you upload. You grant us a limited license to host, display, and back it up so we can operate the service.
• You are responsible for the security of your account and for everything done through it.
• You must follow our Acceptable Use Policy. Violations may result in suspension or termination.
• Paid plans are billed in advance and renew automatically until cancelled.
• The service is provided “as is.” Our liability is limited. Disputes are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina.

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) form a binding legal agreement between you and CommitShield, Inc. and govern your access to and use of Forge, including the website at www.commitshield.com, any associated subdomains, APIs, command-line tools, mobile and desktop applications, and any other software, services, or features we offer in connection with Forge (collectively, the “Service”).

By creating an account, accessing the Service, or clicking a button or checkbox indicating acceptance, you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, our Privacy Policy, and any additional policies or agreements referenced herein. If you do not agree, you must not access or use the Service.

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an organization, company, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms, in which case “you” and “your” refer to that entity and its authorized users.

2. Eligibility and accounts

2.1 Age and capacity

You must be at least 13 years of age to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13, and such accounts are not permitted.

2.2 Account registration

To access most features of the Service, you must register for an account by providing a valid email address and any additional information we reasonably require. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep that information up to date. One individual or legal entity may maintain only one free personal account. Additional automation or machine accounts may be created in accordance with our published guidelines.

2.3 Account security

You are solely responsible for safeguarding your credentials, access tokens, SSH keys, and any other means of authentication associated with your account. You must notify us immediately at security@commitshield.com of any suspected unauthorized access or breach. We are not liable for any loss, damage, or unauthorized activity that results from your failure to protect your credentials.

2.4 Organizations and team accounts

The Service permits the creation of Organizations, which are shared workspaces used by multiple users. An Organization must have at least one designated owner, who is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the Organization, the management of its members, and compliance with these Terms. Owners may grant varying levels of access to other users, but this does not relieve the Organization of responsibility for actions taken on or through its account.

3. Your content

3.1 Ownership

You retain all right, title, and interest in and to any source code, documentation, data, configuration, images, issues, comments, or other materials you upload, submit, post, or otherwise make available through the Service (“Your Content”). These Terms do not transfer ownership of Your Content to CommitShield.

3.2 License to CommitShield

To operate and provide the Service, you grant CommitShield a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, modify (for the limited purpose of formatting, compression, encoding, and similar technical operations), create derivative works of (solely as required to support features such as previews, diffs, search indexing, and merge requests), publicly display, and perform Your Content. This license exists only for the purpose of enabling us to provide the Service and terminates when Your Content is removed from the Service, except to the extent needed for backups, legal compliance, dispute resolution, or enforcement of our agreements.

3.3 License to other users

If you configure a repository or other content as public, you grant each other user of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide license to view, fork, and display Your Content through the Service. You also acknowledge that, unless you apply an open source or other license permitting broader use, viewers of a public repository obtain no rights in Your Content beyond what is necessary to use the Service as designed (for example, forking within Forge).

3.4 Responsibility for Your Content

You are solely responsible for Your Content and for any harm arising from it. You represent and warrant that: (a) you own or have obtained all rights, licenses, consents, and permissions necessary to post Your Content and to grant the licenses set forth above; (b) Your Content does not infringe or violate the intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party; and (c) Your Content does not violate any law, these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or any agreement you have with a third party.

3.5 Moderation and removal

We do not pre-screen content, but we reserve the right (though not the obligation) to review, remove, disable access to, or refuse to display any content that we determine, in our sole discretion, violates these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law, or that is otherwise objectionable. We may also suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly or egregiously violate these policies.

3.6 AI model training

CommitShield will not use Your Content to train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models without your express request. Where you elect to enable an AI-assisted feature that trains on Your Content, the scope and duration of that processing will be disclosed to you at the point of opt-in, and you may withdraw that consent at any time. See also our Privacy Policy for the privacy-law framing of the same commitment.

4. Privacy of repositories and data

4.1 Public and private repositories

When creating a repository, you may designate it as public or private. Public repositories are visible to anyone, whether or not they have a Forge account. Private repositories are visible only to users you explicitly grant access, subject to limited exceptions described in our Privacy Policy (for example, authorized CommitShield personnel investigating a suspected violation or responding to a legal request).

4.2 Personnel access

CommitShield personnel will not access the contents of private repositories except: (a) with your consent; (b) when necessary for security reasons, including to investigate reports of malware or an active attack; (c) as reasonably required to maintain or improve the Service, such as diagnosing infrastructure issues; or (d) to comply with our legal obligations. Where we access the contents of a private repository, we will limit access to the minimum necessary and log such access.

4.3 Privacy Policy

Our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Privacy Policy.

5. Fees, subscriptions, and billing

5.1 Free and paid plans

We offer both free and paid subscription plans. Features and usage limits for each plan are described on our pricing page. We reserve the right to modify the features, usage limits, or pricing of any plan upon reasonable notice.

5.2 Billing

Paid subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis, depending on the plan you select, and renew automatically at the end of each billing cycle unless cancelled before the next renewal date. You authorize us (and our payment processors) to charge your designated payment method for all applicable fees, including taxes, in accordance with the plan you selected.

5.3 Non-refundable

Except where required by law or expressly stated in these Terms, all fees are non-refundable. No refunds or credits will be issued for partial billing periods, unused features, or downgrades.

