Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms are an agreement between you and Tinker Assist (“Tinker Assist”, “we”, “us”, “our”), covering your access to and use of the Tinker Assist application and related services (the “Service”). By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and “you” refers to that organization.

Where a separate written agreement between us covers the Service, that agreement controls to the extent it conflicts with these Terms.

2. The Service

Tinker Assist is a software tool that indexes technical documentation your organization provides, and returns troubleshooting information in response to questions, with citations to the sources it drew on. It may also draw on manufacturer and support material, publicly available field discussion, and general model knowledge, each labeled as such.

The Service is an information tool. It does not perform work, inspect equipment, or supervise anyone performing work.

3. Accounts and account responsibility

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide when creating an account, for keeping your credentials confidential, and for all activity that occurs under your account.

• Do not share credentials or allow others to use your account.
• Notify us promptly at support@tinkerassist.org if you believe your account has been compromised.
• You are responsible for the acts and omissions of anyone using the Service through your account.

4. Organization administrators

Accounts are usually created and managed by an organization. Administrators of that organization can invite and remove users, assign roles, connect and disconnect cloud storage, upload and delete documents, create and archive jobs, review and approve technician-submitted fixes, and access content within the organization account.

If you access the Service through an organization’s account, you acknowledge that the organization controls that account and the content in it, that administrators can see and manage your activity within the Service, and that the organization may remove your access at any time. Disputes between you and your organization about that control are between you and your organization.

Administrators are responsible for deciding which fixes are approved as internal knowledge, and for the accuracy of what they approve.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Upload content you do not have the right to upload, or that infringes the rights of others.
• Use the Service to violate any applicable law or regulation.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other customers’ data, or related systems.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service except with our prior written permission.
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service, except where that restriction is prohibited by law.
• Resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to third parties outside your organization without our written agreement.
• Use automated means to extract data from the Service in a way that circumvents its intended use or interferes with its operation.
• Upload malicious code, or content that is unlawful, harassing, or abusive.

We may suspend access where we reasonably believe these restrictions have been violated, or where continued access presents a security risk.

6. Customer content

“Customer Content” means the documents, questions, submitted fixes, job information, and other material you or your users provide to the Service.

As between you and us, you retain all rights in your Customer Content. We claim no ownership of it.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to host, copy, process, transmit, index, and display Customer Content solely as needed to provide the Service to you — including sending relevant excerpts to the AI model providers that generate answers, and storing derived text, embeddings, and extracted images so material can be searched and cited. This license ends when the content is deleted, except for copies retained in routine backups until they cycle out.

You are responsible for having the rights necessary to upload your Customer Content, including rights to any manufacturer documentation you provide, and for ensuring that doing so does not breach a confidentiality obligation or license term you are bound by.

7. Intellectual property

The Service — including its software, interface, design, and documentation — is owned by Tinker Assist and its licensors, and is protected by intellectual property law. These Terms grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and use the Service during your subscription, and nothing more.

The Tinker Assist name and marks may not be used without our written permission. Third-party manufacturer names, model designations, and marks that appear in or through the Service belong to their respective owners, and their appearance does not indicate any affiliation with or endorsement by those owners.

If you send us feedback or suggestions about the Service, we may use them without obligation to you.

8. Cloud storage integrations

The Service can connect to third-party cloud storage, including Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Those connections are optional, and you enable them.

• You are responsible for having authority to connect the account and to grant access to the folders and files you select.
• Your use of the third-party service remains governed by that provider’s own terms and privacy policy.
• We access only what the synchronization you enabled requires, and where the integration is configured for read-only access, we do not create, modify, or delete files in your storage.
• You can disconnect an integration at any time within the Service, or revoke access from the provider’s own account settings.
• We are not responsible for a third-party provider’s availability, changes to its APIs, or its handling of your data on its own systems.

Our handling of information obtained through these integrations is described in the Privacy Policy.

9. AI-generated output and technical information

Answers are generated automatically from documents, web sources, field reports, and model knowledge. Automated systems can misread a document, cite the wrong passage, miss a relevant section, or produce information that is incomplete, outdated, or wrong.

We do not warrant that troubleshooting information provided through the Service is complete, accurate, current, or error-free, and we do not warrant that following it will diagnose a fault, resolve a problem, or produce any particular outcome.

