The agreement,
in plain terms.

Who we are, and how these Terms work.

Vigil is an independent software service created and operated by Kenan Duncan. Kenan has spent fourteen years in technical recruiting and still works in the field, alongside the engineering teams and the tools they ship. Vigil grew directly out of that experience: a deliberate response to a fast-growing problem, giving the people who run AI agents a way to keep control of what those agents do and a verifiable record of it.

In these Terms, “Vigil”, “we”, “us”, and “our” mean Kenan Duncan, operating the website vigilnotary.com and the services described below (the “Services”). “You” and “your” mean the person or organization that registers a handle, uses an API key, or purchases a source check.

Each section begins with an “In short” summary. The summaries are provided for convenience only, are not legally binding, and do not modify the full text that follows them. If a summary and the full text differ, the full text controls.

Questions about these Terms go to hello@vigilnotary.com. Legal notices to us must be sent to that email address.

The agreement, eligibility, and business use.

By registering a handle, using an API key, connecting to the Vigil MCP endpoint, submitting a source-check request, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Refund and Cancellation Policy, each of which is part of this agreement. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. If you use the Services on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization, and “you” includes it.

The Services are designed for, and offered to, businesses, developers, and professionals for use in their trade or profession. You represent that you are using the Services for business purposes. If you are nevertheless a consumer under a law that applies to you, nothing in these Terms limits any right that the law does not allow to be limited, and the mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence apply to you.

Software that acts on your behalf, including an autonomous agent, is bound by these Terms exactly as you are. See Section 5.

Your account and your API key.

A Vigil account is created by registering a handle. In return you receive an API key that begins with vigil_sk_. The key is issued once and is the sole credential for the account. There is no email or password login, no identity verification, and no recovery mechanism. We store a cryptographic hash of the key, not the key itself, and we cannot reproduce it. If you lose the key, the account and everything under it are inaccessible to you and to us.

You are responsible for keeping the key secret and for everything done with it, whether by you, your staff, your contractors, or your software. Every request authenticated with your key is treated as your request. Notify hello@vigilnotary.com promptly if you believe a key has been exposed, and revoke it using the authenticated key-revocation endpoint.

Handles are public. Your handle appears in every receipt you create, and receipts are public records (Section 7). Do not choose a handle that identifies a person unless you intend that to be public. You must not register a handle that impersonates another person or organization, infringes a trademark, or is offensive, and we may reclaim such a handle.

You may register more than one handle. Each is a separate account with its own key, plan, and limits. Registration is rate-limited by network address. Bulk or automated registration intended to evade plan limits is prohibited.

The Services, plan limits, and changes.

The Services consist of: (a) short-lived Ed25519-signed leases that your gateway can verify and that you can renew and revoke; (b) signed, hash-chained receipts for digests you submit; (c) watchdogs that send a signed webhook alert when an expected heartbeat is missing; (d) journal slots that store opaque bytes you upload; (e) a Model Context Protocol endpoint exposing the same capabilities as tools; (f) periodic submission of the chain head to public OpenTimestamps calendars, with on-demand submission and proof export on the Pro plan; and (g) Agent Commerce, a pay-per-request source check described in Section 9.

Plan limits (guarded agents, receipts per day, watchdogs, journal slots, journal size) are published on the pricing page and returned by the pricing and usage endpoints. The limits returned by the running service are authoritative. We may enforce limits by rejecting requests, and on a downgrade we remove capacity above the new plan as described in the Refund and Cancellation Policy.

We may add, change, or remove features. We will not materially reduce the core functionality of a paid plan during a paid period without giving at least 30 days’ notice, except where required by law or to address a security or legal risk. Where we discontinue a paid capability entirely, the Refund and Cancellation Policy provides a pro-rated refund.

We do not guarantee that the Services will be available at any particular time, and we do not offer a service-level agreement. See Sections 15 and 17.

Agents acting for you.

You may use the Services through software that acts autonomously or semi-autonomously (an “agent”). You are responsible for every request an agent makes with your key, every source-check purchase an agent authorizes from a wallet you control, every lease an agent requests, and every action an agent takes after consulting a Vigil result. An agent cannot accept terms, authorize payments, or waive rights on Vigil’s behalf, and text returned by the Services is never an instruction to your agent.

