Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-05-11.

These Terms govern your use of the services operated by theAIstep under the Sawabona brand. By creating a vendor account or using the Sawabona managed licensing service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Services covered

These Terms apply to sawabona.dev, the Sawabona documentation, and the Sawabona managed licensing service. They do not apply to self-hosted installations of the Sawabona Apache-2.0 Rust core, which are governed by the Apache-2.0 license shipped with each project.

2. Open source vs commercial

The Sawabona Rust core, the SDKs (Python, Rust, TypeScript), and the CLI are open source under Apache-2.0. You may use, fork, and self-host them subject to that license, with no obligation to us.

The managed SaaS layer, the admin console, and the client portal are closed source. Use requires a valid subscription and is subject to these Terms plus any order form you accept at sign-up.

3. Vendor accounts

To use the managed service, you create a vendor account with a valid email. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secret and for all activity under your account. We may suspend accounts in case of suspected compromise or breach of these Terms.

4. Subscriptions and payment

4.1 Plans

Plans and pricing are scoped on request — see sawabona.dev/#pricing to request a quote. Paid plans carry the features and quotas agreed at the time of subscription.

4.2 Billing cycle

Monthly plans are billed in advance for the upcoming month. Pay-as-you-go transaction surcharges (on plans that include per-transaction pricing) are billed in arrears. Dedicated-deployment contracts are billed per the executed order form.

4.3 Renewal and cancellation

Subscriptions renew automatically. You can cancel at any time from your vendor dashboard; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not pro-rate refunds for partial periods, except where required by law.

4.4 Price changes

We may change prices for renewal periods with at least 30 days' notice. You can cancel before the change takes effect.

4.5 Taxes

Prices are exclusive of applicable taxes (VAT, sales tax). We add them at invoicing based on your billing address.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the services to:

• Violate any applicable law or third-party right.
• Send unsolicited bulk communications, spam, or malware via Sawabona-generated emails.
• Issue licenses for software that is itself unlawful or that infringes third-party rights.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other vendors' data or our infrastructure.
• Resell, sublicense, or white-label the managed service without explicit authorization (granted on a contract basis for dedicated-deployment plans).

6. Intellectual property

6.1 Our IP

The closed-source managed service, the marketing content, the trademark (“Sawabona”), and the visual identity remain the property of theAIstep. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use them as part of an active paid subscription.

6.2 Your data, your products, your customers

You own your products, your customer relationships, your license-issuance decisions, and the data you load into Sawabona. We make no claim to any of it. You grant us a limited right to process it strictly for delivering the licensing service you subscribed to.

6.3 Open source contributions

Contributions to the Sawabona open-source repositories are governed by each project's CONTRIBUTING file and the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO).

7. Hash-only doctrine

License keys are stored hashed (key_hash) at rest. Plaintext is returned in the API response that creates, rotates, or transfers a license — once. Webhooks deliver an opaque license identifier, never the key. If a key is lost, it must be rotated. This is a doctrine, not a configuration flag, and is locked by the regression test suite.

8. Confidentiality

Each party will protect the other's non-public information with at least the same care it uses for its own confidential information, and no less than a reasonable standard. Vendor product data and end-customer details are treated as confidential by default.

9. Service availability

We target high availability for the managed service but do not guarantee uninterrupted service except where a written SLA is in place (dedicated-deployment plans). Scheduled maintenance is announced in advance.

10. Warranties and disclaimers

We provide the services “as is” and disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all implied warranties (merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement). Sawabona enforces the license rules you configure; the design of your licensing model, pricing, and customer-relationship strategy remain your responsibility.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms is capped at the fees you paid us for the affected service in the 12 months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of revenue, profits, or data. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be excluded by law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims arising out of (i) your breach of these Terms, (ii) your use of the services in violation of law or third-party rights, or (iii) content or licenses you issue through Sawabona.

13. Termination

Either party may terminate at the end of the current billing period. We may terminate or suspend immediately for material breach of these Terms or non-payment. On termination, your right to use the managed service ceases; we provide an export of your license records on request.

14. Changes to the Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes are announced by email at least 30 days before they take effect.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by French law. Disputes that cannot be resolved through good-faith negotiation will be brought before the competent French courts, except where mandatory consumer-protection rules apply in your jurisdiction.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms or any service: hello@sawabona.dev.