Legal · Terms

Terms of Service

Effective date: 2026-06-09 Last updated: 2026-06-09

Cairn is a personal project built and operated by AJ Bayoun, an individual ("I", "me", "my"). These Terms govern your use of the Cairn desktop app, mobile app, and any related website (the "Service").

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. They include a disclaimer of warranties (Section 10), a limitation of liability (Section 11), and an indemnification obligation (Section 12). By installing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

1. Who can use the Service

You need to be old enough to form a binding contract where you live (typically 18, or 13 with a parent's consent depending on your jurisdiction). If you use the Service for work, you confirm you have permission to do so.

2. Your account

  • If accounts exist, you're responsible for keeping your credentials safe and for anything that happens under your account.
  • Email me at aj@trycairn.io if you think someone else is using your account.
  • I may suspend or terminate accounts that break these Terms or applicable law.

3. License to use the Service

Subject to these Terms, I grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Service on devices you own or control, for your own personal or internal business use.

You may not:

  1. Copy, modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, or create derivative works of the Service, except where applicable law expressly allows it.
  2. Resell, rent, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service.
  3. Use the Service to build a competing product or to extract its data for that purpose.
  4. Remove or alter any notices or branding.
  5. Use bots, scrapers, or other automated means to access the Service except as I expressly permit.
  6. Circumvent rate limits, usage quotas, or other technical restrictions.
  7. Use the Service in any way that violates the law or these Terms.

4. Your content

4.1 You own your content

You keep all rights to the notes, attachments, and other content you create in the Service ("Your Content"). I claim no ownership.

4.2 What I'm allowed to do with it

You give me a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, transmit, display, and process Your Content only as needed to (a) run the Service for you, (b) sync your content across your devices if you turn sync on, (c) deliver the AI features you initiate, (d) keep the Service secure, and (e) comply with the law. This license ends when you delete Your Content or stop using the Service, except for backups and as the law requires.

4.3 You're responsible for it

You're solely responsible for Your Content. You confirm you have the rights to it and that it doesn't violate any law or anyone else's rights.

4.4 Back it up yourself

Please keep your own backups of anything important. I try to keep Your Content safe, but I can't guarantee it won't ever be lost or corrupted. Cairn is a small personal project, not a backup service.

5. AI features

Cairn sends some of your inputs to a third-party large language model provider — currently Anthropic (the Claude API) — to generate text ("AI Output"). By using these features, you understand and agree that:

  1. AI Output can be wrong. Generated text may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or made up ("hallucinations"). Do not rely on AI Output for legal, medical, financial, safety-critical, or any other professional decision. Verify independently before acting on it.
  2. AI Output is not unique. Similar prompts can produce similar or identical outputs across users. I don't guarantee originality.
  3. You're responsible for how you use AI Output, including any review, editing, attribution, and legal compliance.
  4. Be careful what you put into prompts. Don't include content you're not allowed to share with a third-party AI service — like regulated health data, third-party trade secrets, or material subject to a professional confidentiality obligation — unless you've confirmed you can.
  5. No training on your data. I don't use your prompts or AI Output to train AI models, and Anthropic doesn't train on data submitted through the API.

6. Acceptable use

Don't use the Service to:

  • Break the law or anyone's rights.
  • Upload or generate content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, sexually exploitative of minors, or otherwise abusive.
  • Infringe intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.
  • Distribute malware, spyware, or other harmful code.
  • Try to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, or my infrastructure.
  • Disrupt or interfere with the Service or its underlying networks.
  • Generate or facilitate violence, weapons of mass destruction, cyberattacks, child sexual abuse material, large-scale disinformation, or anything else banned by Anthropic's usage policies.

I may investigate violations and take action, including removing content, suspending or ending access, and cooperating with law enforcement.

7. Fees

The Service is free today. If I introduce paid features in the future, I'll give you notice and updated terms before any charge applies to you.

8. Updates and changes to the Service

Cairn is a personal project I work on in my own time. I may release updates, change features, or stop offering the Service at any time. I'll try to give reasonable notice if I shut something down.

9. My intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and other materials (other than Your Content) — belongs to me or to my licensors, and is protected by intellectual property laws. These Terms don't give you any right to use my name or branding without my prior written consent.

If you send me feedback or suggestions, I can use them freely, without owing you anything for them.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, I DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

I DO NOT WARRANT THAT:

  • THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE;
  • THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS;
  • ANY DATA WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR PRESERVED WITHOUT LOSS;
  • AI OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, ORIGINAL, OR FIT FOR ANY PURPOSE;
  • DEFECTS WILL BE FIXED.

YOU USE THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain warranty exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

  1. NO INDIRECT DAMAGES. I WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF I'VE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.
  1. CAP ON DIRECT DAMAGES. MY TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID ME FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) TWENTY-FIVE U.S. DOLLARS (US $25).
  1. AI OUTPUT. I AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DECISION YOU MAKE BASED ON AI OUTPUT, INCLUDING ANY LEGAL, MEDICAL, FINANCIAL, OR SAFETY-CRITICAL DECISION.
  1. YOUR CONTENT. I AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS, CORRUPTION, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO YOUR CONTENT, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT CAUSED BY MY GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, AND ONLY UP TO THE CAP IN SECTION 11.2.

THESE LIMITS APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain liability limits, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing here limits any liability that can't be limited under applicable law (for example, fraud, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence).

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold me harmless from any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from or related to: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation of applicable law or anyone else's rights; or (e) your use of AI Output. I may assume the defense of any matter at my expense, and you agree to cooperate.

13. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party services (today, the Claude API from Anthropic; potentially in the future, a hosted backend, sign-in providers, and so on). Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies. I'm not responsible for them.

14. Beta features

I may label some features "beta", "preview", or "experimental". They're provided as is, can change or disappear at any time, and may have additional terms. Don't rely on them for anything important.

15. Ending things

  • You can stop any time by uninstalling the app and, if accounts exist, deleting your account or emailing aj@trycairn.io.
  • I may suspend or end your access immediately if you violate these Terms or applicable law, or if I believe you're putting the Service or other users at risk. I may also discontinue the Service or your access with reasonable notice.
  • Sections that should reasonably survive — including 4.3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, and 18 — survive any ending.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of {{YOUR_STATE}}, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts located in {{YOUR_COUNTY_AND_STATE}} will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there. Each party waives any right to a jury trial. You agree to bring any claim on an individual basis and not as part of a class action.

(Replace {{YOUR_STATE}} and {{YOUR_COUNTY_AND_STATE}} with the U.S. state and county where you live, e.g., "State of California" and "Los Angeles County, California". If you live outside the U.S., replace both with your country/region and city.)

17. Changes to these Terms

I may update these Terms occasionally. If I make a meaningful change, I'll update the "Last updated" date and, where reasonable, let you know in the app or by email before it takes effect. Continued use after the change means you accept the update. If you don't agree, stop using the Service before the change takes effect.

18. Miscellaneous

  • Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and me about the Service.
  • Severability. If any part is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
  • No waiver. If I don't enforce something right away, I haven't waived the right to enforce it later.
  • Assignment. You can't assign these Terms without my consent. I may assign them in connection with a sale or transfer of the project.
  • Notices. I may give notices in the app or by email. You can send legal notices to me at aj@trycairn.io.
  • Force majeure. I'm not liable for failures caused by things beyond my reasonable control.
  • Independent parties. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship.

19. Contact

aj@trycairn.io

This document is a template I wrote for my own project. It is not legal advice. If you're reusing this for your own app, talk to a lawyer.

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