The terms that bind us.

By creating an account, calling our API, invoking our MCP server, downloading verdict-bench, or sealing a single evidence record through the Service, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Cookie Policy, and any order form, statement of work, or signed agreement between us (each, an "Order"). The Order, if it conflicts with these Terms, controls only for the specific subject it addresses; otherwise these Terms control.

If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company, partnership, agency, government entity, or other organization ("Customer"), you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" refers to that entity.

Capitalized terms have the meanings set forth here or where first used.

Service

The hosted Verdict platform; the SER Specification; the verdict-bench CLI; the Verdict MCP endpoints; SDKs; documentation; and any related software, content, or deliverables we make available.

SER

Sealed Evidence Record v0.1 — Verdict's content-addressed, signed evidence record format (in the public sandbox, signed with an ephemeral ECDSA P-256 key per request; a hardware-backed Ed25519 signing tier is planned), anchored to the Sigstore Rekor transparency log.

Customer Content

Data, payloads, logs, traces, inputs, outputs, prompts, model artifacts, attachments, and any other material you transmit to or generate through the Service.

Evidence Record

An SER (or set of SERs) produced by your use of the Service, including each SER's Merkle root, signature, and any associated Rekor log entry.

Documentation

The technical documentation, specifications, conformance suites, and templates we publish at verdict.systems and in our public repositories.

Order

An order form, statement of work, click-through purchase, or written agreement that references these Terms.

Fees

The fees stated in your Order or, absent an Order, on our published pricing page at the time of purchase.

Affiliate

An entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with a party, where "control" means more than 50% of voting equity.

Confidential Information

Non-public information disclosed by one party to the other that is identified as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential given the nature and circumstances of disclosure.

Personal Data

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, including as defined under GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and other applicable privacy laws.

3.1 Age & capacity. The Service is for users who are at least 18 years old and competent to enter a binding contract. We do not knowingly accept users under 18.

3.2 Accurate information. You agree to provide accurate, current information at sign-up and to keep it current for the life of your account.

3.3 Account security. You are responsible for all activity under your account, including activity by API keys, service accounts, and any agent (human or autonomous) you have authorized. Notify us immediately at security@verdict.systems if you suspect compromise.

3.4 Restricted parties. You represent that you are not (a) on any U.S. sanctions list (OFAC SDN, Entity List, Denied Persons), (b) ordinarily resident in a comprehensively-sanctioned jurisdiction (currently Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine), or (c) otherwise prohibited from receiving U.S.-origin software and services.

4.1 What we provide. Verdict produces cryptographically sealed evidence records for autonomous AI agent actions and related events. The Service includes hosted endpoints that ingest events, compute SHA-256 content hashes and a domain-separated commitment for each record (the SER Merkle root), sign each commitment, and anchor it to the public Sigstore Rekor transparency log. Public sandbox surfaces sign with an ephemeral key generated per request; a hardware-backed production signing tier is planned and is not part of the Service today.

4.2 Service tiers. Tiers (Comply, Seal, Edge, plus Acceptance Test services) are described on our pricing page and may differ in rate limits, retention windows, support response times, and contractual commitments. Your tier is the one identified in your Order or the one you self-selected at sign-up.

4.3 Beta features. Features labeled "Alpha," "Beta," "Preview," or "Experimental" are provided as-is, may change or be withdrawn without notice, are not subject to any service-level commitment, and are excluded from our warranties.

4.4 Third-party services. The Service may interoperate with third-party services (e.g., AWS, Cloudflare, Anthropic, OpenAI, Sigstore Public Good). Your use of those services is governed by their own terms. We are not responsible for their availability or content.

5.1 To you, from us. Subject to your compliance with these Terms and payment of all applicable Fees, Verdict grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, worldwide license during your subscription term to access and use the Service for your internal business or personal purposes.

5.2 To us, from you. You grant Verdict a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, process, transmit, hash, sign, anchor, copy, display, and otherwise use Customer Content solely as necessary to (a) provide and operate the Service, (b) prevent or address abuse and security incidents, (c) comply with law and lawful process, and (d) produce aggregated, de-identified statistics that do not identify you or any natural person.

5.3 No model training on Customer Content. Verdict will not use Customer Content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise improve any machine-learning model that is shared across customers, except where you have separately and explicitly opted in in writing. We may use de-identified telemetry (latency, error rates, throughput) to operate and improve the Service.

5.4 Reserved rights. Each party retains all right, title, and interest in its own intellectual property. No rights are granted by implication, estoppel, or otherwise.

