These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) govern your use of Chert, including the website at chert.io, the application at app.chert.io, and any related services (together, the “Service”). Please read them carefully. By checking the box to agree, uploading a file, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1. Who we are
Chert is operated by Synctree (“Chert,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). You can reach us at hello@chert.io.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of a company, firm, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind it to these Terms, and “you” includes that organization.
3. What Chert is, and what it is not
Chert provides an initial, automated, advisory analysis of architectural and engineering drawings and related documents. It reads the documents you upload, identifies what they contain, and compares what it reads against rules we have curated from published codes and local requirements.
- Chert is not a permit, a plan check, or an approval. Nothing in the Service is a determination by any city, county, or other authority having jurisdiction. The jurisdiction remains the authority of record on every permit and every interpretation of its code.
- Chert is not professional advice. The Service does not replace review by a licensed architect, engineer, or other qualified professional, and using it does not create a professional relationship of any kind.
- Results can be incomplete or wrong. Our analysis depends on what can be read from your files and on the rules we have curated, which may not cover every requirement that applies to your project. A result that raises no issue does not mean your project meets every requirement.
You are responsible for decisions you make based on the Service, and for what you submit to any jurisdiction.
4. Accounts and anonymous use
You can start without an account. When you first visit, we create an anonymous session in your browser. Uploads, the free quick scan, and the role you choose are tied to that session. If you sign in (for example with Google or an email link), we connect that session to your account so your projects carry over.
Unclaimed uploads are deleted after 14 days. If you upload files anonymously and never sign in, we delete the project and its files 14 days after upload. Clearing your browser data may end an anonymous session early, after which you may not be able to reach its projects.
You are responsible for keeping access to your account secure and for activity under it. Tell us promptly at hello@chert.io if you believe your account has been used without permission.
5. Your content
Ownership
You (or the people who licensed them to you) keep all rights in the drawings, documents, and other material you upload (“Your Content”). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.
The license you give us
You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, analyze, and display Your Content only as needed to provide the Service to you: to run the quick scan and any analysis you request, to show you results, to keep your projects available to you and to people you invite, to keep the Service secure, and to comply with law. This license ends when Your Content is deleted from the Service, except for copies in backups that are deleted on their normal schedule and anything we must keep by law.
Your rights to upload
Drawings are often protected by copyright held by the architect or engineer who prepared them. By uploading, you represent that you own Your Content or have the right to upload it and to let us process it as described here, for example because you are the author, you commissioned the work, or the author gave you permission. Do not upload material you do not have the right to share with us.
No sharing with third parties
We do not sell Your Content, and we do not share it with third parties, except:
- with service providers that process it on our behalf to run the Service (for example cloud hosting, and an AI model provider used to read sheets during a full analysis), under contracts that limit their use to providing services to us;
- with people you choose to share a project with;
- when required by law, legal process, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of anyone; and
- in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to these Terms.
Improving our rules
When the Service learns that a jurisdiction interprets a requirement in a particular way (for example from a correction you report), we may update the shared rules we check against. Those rules describe the requirement only. They never include your drawings, your address, your name, or other details that identify you or your project. See our Privacy Policy.
6. Payments, fees, and refunds
The quick scan is free. A full analysis is charged per analysis, at the price shown before you pay. There is no subscription. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. under its own terms; we do not receive or store your full card number. If you choose to, your card may be saved with Stripe so you can pay for later analyses in one step, and you authorize us to charge that card when you start a paid analysis with it.
Refunds. If a paid analysis fails and does not produce a report, we refund that payment. Because an analysis is delivered once it completes, completed analyses are otherwise non-refundable, except where the law requires a refund. If you believe you were charged in error, contact hello@chert.io within 30 days.
Prices are in US dollars and exclude any taxes, which we will add where required.
7. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- upload material you do not have the right to upload, or that is unlawful;
- upload malware, or files designed to disrupt or exploit the Service;
- access projects or data that are not yours, or try to get around access controls or usage limits;
- scrape, copy, or resell the Service, its rules, or its output, except your own reports for your own projects;
- present Chert’s output as a permit, approval, or determination by a jurisdiction, or as the work of a licensed professional;
- reverse engineer the Service, except where the law allows it despite this restriction; or
- use the Service in a way that harms us, other users, or any jurisdiction.
8. Our service and intellectual property
The Service, including its software, curated rules, design, and the format of its reports, belongs to us and our licensors. Subject to these Terms, you may use the reports we generate for your projects for any lawful purpose, including sharing them with your design team and with the jurisdiction. If you send us feedback, we may use it without obligation to you.
9. Disclaimers
The Service is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and accuracy. We do not warrant that the Service will identify every issue in your documents, that any jurisdiction will agree with its analysis, that your permit will be issued, or that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Chert and Synctree will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, or for delays, costs of redesign, or permit outcomes, arising from or related to the Service, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or US $100.
Some jurisdictions do not allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.
11. Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify us against claims by third parties arising from Your Content (including claims that you lacked the right to upload it) or from your breach of these Terms.
12. Termination
You may stop using the Service at any time and ask us to delete your account. We may suspend or end your access if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or if we stop offering the Service, and we will give notice where reasonable. Sections that by their nature should survive (including 5, 6 for amounts owed, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 14) survive termination.
13. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. Each version carries a version date at the top of this page. When we publish a new version, you will be asked to accept it before you upload anything further. Changes do not apply retroactively to analyses you already paid for. If you do not accept a new version, you may stop using the Service and ask us to delete your data.
14. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to any rights you have under applicable consumer protection law, disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction.
15. General
These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
16. Contact
Questions about these Terms: hello@chert.io.