• Technicians remain responsible for verifying every procedure against the manufacturer’s current documentation for the specific equipment in front of them.
• Technicians remain responsible for all applicable safety requirements, including lockout/tagout, electrical safety, refrigerant handling, confined space, fall protection, and personal protective equipment.
• Technicians remain responsible for holding the licenses, certifications, and training that the work requires.
• The Service does not provide certified technical, engineering, safety, or professional advice, and using it does not create a professional relationship of that kind.
• The Service does not replace trained technicians, manufacturer technical support, or your organization’s own procedures.
• Where the Service disagrees with the manufacturer’s documentation or your organization’s procedures, those sources control — not the Service.

Do not rely on the Service where reliance on incorrect information could cause injury, death, property damage, or environmental harm without independently verifying it first.

Where source material is quoted, cited, or linked, we do not endorse it or vouch for its accuracy; we are showing you where the information came from so you can evaluate it yourself.

10. Service availability and changes

We aim to keep the Service available, but we do not commit to any specific level of uptime unless we have agreed to one in a separate written agreement. The Service may be unavailable during maintenance, or because of failures outside our control.

We may add, change, or remove features. Where we make a change that materially reduces core functionality you rely on, we will make reasonable efforts to give advance notice to account administrators.

11. Fees

Where a paid plan applies, fees, billing frequency, and payment terms are those presented at the time of purchase or set out in a separate written agreement. Unless that agreement or applicable law says otherwise, fees are non-refundable, and you are responsible for applicable taxes.

12. Termination

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. Your organization’s administrator may remove your access at any time.

We may suspend or terminate access where you materially breach these Terms, where required by law, where your use presents a security risk to the Service or other customers, or where fees for a paid plan go unpaid. Where practical and lawful, we will give notice first and an opportunity to correct the problem.

On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Handling of Customer Content after termination is described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including customer content licenses granted for retained copies, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law — survive it.

13. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. We specifically disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and any warranties arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that content obtained through the Service is accurate or reliable.

Some jurisdictions do not allow exclusion of certain warranties. Where that is the case, the exclusions above apply only to the extent permitted.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Tinker Assist nor the people who own, operate, work on, or supply the Service will be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, business interruption, equipment damage, or cost of substitute services, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms — whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or any other theory, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of those damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid us for the Service in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred United States dollars (USD 100).

These limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, and nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Tinker Assist and the people who own, operate, work on, or supply the Service from claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to your Customer Content, your use of the Service, work performed in reliance on information obtained through the Service, or your breach of these Terms or of applicable law.

We will notify you of any claim we seek indemnification for, and you may control the defense, provided any settlement that imposes obligations on us requires our prior written consent.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of law rules. The state and federal courts located in the State of New York will have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms, and both parties consent to that jurisdiction and venue.

Naming the State of New York sets which law applies and where disputes are heard. It is not a statement about where Tinker Assist is incorporated, registered, headquartered, or operated from.

Before filing a claim, each party agrees to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the other.

17. General terms

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any separate written agreement between us, are the entire agreement about the Service and supersede prior discussions about it.

Severability

If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect and the unenforceable provision is limited to the minimum extent necessary.

No waiver

Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment

You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Change in how the Service is operated

If responsibility for operating the Service is later transferred to a newly formed or different legal entity, these Terms continue to apply to your use of the Service, and that entity assumes our rights and obligations under them. We will update this page to name the operator and give notice of the change as described in the section on changes to these Terms.

Force majeure

Neither party is liable for delay or failure to perform caused by events outside its reasonable control.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service or legal requirements change. When we do, we will revise the effective date at the top of this page. If a change is material, we will give reasonable advance notice — for example, by email to account administrators or a notice within the Service. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

19. Contact

Email is our contact method for legal, account, and Terms-related matters. Questions about these Terms, and any notice you need to give us under them, should be sent to support@tinkerassist.org, and we will respond from there.

Email

support@tinkerassist.org

Website

https://tinkerassist.org

Operator of the Service

Tinker Assist

We do not currently publish a postal address for legal notices. If that changes, this section will list one, and email will remain available either way.