6.1 Ownership. As between you and Verdict, you own Customer Content.

6.2 Your warranties about Customer Content. You represent and warrant that (a) you have all rights, consents, authorizations, and lawful bases necessary to submit Customer Content to the Service and to grant the licenses in Section 5.2, (b) Customer Content does not violate law or any third-party rights, and (c) Customer Content does not include U.S. classified information, ITAR-controlled data, or PCI cardholder data, in each case unless we have agreed in writing to receive it.

6.3 Special data — PHI, PII, and sensitive categories. Hosted Verdict is not, by default, a HIPAA Business Associate. Do not submit Protected Health Information unless we have signed a Business Associate Agreement with you. If your Customer Content includes Personal Data subject to GDPR, UK GDPR, or analogous law, the Data Processing Addendum applies and is incorporated by reference into your Order.

6.4 Immutability of Evidence Records. Evidence Records are cryptographically immutable by design. Once an SER is hashed, signed, and anchored to Rekor, neither you nor Verdict can delete its public Rekor entry — that is the property that makes the record evidence. Section 6.5 describes how erasure works for Evidence Records.

6.5 Erasure (GDPR Article 17 / right to erasure). Verdict does not offer redaction of sealed records: removing or changing any field breaks the record's commitment. Where you exercise erasure rights or are ordered by a data-protection authority to erase Personal Data contained in Customer Content, you delete the Evidence Records and copies you hold; the public sandbox stores none. The Rekor entry for a record cannot be deleted by you or by Verdict; it holds a hash of the record's commitment, not the record. You are responsible for keeping Personal Data out of Evidence Records where you can, for example by sealing hashes and short summaries instead of raw text.

6.6 Retention. Default retention windows by tier are documented in the Privacy Policy retention table. Customers on Enterprise may negotiate custom retention in their Order.

7.1 AI features. Portions of the Service use machine-learning models (our own and third-party, including Anthropic and OpenAI models). Outputs from these models may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or fabricated ("hallucinated"). You are responsible for verifying any AI output before relying on it.

7.2 No legal, medical, financial, or other professional advice. The Service does not provide legal, medical, accounting, tax, financial, investment, or other regulated professional advice. Use of the Service does not create an attorney-client, physician-patient, or fiduciary relationship.

7.3 Verification required. You agree that before using any AI output of the Service in any external filing, court submission, regulatory disclosure, insurance claim, or material business decision, a qualified human reviewer will verify its accuracy. See also our Responsible AI Disclosure.

8.1 What Verdict produces. Verdict produces Evidence Records designed to satisfy the structural requirements of Federal Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14) (certified records generated by an electronic process or system, and certified data copied from an electronic device, storage medium, or file), Article 12 of the EU AI Act (logging of high-risk AI systems), GDPR Article 5(2) (accountability and demonstrability), and common insurer evidentiary schemas.

8.2 What admissibility means in practice. Producing an Evidence Record that conforms to a published rule or schema does not guarantee that any specific court, tribunal, regulator, insurer, arbitrator, or fact-finder will admit, accept, or rely on that record in any specific matter. Admissibility decisions are made by judges and tribunals based on the full record, the applicable procedural rules of the forum, the parties' conduct, opposing objections, and the discretion of the decision-maker.

8.3 Your responsibility. You are responsible for (a) consulting qualified counsel in your forum, (b) producing the testimonial foundation that pairs with the Evidence Record, (c) preserving any required additional evidence (e.g., the original payloads, model weights, prompts), and (d) complying with the procedural and disclosure rules of your forum.

8.4 No third-party-beneficiary right. Nothing in these Terms creates rights in any court, regulator, insurer, opposing party, or other non-signatory.

9.1 What is public. By design, Verdict anchors only a hash of each Sealed Evidence Record's commitment (the record's merkle_root field, a single-record commitment) to the Sigstore Rekor public transparency log. The Rekor entry holds that hash, the log's timestamp, a signature and the public key that made it; in the public sandbox the key is generated fresh for each request. Customer Content itself is not written to Rekor.

9.2 What this means for you. Once anchored, the existence of a Sealed Evidence Record at a point in time becomes a public, immutable fact that any third party can verify against Rekor. This is the property that makes the Service useful in adversarial settings. It also means that you cannot retroactively conceal that a record existed. By using the Service, you consent to this anchoring.

9.3 Opt-out for sensitive deployments. Enterprise customers may negotiate an alternative private transparency log (e.g., a Verdict-operated tile-backed log, or a customer-operated Trillion deployment) in their Order. Default deployments use Sigstore Public Good.

Your use of the Service must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Violation of the AUP is a material breach.

11.1 Fees. You agree to pay the Fees identified in your Order. Fees are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated, are due in advance for the applicable subscription period, and are non-refundable except as stated below or required by law.

11.2 Auto-renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each term at the then-current rate unless you cancel before the renewal date through your account settings or by emailing billing@verdict.systems.

