The deal, in plain language

Using this website, the desktop app, the mobile app, the notification gateway or the hosted relay means you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use them.

These terms are between you and Smith Network Solutions, which operates ThreadKnot.

The desktop and mobile apps are provided under the Apache License 2.0 (Apache-2.0), unmodified. Your use of the software is governed by that licence. Where this page and the licence disagree about the software itself, the licence wins.

In plain terms, the licence lets you use, copy, modify and redistribute the software, including commercially and including as part of a product you sell. It carries an express patent grant from every contributor. The obligations it puts on you are attribution ones: keep the copyright notice and the licence text, and state what you changed if you redistribute a modified version.

There is no competing-use restriction, no delayed grant and no field-of-use limit, so the software is open source as the Open Source Initiative defines it, and not only colloquially.

The hosted relay is a separate service, is not covered by that licence, and is not in the public repository. Nothing in the apps requires it.

The licence also disclaims warranties and limits liability for the software, and nothing on this page is intended to give you less than the licence gives you.

The notification gateway is the hosted piece that lets a phone be woken when something needs your attention. It is free, including for free and self-built installations, and provided as is with no uptime guarantee. We may modify or discontinue it.

There is one optional paid service, the hosted relay, under the Paid subscriptions section below. The free apps keep working without it and are not degraded by its existence.

ThreadKnot’s apps are free to use, and no paid plan is required for anything they do. The one thing we sell is the hosted relay: it gives one of your machines a permanent public HTTPS address so you can reach it from outside your own network, without forwarding a port or running a VPN. It adds reachability and nothing else. It unlocks no feature and raises no limit in the apps. The terms in this section apply only to the hosted relay, and only if you subscribe to it. Nothing in it applies to the free apps.

You decide what access your agents get, which machines you pair, and which accounts you sign into the underlying agent command line tools with. You are responsible for complying with those providers’ terms. ThreadKnot never collects or stores those credentials.

AI agents can modify files and run commands on your machine. Review what you authorise. The access levels and plan approval exist for exactly this reason, and granting an agent full access is your call to make, not ours to second-guess.

You are responsible for the work your agents produce and for anything you ship from it.

Do not use the relay to:

• Send spam or unsolicited messages.
• Attempt unauthorised access to anyone else's devices, accounts or data.
• Interfere with the service or with other people's use of it, including by overloading it.
• Do anything unlawful.

The ThreadKnot name, the ThreadKnot mark and the content of this website belong to Smith Network Solutions. The software licence covers the code; it does not grant trademark rights.

You are welcome to fork the project. A fork must not present itself as the official ThreadKnot or imply that we endorse it.

The website and the services are provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Smith Network Solutions is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data or business interruption, arising out of your use of the website, the apps or the relay.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the website or the services is capped at the greater of $100 or the amounts you paid to us in the twelve months before the claim.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

We may suspend or terminate relay access for abuse, meaning anything in the acceptable use section above.

If you have a paid subscription, we will not terminate your paid access without either cause, meaning that same abuse, or a pro-rated refund of the unused portion of the period you paid for.

You can stop using any part of ThreadKnot whenever you like, and delete everything the relay holds about you at any time. See the Privacy Policy for how.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, USA, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Nothing here removes any consumer protection you have under the mandatory law of the country you live in.

We may update these terms. Changes are posted on this page with a new effective date, and continuing to use ThreadKnot after that means you accept them. Material changes will be called out plainly rather than buried.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, that part is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force.

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and the Apache License 2.0 for the software, are the whole agreement between you and Smith Network Solutions about ThreadKnot, and replace anything said earlier on the subject.

Questions about these terms go to support@smithnetworksolutions.com.