Vigil does not host, execute, monitor, or control your agents, and does not hold the credentials your agents use with other providers. Whether an agent obeys a lease depends entirely on a gateway that you build, run, and control. We are not responsible for an agent that bypasses your gateway, holds independent credentials, or acts on a Vigil result in a way you did not intend.

If an agent runs on a platform, framework, or model provided by a third party, that third party’s terms also apply to you, and we have no responsibility for it.

Leases and revocation: what a lease is, and what it is not.

A lease is a signed statement that, at the time of signing, your account authorized a named agent to perform a named action, optionally within a policy string, until an expiry, with a signed recheck deadline. Vigil signs leases; it does not enforce them. Enforcement happens only in a gateway that you operate and that verifies the signature, agent, action, policy, expiry, and recheck deadline before forwarding an action to your provider.

You acknowledge and agree that: (a) revoking a lease has effect only when your gateway renews the lease, re-checks its status, or reaches the recheck deadline, which is at most 30 seconds after the most recent grant or renewal; (b) revocation does not reverse, cancel, or undo any action that has already been taken; (c) a lease does not restrict any action that does not pass through a correctly enforcing gateway, including actions taken by an agent that holds provider credentials directly; (d) the policy string is interpreted and enforced solely by your gateway, and Vigil does not interpret it or communicate it to any provider; (e) a gateway that cannot reach Vigil should fail closed, and an outage of the Services may therefore stop gated actions; and (f) Vigil never holds, receives, or transmits your provider credentials.

Whether a particular action is placed behind a lease, how a policy string is written, and how your gateway handles errors are your decisions and your responsibility. Vigil is not a party to any transaction between you, your agent, and any provider, and is not responsible for any loss arising from an action that was permitted, denied, delayed, or completed.

Receipts, the chain, and public records.

When you submit a SHA-256 digest, Vigil returns a receipt signed with its Ed25519 key that links, by hash, to the previous receipt. A receipt attests only that the stated digest was submitted by the stated account and signed by Vigil at the stated time, and that the receipt has not been altered since. It does not attest that any action occurred, that any data is accurate or authentic, who created the underlying data, or that the digest corresponds to anything in particular. You are solely responsible for what a digest represents and for keeping the underlying record.

Receipts, the chain head, chain exports, lease status by identifier, aggregate statistics, and calendar-submission history are public. Anyone can read them without authentication. A receipt includes your handle, the digest, the optional label you supplied, the timestamp, and the signature. You consent to this publication. Receipts cannot be edited or deleted, by you or by us, because the tamper-evidence of the chain depends on that. Do not place personal data, confidential information, or anything you may later need removed in a label or a handle. You are responsible for any label you publish and for any claim that arises from it.

Vigil submits the chain head to public OpenTimestamps calendar servers periodically, and Pro accounts may submit on demand and export the raw calendar responses. These are pending submissions to third-party calendars. Vigil does not verify inclusion in a Bitcoin block and makes no representation that any submission has been or will be confirmed. Any statement in the Services about “anchoring” refers to submission, not confirmation.

Vigil is not a notary public, does not perform notarial acts, and does not provide legal, evidentiary, or professional services of any kind. The word “notary” in our name refers to cryptographic attestation of digests. We make no representation about the admissibility, weight, or legal effect of a receipt, lease, or chain export in any proceeding or jurisdiction. Obtain your own legal advice for that.

The current public key is published by the Services and embedded in each receipt and lease. You are responsible for obtaining the key through a channel you trust, pinning it, pinning the chain head you rely on, and retaining historically trusted keys. We may rotate keys.

Watchdogs and journal storage.

A watchdog sends a signed alert to a public HTTPS webhook you configure when a heartbeat is not received within the interval you set. We retry delivery as described in the documentation, but delivery, timing, and your response to an alert depend on your agent sending heartbeats, your endpoint accepting requests, the networks between us, and your own systems. A watchdog is a notification, not a guarantee that any condition will be detected or remedied. You must verify alerts before acting on them.