11.3 Taxes. Fees exclude taxes. You are responsible for all sales, use, value-added, withholding, and similar taxes, except taxes on Verdict's net income. If we are required to collect a tax, it will be added to your invoice.

11.4 Late payment. Past-due amounts accrue interest at the lesser of 1.5% per month or the maximum rate permitted by law, and we may suspend the Service after written notice and an opportunity to cure (Section 13).

11.5 Refunds. Verdict offers a 14-day refund window on the initial purchase of any subscription tier where requested in good faith. After 14 days, Fees are non-refundable. Statutory consumer-protection rights (where applicable) are unaffected.

12.1 Term. These Terms apply for as long as you use the Service or have an active subscription, whichever is longer.

12.2 Termination for convenience. Either party may terminate by cancelling auto-renewal. Termination takes effect at the end of the then-current paid period.

12.3 Termination for cause. Either party may terminate immediately if the other (a) materially breaches these Terms and fails to cure within 10 days after written notice describing the breach (or, where the breach is the non-payment of Fees, fails to cure within 10 days), (b) ceases business operations, or (c) becomes insolvent.

12.4 Effect of termination. On termination: (i) your right to access the Service ends; (ii) we will, on your written request made within 30 days after termination, make Customer Content available for export in a commercially reasonable machine-readable format; (iii) after 30 days, we may delete Customer Content (subject to Sections 6.4 and 6.5); and (iv) accrued obligations and provisions that by their nature should survive (including Sections 6, 7, 8, 14, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, and 30) survive termination.

We may suspend the Service or your account, in whole or in part, if (a) you are in material breach of these Terms and have not cured within 10 days after notice, (b) your use of the Service creates a material security, legal, or operational risk to us, our other customers, or any third party, (c) we are required to do so by law or lawful process, or (d) your payment is overdue. We will give notice and an opportunity to cure where reasonable. Suspension does not waive Fees due.

Each party will protect the other's Confidential Information with at least the same care it uses for its own Confidential Information (and in no event less than reasonable care), will use it only to perform under these Terms, and will disclose it only to employees, contractors, and Affiliates who are bound by comparable confidentiality obligations and have a need to know. Confidentiality obligations survive for five years after disclosure, or perpetually for trade secrets.

Confidential Information does not include information that (a) is or becomes public through no breach of these Terms, (b) was known to the recipient without a duty of confidentiality before disclosure, (c) is independently developed without use of the discloser's Confidential Information, or (d) is rightfully received from a third party without a duty of confidentiality. A party may disclose Confidential Information as required by law or lawful process, provided that (where lawful) it gives the other party prompt notice and reasonable cooperation to seek a protective order.

Our handling of Personal Data is described in the Privacy Policy. Where you submit Personal Data subject to GDPR, UK GDPR, or similar laws, the Data Processing Addendum applies and is incorporated by reference. Our current subprocessor list is at /subprocessors.

Verdict's security architecture, including signing-key custody, transparency log anchoring, and incident response, is described at /security. You agree to follow reasonable security practices on your side, including protecting API keys and disabling compromised credentials promptly. Report suspected vulnerabilities to security@verdict.systems; our coordinated-disclosure policy is on the security page.

The SER Specification and the verdict-bench CLI are released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Use of those artifacts is governed by Apache 2.0, not these Terms, when used outside the hosted Service. When you use those artifactsagainst the hosted Service (e.g., the CLI calling our API), these Terms also apply to the hosted Service portion.

"Verdict," "Sealed Evidence Record," "SER," the Verdict sigil, and related marks are trademarks of Verdict Systems Inc. You may make accurate descriptive references ("built with Verdict," "Verdict-compatible," "SER conformant"). You may not (a) suggest endorsement or affiliation that does not exist, (b) use the marks in a confusing or deceptive way, (c) use the marks as part of your own company or product name, or (d) modify the marks. Our brand system is published at /brand.

If you send us feedback, suggestions, or feature requests, you grant Verdict a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, modify, and exploit that feedback for any purpose. You are not obligated to provide feedback.

20.1 Mutual warranties. Each party warrants that it has the authority to enter these Terms and that it will comply with all laws applicable to its performance.

20.2 Service warranty. Verdict warrants that the Service will perform materially in accordance with our published Documentation. Your exclusive remedy for breach of this warranty is, at our option, repair, re-performance, or refund of the Fees for the affected portion of the Service for the period of breach.

21.1 By Verdict. Verdict will defend you against any third-party claim that the Service, as provided by Verdict and used in accordance with these Terms, infringes a U.S. patent, registered copyright, or trademark, and will pay amounts a court finally awards or that Verdict agrees in settlement. If a claim is made or reasonably appears likely, Verdict may, at its option, (a) procure the right to continue use, (b) modify the Service to make it non-infringing, or (c) terminate the affected Service and refund pre-paid unused Fees. The foregoing is Verdict's sole liability for infringement.