5.4 Overages and limits

Certain plans include quantitative limits (for example, on storage, bandwidth, build minutes, or seats). If you exceed a limit, we may (a) throttle or suspend the affected feature, (b) bill you at the applicable overage rate disclosed at the time of purchase, or (c) require you to upgrade to a higher plan.

5.5 Taxes

Fees are exclusive of applicable taxes unless otherwise stated. You are responsible for all applicable sales, use, value-added, goods and services, and similar taxes, excluding taxes based on our net income.

6. Acceptable use

Your use of the Service is subject to our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated into and forms part of these Terms. You must not use the Service in any manner that violates applicable law, infringes the rights of others, compromises the security or integrity of the Service, or places an undue burden on our infrastructure.

7. APIs, automation, and scraping

You may access the Service programmatically only through our publicly documented APIs or other interfaces we expressly authorize. You must not scrape, crawl, or otherwise harvest content from the Service except as permitted by our robots.txt file or with our prior written consent. Your use of our APIs is subject to any applicable rate limits, quotas, or additional terms that we publish or communicate. Automated activity (including by bots, scripts, or AI agents) must not degrade the performance of the Service for other users.

8. Copyright and DMCA

8.1 Notice and takedown

CommitShield respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects users to do the same. We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). If you believe that content on the Service infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice to our designated agent as described at www.commitshield.com/dmca.

8.2 Counter-notices

If you believe that your content was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notice in accordance with the DMCA. Instructions are available at www.commitshield.com/dmca.

8.3 Repeat infringers

We will, in appropriate circumstances, suspend or terminate the accounts of users who are determined to be repeat infringers.

9. Our intellectual property

CommitShield, Forge, the CommitShield logo, and all related names, trademarks, service marks, and logos are the property of CommitShield, Inc. Except as expressly granted in these Terms, no license or other right is granted to you in or to our intellectual property, including the Service itself, its source code (other than open source components released by us under their respective licenses), design, user interface, or documentation.

You may not: (a) copy, modify, or create derivative works of the Service; (b) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law; (c) remove or alter any proprietary notices; or (d) use our trademarks without our prior written consent, except for nominative fair use.

10. Third-party services and integrations

The Service may interoperate with or link to third-party services, including integrations published by third-party developers through our marketplace or APIs. Your use of such third-party services is governed by the terms and privacy policies of the applicable third party, not these Terms. CommitShield does not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for any third-party service, and you access and use them at your own risk.

11. Beta and preview features

We may occasionally make features available on an alpha, beta, preview, experimental, or “early access” basis (“Beta Features”). Beta Features are provided “as is” and may contain bugs or errors, may be modified or discontinued at any time, and may not be supported at the same level as generally available features. Any feedback you provide regarding Beta Features may be used by CommitShield without restriction.

12. Suspension and termination

12.1 By you

You may cancel your account at any time through your account settings. Cancellation will take effect at the end of the current billing period, and you will continue to have access to paid features through that date unless we determine that earlier termination is required by these Terms.

12.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, at any time, with or without notice, if: (a) you violate these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law; (b) continued provision of the Service to you poses a risk to CommitShield, other users, or third parties; (c) we are required to do so by law or legal process; or (d) we discontinue the Service or any part of it.

12.3 Effect of termination

Upon termination, your right to access and use the Service ceases immediately. We may delete Your Content within a reasonable period after termination. You are encouraged to export Your Content before termination; after termination, access to Your Content may be permanently lost. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership, licenses you have granted, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnities, and dispute resolution) will survive.

13. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” with all faults and without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, CommitShield and its affiliates, officers, employees, agents, suppliers, and licensors disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components, or that any defects will be corrected.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will CommitShield or its affiliates, officers, employees, agents, suppliers, or licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your access to or use of, or inability to access or use, the Service, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence), statute, or any other legal theory, and whether or not we have been informed of the possibility of such damages.

In all cases, CommitShield’s total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid to CommitShield for the Service during the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the liability, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless CommitShield, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of or relating to: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of or access to the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy; or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party. CommitShield reserves the right to assume exclusive control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.

16. Export controls and sanctions

The Service may be subject to export control and economic sanctions laws, including those administered by the United States. You represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of a country or region subject to a comprehensive embargo, and that you are not identified on any sanctioned, restricted, or denied party list. You will not use the Service in violation of applicable export control or sanctions laws.

17. Changes to the Service and Terms

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service at any time, with or without notice. We may also modify these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide at least thirty (30) days’ advance notice through the Service or by email. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of a revised version of these Terms constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

18. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service will be governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, USA, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in North Carolina for any action not subject to the arbitration provisions below.

[ARBITRATION / CLASS ACTION WAIVER: Insert jurisdiction-appropriate arbitration and class-action waiver provisions here, subject to review by qualified counsel.]

19. Miscellaneous

19.1 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Acceptable Use Policy, the Privacy Policy, and any additional policies or agreements we reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and CommitShield with respect to the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals.

19.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect, and the invalid or unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable.

19.3 No waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of that right or provision.

19.4 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms at any time without notice.

19.5 Notices

Notices to you may be sent to the email address on file with your account or by posting to the Service. Notices to us must be sent to: CommitShield, Inc., Attn: Legal, [ADDRESS], or legal@commitshield.com.

19.6 Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to legal@commitshield.com.