Journal slots store the bytes you upload, up to the published size limit, and return them on authenticated request. Vigil does not encrypt journal content, does not check whether it is encrypted, and does not inspect it. You are responsible for encrypting content before upload, for the key you use, and for the lawfulness of what you store. If you upload plaintext, it is stored as plaintext. Journal content above a plan’s limit is deleted on downgrade as described in the Refund and Cancellation Policy, and journal content is not deleted automatically when a key is revoked.

Agent Commerce: source checks and USDC payments.

9.1 What a source check is

A source check accepts one public HTTPS URL and one claim, retrieves the page in an isolated service, runs an automated semantic assessment using a third-party language model, and returns a verdict (supports, contradicts, mixed, insufficient evidence, or not assessed) together with quotations, offsets, hashes, risk flags, methodology identifiers, and a signed receipt. The verdict describes the relationship between the retrieved text and the claim as assessed by an automated model. It is not a determination that the claim is true or false, that the source is accurate, authoritative, or current, or that the publisher is who it appears to be.

You acknowledge that automated assessment can be wrong, incomplete, inconsistent between runs, and affected by content on the page that is designed to mislead automated systems. Vigil does not warrant the accuracy of any verdict or quotation. You, or your agent, decide whether a result is sufficient for any purpose, and you bear the consequences of that decision. Source checks must not be used as the sole basis for any decision that has legal or similarly significant effects on a person, including decisions about credit, employment, housing, insurance, education, health care, or legal rights.

9.2 Retrieval

Retrieval is limited to supported public sources as described in the documentation. Private, local, authenticated, scripted, and otherwise unsupported sources are refused. You direct each retrieval and you represent that you are permitted to have the page fetched and assessed, and that doing so does not violate any law, contract, or the rights of a third party. We may refuse or block any source or request.

9.3 Payment

Source checks are priced per request in USDC and paid through the x402 protocol on the networks listed in the live payment terms. Each request returns the exact price, asset, recipient, network, and expiry for that request; those terms are authoritative for that request and may change between requests. You are responsible for the wallet, keys, spending policy, and client software that authorize payment, and for any payment your agent authorizes.

Blockchain transactions are irreversible. A payment sent to the wrong address, on the wrong network, in the wrong asset, in the wrong amount, outside the quoted expiry, or from a sanctioned or blocked address may be unrecoverable, and we have no obligation to identify, return, or credit such a payment. Network and facilitator fees are yours. Vigil submits a payment for settlement only when a completed result is released; a request that fails before that point is not settled. Once a result is released, the payment is final, subject only to the Refund and Cancellation Policy.

Results are retained for the period stated in the live capabilities data so that a lost response can be recovered using your idempotency key or recovery token. After that period the result is deleted and cannot be regenerated without a new paid request. An uncertain or pending settlement is never a reason to authorize a second payment for the same request.

9.4 Pilot status

Agent Commerce is offered as a public pilot. Its price, networks, retrieval scope, methodology, and availability may change, and it may be suspended or withdrawn, with notice on the site and in the live capabilities data. Section 15 applies.

Acceptable use.

You must not, and must not allow any agent or third party to:

• use the Services in violation of any law, regulation, or third-party right, or to facilitate such a violation;
• probe, scan, attack, overload, or interfere with the Services or their infrastructure, or attempt to access accounts, data, or systems you are not authorized to access;
• circumvent plan limits, rate limits, retrieval restrictions, payment terms, or idempotency rules, including by registering multiple accounts for that purpose;
• submit labels, handles, policy strings, or webhook configurations that contain personal data about others without a lawful basis, that infringe rights, or that are abusive;
• direct retrieval of a source you are not permitted to access, or use source checks to harass, stalk, defame, or surveil any person;
• use the Services to support any activity involving weapons, terrorism, human trafficking, child sexual abuse material, or the operation of systems where failure could lead to death, personal injury, or severe environmental or property damage, including medical devices, vehicles, aircraft, weapons, or critical infrastructure (“High-Risk Activities”);
• resell, sublicense, or provide the Services to third parties as a stand-alone offering, or misrepresent your relationship with Vigil;
• reverse engineer the Services except where the law permits it notwithstanding this clause;
• use the Services from, or for the benefit of, a person or territory subject to comprehensive sanctions, or in violation of export-control or sanctions laws.