21.2 By you. You will defend Verdict, its Affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents against any third-party claim arising out of (a) Customer Content, (b) your breach of these Terms (including the AUP), (c) your violation of law, or (d) the underlying agent actions, decisions, or outputs that you submit to the Service for sealing, and will pay amounts a court finally awards or that you agree in settlement.

21.3 Procedure. The party seeking indemnity will promptly notify the indemnifying party of the claim, give sole control of defense and settlement (provided that no settlement requires the indemnified party to admit fault or pay money without consent), and provide reasonable cooperation at the indemnifying party's expense.

22.1 Carve-outs. The cap and exclusions in this Section 22 do not apply to (a) your breach of Sections 5.2, 6.2, 10, or 18, (b) your indemnification obligations under Section 21.2, (c) either party's gross negligence or willful misconduct, or (d) liabilities that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

22.2 Basis of the bargain. You agree that these limits are an essential part of the bargain between us and that Fees would be materially higher without them.

Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by events outside its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, riot, civil unrest, pandemic, labor action, supply-chain failure, internet or telecommunications outage, or the act or omission of a government or upstream provider. The affected party will take reasonable steps to mitigate. This Section does not excuse the obligation to pay Fees that have accrued.

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will give at least fourteen (14) days' advance notice by email to the address on your account or by prominent in-product notice. If you do not accept the changes, you may terminate your subscription before they take effect; continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. Non-material changes (typos, clarifications, references) take effect on posting. The current version is always dated and posted at /terms.

We may change Fees for a subscription tier with at least thirty (30) days' advance notice before the start of your next renewal period. Increases do not apply mid-term. If you do not accept the change, you may cancel before it takes effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, without regard to its conflicts-of-law principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

27.1 Informal resolution first. Before initiating arbitration, the complaining party will send a written notice describing the dispute, the relief sought, and the basis. The parties will negotiate in good faith for sixty (60) days before proceeding. Notices to Verdict go to legal@verdict.systems.

27.2 Binding arbitration. Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms that is not resolved under Section 27.1 will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules then in effect. The seat and place of arbitration is Houston, Texas, USA. The arbitrator will be a single neutral with significant experience in technology disputes. The arbitrator's award is enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction.

27.3 Individual capacity; class-action waiver. All claims must be brought in the parties' individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one party's claims and may not preside over any form of class proceeding.

27.4 Jury-trial waiver. If for any reason a claim proceeds in court rather than in arbitration, each party knowingly and voluntarily waives any right to a jury trial.

27.5 Exceptions. Either party may bring (a) a small-claims action in a court of competent jurisdiction covering the amount in dispute, and (b) a claim for injunctive relief to protect intellectual property or Confidential Information.

27.6 Opt-out for new customers. If you are a new customer, you may opt out of Section 27.2 (binding arbitration) and Section 27.3 (class waiver) by sending a written opt-out notice to legal@verdict.systems within 30 days after first agreeing to these Terms. The notice must identify you, your account, and clearly state that you opt out. Opting out has no other effect on these Terms.

Legal notices to Verdict must be sent to legal@verdict.systems with a copy to Verdict Systems Inc., Attn: Legal, Houston, Texas, USA. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account or by in-product notice. Notice is effective when delivered (email) or three business days after posting (mail).

You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent, except to an Affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of your assets, provided that the assignee assumes these Terms in writing. Verdict may assign these Terms to an Affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of substantially all of its assets. Any attempted assignment in breach of this Section is void.

30.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with your Order and any documents expressly incorporated by reference, are the entire agreement between you and Verdict and supersede any prior or contemporaneous agreements, proposals, or communications on the subject.

30.2 Order of precedence. If there is a conflict, the order of precedence is: (1) a signed Order, (2) the DPA, (3) these Terms, (4) policies incorporated by reference (Privacy, AUP, Cookies, Responsible AI).

30.3 Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.

30.4 No waiver. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of that right.

30.5 Independent contractors. The parties are independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, fiduciary, or employment relationship.

30.6 Government users. The Service is "commercial computer software" under FAR 12.212 / DFARS 227.7202. Government use is subject to the restrictions in these Terms.

30.7 Export. The Service is subject to U.S. export-control laws (EAR). You will not export, re-export, or provide access to the Service in violation of those laws.

30.8 Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

30.9 Language. The authoritative version of these Terms is the English-language version.

Questions about these Terms? Email legal@verdict.systems.

Verdict Systems Inc.
Attn: Legal
Houston, Texas, USA