We may investigate suspected violations, and may suspend or terminate access, refuse requests, or block sources, wallets, or network addresses to protect the Services, other customers, or third parties. We may report unlawful activity to authorities.

Fees, billing, renewal, and cancellation.

Current prices are shown on the pricing page and returned by the pricing endpoint. Dev and Pro are monthly subscriptions billed in advance in US dollars by card through our payment processor, Stripe. By subscribing you authorize recurring monthly charges at the stated price, plus any applicable taxes, until you cancel. The subscription renews automatically each month. You may cancel at any time through the Stripe customer portal or by email as described in the Refund and Cancellation Policy; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep paid capacity until then.

We give at least 30 days’ notice before a price increase takes effect for an existing subscription, posted on the site and sent to the email address on file with our payment processor. Continuing your subscription after the increase takes effect is acceptance of the new price.

Fees are non-refundable except as stated in the Refund and Cancellation Policy or required by law. If a payment fails, is reversed, or is disputed, we may downgrade the account to the Free plan immediately, remove capacity above Free limits, and suspend the account while the matter is resolved. You are responsible for taxes on your purchases other than taxes on our income. Where we are required to collect tax, it is added at checkout.

Each subscription is attached to one handle. Buying a second plan with the same handle replaces the plan’s limits; contact us to cancel the earlier subscription as described in the Refund and Cancellation Policy.

Your content, your data, our property, and feedback.

You retain all rights in the digests, labels, lease parameters, watchdog configurations, journal content, claims, and source URLs you submit (“Customer Content”). You grant Vigil a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, process, transmit, publish (where publication is part of the Services, as with receipts), and display Customer Content as needed to provide, secure, and improve the Services and to comply with law. You represent that you have all rights needed to submit Customer Content and that it does not violate Section 10.

We may collect and use aggregated and de-identified statistics about use of the Services (for example, request counts and latency) for any purpose, provided they do not identify you.

The Services, including software, documentation, design, text, trademarks, and the Vigil name and emblem, are owned by Vigil or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property law. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Services in accordance with these Terms. No other rights are granted. Open-source components remain under their own licenses.

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback, we may use them without restriction or compensation, and you waive any claim to them. We will not use your name, handle, or logo in marketing without your prior written consent.

Third-party services and networks.

The Services depend on and interact with third parties, including Stripe for card payments, the Base and Solana networks and an x402 payment facilitator for USDC payments, a third-party language-model provider for semantic assessment, public OpenTimestamps calendar servers, and hosting and email providers. Your wallets, gateways, agents, frameworks, webhooks, and execution providers are yours or belong to other third parties. We do not control these parties and are not responsible for their availability, conduct, fees, security, or terms. Your use of any third-party service is governed by that party’s terms.

Blockchain networks are public and outside anyone’s control. Transaction records are permanent and visible to anyone. Forks, congestion, outages, fee changes, facilitator policy, and network-level blocking are outside our control.

Security and vulnerability disclosure.

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the Services, including transport encryption, hashed API keys, an isolated retrieval service, protection of the signing key, security headers, no third-party scripts on the website, and routine backups. The Privacy Policy describes these measures in more detail. We do not represent that the Services are free of vulnerabilities or that any measure will prevent every incident, and we have not undergone an independent security audit or obtained any certification unless we say so on the site.

If you discover a vulnerability, report it to security@vigilnotary.com with enough detail to reproduce it. We will not pursue legal action against researchers who act in good faith, avoid privacy violations, data destruction, and service disruption, test only against accounts they control, and give us a reasonable time to fix an issue before disclosure. Testing that degrades the Services for others, accesses other customers’ data, or involves social engineering, physical attacks, or denial of service is not authorized.

Pilot, beta, and experimental features.

Features that we label pilot, beta, preview, early access, or experimental, including Agent Commerce for as long as it is described as a public pilot, are provided for evaluation. They may be incomplete, may change or be withdrawn at any time, may not be supported, and may have lower security, accuracy, or availability than other parts of the Services. Sections 17 and 18 apply with full force, and where the law allows, our aggregate liability for a pilot or beta feature is limited to USD 50.

Termination and suspension.

You may end this agreement at any time by cancelling any subscription and revoking your key. Revocation ends authentication, revokes the key’s active leases, and removes its watchdogs. It does not delete journal content, which you should delete first, and it cannot remove public receipts (Section 7).

We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, if your use creates a security, legal, or operational risk, if a payment fails or is disputed, if required by law, or if an account has been inactive on the Free plan for more than 12 months. Termination for breach does not entitle you to a refund.

We may discontinue the Services or any paid capability on at least 30 days’ notice posted on the site and, for paid subscriptions, sent to the email on file with our payment processor. In that case we refund the unused portion of any prepaid subscription period pro rata.

On termination, your right to use the Services ends immediately. Sections 3, 5, 6, 7, 9.3, 12, 13, and 16 through 22 survive. Because receipts and leases are verifiable offline against our published public key, records you have already exported remain verifiable after termination.

Disclaimers.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICES, THE WEBSITE, THE DOCUMENTATION, AND ALL RESULTS, RECEIPTS, LEASES, ALERTS, VERDICTS, AND OTHER OUTPUT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITH ALL FAULTS, AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. VIGIL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE ABOVE, VIGIL DOES NOT WARRANT THAT: (A) THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (B) ANY REVOCATION WILL TAKE EFFECT AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR WILL PREVENT ANY PARTICULAR ACTION; (C) ANY RECEIPT, LEASE, OR CHAIN EXPORT PROVES THAT AN EVENT OCCURRED, OR WILL BE ACCEPTED OR GIVEN ANY WEIGHT BY ANY COURT, REGULATOR, COUNTERPARTY, OR OTHER PERSON; (D) ANY SOURCE-CHECK VERDICT, QUOTATION, OR RISK FLAG IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR CURRENT, OR THAT ANY CLAIM IS TRUE OR FALSE; (E) ANY CALENDAR SUBMISSION HAS BEEN OR WILL BE CONFIRMED ON ANY BLOCKCHAIN; (F) ANY WATCHDOG ALERT WILL BE DELIVERED OR DELIVERED IN TIME; (G) ANY DATA WILL BE RETAINED, RECOVERABLE, OR FREE OF LOSS; OR (H) THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THE REQUIREMENTS OF ANY LAW THAT APPLIES TO YOU.

VIGIL PROVIDES NO LEGAL, FINANCIAL, TAX, COMPLIANCE, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, AND NO NOTARIAL SERVICES. YOU USE THE SERVICES AND RELY ON ANY OUTPUT AT YOUR OWN RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Limitation of liability.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL VIGIL, ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL, DATA, OR CRYPTOCURRENCY, OR FOR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE ABOVE, VIGIL IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS ARISING FROM: (A) ANY ACTION TAKEN, NOT TAKEN, DELAYED, OR COMPLETED BY YOUR AGENT, YOUR GATEWAY, OR ANY PROVIDER, INCLUDING ACTIONS TAKEN BEFORE A REVOCATION TOOK EFFECT OR OUTSIDE A GATEWAY; (B) RELIANCE ON ANY RECEIPT, LEASE, VERDICT, QUOTATION, ALERT, OR OTHER OUTPUT; (C) A LOST, STOLEN, OR MISUSED API KEY, WALLET, OR RECOVERY TOKEN; (D) ANY BLOCKCHAIN TRANSACTION, INCLUDING PAYMENTS SENT INCORRECTLY OR TO OR FROM BLOCKED ADDRESSES, NETWORK OR FACILITATOR FEES, DELAYS, FORKS, OR OUTAGES; (E) ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICE, NETWORK, MODEL, CALENDAR, OR PROVIDER; (F) PUBLICATION OF ANY HANDLE, LABEL, OR OTHER CUSTOMER CONTENT THAT YOU CHOSE TO SUBMIT; OR (G) UNAVAILABILITY, INTERRUPTION, OR DISCONTINUATION OF THE SERVICES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF VIGIL AND ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AND SUPPLIERS FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (I) FIFTY US DOLLARS (USD 50) OR (II) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID TO VIGIL, INCLUDING USDC PAYMENTS VALUED AT THE TIME OF PAYMENT, IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. FOR PILOT AND BETA FEATURES, SECTION 15 APPLIES.

THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY TOGETHER, ARE CUMULATIVE ACROSS ALL CLAIMS, AND ARE A FUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN; VIGIL WOULD NOT OFFER THE SERVICES AT THESE PRICES WITHOUT THEM. THEY DO NOT LIMIT LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED BY LAW, INCLUDING LIABILITY FOR FRAUD, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT WHERE THE LAW SO PROVIDES, AND THEY DO NOT AFFECT MANDATORY CONSUMER RIGHTS.

Indemnification.

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Vigil and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, and suppliers from and against any claim, demand, suit, or proceeding brought by a third party, and any resulting liabilities, damages, settlements, penalties, fines, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Services or any output; (b) any action taken or not taken by your agents, gateways, or providers; (c) Customer Content, including any handle or label you publish; (d) your breach of these Terms or of any law; (e) any source you direct us to retrieve; (f) any payment you or your agent authorize; or (g) any dispute between you and a third party, including your customers and end users.

We will notify you promptly of any claim, allow you to control the defense and settlement (except that you may not settle a claim in a way that imposes obligations on us or admits fault on our behalf without our written consent), and cooperate at your expense. We may participate with our own counsel at our own expense.

Disputes, governing law, and venue.

Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at hello@vigilnotary.com with a description of the dispute and the remedy you seek, and to negotiate in good faith for at least 60 days. Most disputes are resolved this way.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the State of Washington and the federal laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. Subject to the small-claims exception below, the state and federal courts located in King County, Washington have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, and you and Vigil consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there. Either party may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction instead.

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU AND VIGIL EACH WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL, AND AGREE THAT ANY DISPUTE WILL BE RESOLVED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES MUST BE FILED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER IT ACCRUES, OR IT IS PERMANENTLY BARRED, TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS.

If you are a consumer resident in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction whose law grants you non-waivable rights to bring claims in your local courts or under your local law, those rights are preserved. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive relief in any court to protect intellectual property, account security, or the integrity of the Services.

Changes to these Terms.

We may update these Terms. The effective date at the top tells you when the current version took effect, and earlier versions are available on request. For material changes we will post a notice on the site at least 30 days before the change takes effect and, for paid subscriptions, send notice to the email address on file with our payment processor. Changes required by law or to address a security risk may take effect sooner. Your continued use of the Services after a change takes effect is acceptance of the change. If you do not agree, stop using the Services and revoke your key before the change takes effect; if a material change adversely affects a paid subscription, you may cancel and receive a pro-rated refund of the remaining period.

General terms.

Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Refund and Cancellation Policy, and the plan limits and payment terms published by the Services are the entire agreement between you and Vigil about the Services and supersede all prior agreements and communications. Documentation, examples, and blog posts are informational and do not create obligations beyond these Terms.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or to a successor in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, and will post notice of any such assignment.

Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, government action, epidemics, power or telecommunications failures, blockchain network failures, third-party service outages, or attacks on infrastructure. If such an event makes the Services materially inoperable for more than 30 consecutive days, either party may terminate and we will refund any prepaid unused subscription period pro rata.

Severability and waiver. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the remainder stays in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

No third-party beneficiaries; independent parties. These Terms create no rights in any third party. You and Vigil are independent contractors; nothing creates a partnership, agency, fiduciary, or employment relationship.

Notices. We may give you notice by posting on the site, in the account page, in API responses, or by email to an address on file with our payment processor. Notices to us go to hello@vigilnotary.com.

Export and sanctions. You represent that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions, and that you are not a person on any US or other applicable restricted-party list. You will comply with all export-control and sanctions laws that apply to your use of the Services.

California residents. Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following notice: the Services are provided by Kenan Duncan, operating Vigil, who can be reached at hello@vigilnotary.com. Complaints may be directed to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs, 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

Interpretation. Headings and summaries are for convenience. “Including” means “including without limitation”. These Terms are written in English; any translation is for convenience only and the English version controls.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination do so, including Sections 3, 5, 6, 7, 9.3, 12, 13, and 16 through 22.