Terms of Service

Anvil & Autopilot · Terms of Service · Version 1.1 · Effective October 9, 2026

These Terms are a contract between you and Anvil & Autopilot ("we," "us"), a North Carolina business you can reach at thebuilders@anvilandautopilot.com. They cover your account at anvilandautopilot.com and everything we build, host or support for you. Each job also has a Quote you accept before work starts (see section 4). If a Quote and these Terms disagree, the Quote wins for that job.

You agree to these Terms by ticking the agreement box when you create your account, and again each time you accept a Quote. If you're signing up for a business, you're agreeing for that business and confirming you're allowed to.

1. Who can use the service

• You must be 18 or older.
• Business accounts are for companies and self-employed people. Personal accounts are for individuals buying for themselves. Some consumer-protection laws give personal accounts rights that these Terms can't take away. Where that's true, those laws win.
• You're responsible for keeping your login safe and for everything done under your account, including by team members you invite. Account owners decide who on their team can accept quotes and approve deliveries, and we treat those people's clicks as yours.

2. What we do, and how we do it

We build websites, research tools and small programs (like automations that file receipts or track inventory) for small businesses and individuals, and we can host and look after websites.

We use AI to build. Most of the building is done by AI software (currently tools from Anthropic and GitHub/Microsoft), working from your answers and messages. A person at Anvil & Autopilot reviews every delivery before you see it. Nothing is sent to you without that review. By using the service, you agree we may send the information you give us for a job to these AI providers so they can process it for that job. Their handling of it is covered in our Privacy Policy.

We may decline any request, at any time before you accept a Quote, for any reason, at no cost to you. If, after you've accepted a Quote, we find we can't do the job as quoted (for example the Quote had a mistake in it), we'll tell you before building anything else; you can accept a corrected Quote or cancel, and you won't owe anything for that job.

3. Your requests and your content

• Be accurate. We build from what you tell us. If your answers are wrong or incomplete, the result may be too, and fixing that may be a new job.
• Your content stays yours. Logos, photos, text, documents and data you give us ("Your Content") belong to you (or whoever you got them from). You give us permission to use, copy and change Your Content only to do your jobs, host your site, and keep records.
• You must have the rights. You promise you own Your Content or have permission to use it, and that using it the way you've asked won't break any law or anyone else's rights (for example, photos copied from someone else's website).
• Placeholders. If you don't give us content, we may use placeholder text, sample prices, icons or stock-style images so you can see the design. Replacing placeholders with real information is your job unless your Quote says we'll do it. Don't launch a site with placeholder prices, addresses or claims in it.

4. Quotes

• After you submit a request, we send you a Quote in your portal: what we'll build, the price, any monthly hosting fee, and why. Some services are priced by hand.
• Websites come in five types, and you choose yours on the request form, where each one's description, what it includes, what it doesn't, and its price range are shown: Simple, Standard, Simple Store, Advanced Store and Custom. Your Quote stays inside the price range of the type you chose. We never move you to a different type without your OK; if what you ask for doesn't fit the type you chose, we'll tell you before anything is built.
• Custom websites start with a consultation call instead of the form. The first 30 minutes are free; after that, consultation time is $100 an hour, billed on an invoice. Custom builds start at $7,000 and must be hosted by Anvil & Autopilot, because of how many parts they can have.
• Nothing is built and nothing is owed until you click Accept on the Quote. Accepting is your electronic signature on that Quote and these Terms (version shown at the time).
• A Quote covers only what it lists. If you later want something it doesn't cover, we'll send a new Quote for the extra work first.
• Quotes not accepted within 30 days may be withdrawn.

5. Building, review and changes

• When a delivery is ready, you'll see previews in your portal and can Approve it or Request changes.
• One round of changes is included in every Quote: tell us everything you want fixed in one request and we'll make those fixes. Fixing something we got wrong compared to your Quote never counts against your round. More rounds, or changes that go beyond the Quote, may need a new Quote.
• If you don't respond. If a delivery waits for your review for 30 days with no response from you, we'll remind you, and after 14 more days we may treat it as approved and send the invoice.
• Timelines we give are good-faith estimates, not guarantees. Builds depend on our systems and outside services (power, internet, AI providers), and a delay is not a breach of these Terms.

6. Price, payment and your files

• You pay when you approve the finished work. When you approve a delivery, we send an invoice for the accepted Quote. It's due in 14 days.
• Your full files unlock when the invoice is paid. Until then you can see previews only. This is how we deliver; it's not a penalty. Sites we host go live on your web address after the invoice is paid, unless your Quote says otherwise.
• Reversed payments. If a payment is reversed or charged back, that invoice counts as unpaid again, including for who owns the work (section 10) and for hosting.
• Late payment. If an invoice is more than 30 days late, we may pause other work and hosting for your account (see section 8) and charge interest on the overdue amount at the North Carolina legal rate of 8% a year from the due date.
• Taxes. Prices don't include any sales tax that applies. Custom software is generally not taxable in North Carolina, but we'll add tax if the law requires it.
• Free or discounted work (for example a free first year) is shown as a $0 or reduced invoice and follows these same Terms. When a free or discounted period for anything that repeats (like hosting) is about to end, we'll tell you at least 30 days before the first full charge, and nothing is charged unless you've agreed to continue.
• Outside costs are yours. Domain names, store platforms (Shopify, Square and similar), payment processors, email services, app subscriptions and anything else billed by another company are paid by you to them, in your name, unless your Quote says otherwise.
• AI models. We build the AI part of a tool (how it behaves, its instructions and files), but we never host, provide or pay for the AI model itself. If something we build uses AI, it runs on your own paid AI account, your own free AI account where one exists, or a free model on your own computer if it's powerful enough. Any usage is billed to you by that provider. Your AI key is stored on your computer, like your email password; we don't receive it. Set a spending limit in your AI account. Free AI services can change or end their free plans at any time, which we don't control.

7. Cancelling a job, and refunds

• Before you see a delivery (while a job is received, being quoted, or being built) you can cancel it in your portal at no charge. Any work done is deleted; a record of the request is kept.
• After you've seen a delivery, cancel by messaging us. If the delivery matches your Quote, the invoice is still owed. If it doesn't and we can't fix it, you owe nothing for that job.
• Refunds. Because you pay only after approving finished work, we don't normally give refunds on paid invoices for work you approved. If something we built doesn't work as your Quote described, we'll fix it under section 9 first. If we can't fix it, we'll refund what you paid for that part.
• Chargebacks. If you dispute a payment with your bank instead of contacting us first, we may suspend your account while it's resolved. Please talk to us first.

8. Monthly plans (website hosting and program support)

• Some work comes with a monthly plan, shown on your Quote before you accept:
  • Website hosting and upkeep: keeping the site online, renewing its security certificate, backups we take, and small fixes.
  • Program support: for programs that read your email or connect to online apps, AI services, or websites. Those outside services change on their own, and support covers keeping your program working when they do. Programs that only work with files on your own computer don't have a monthly plan.

Bigger changes are quoted separately.

• Billing starts the day you approve the finished work and repeats on that same day each month (the last day of the month if that day doesn't exist). Each month's invoice is sent to you automatically and is due in 14 days.
• Cancel any time from your Billing page, as easily as you accepted, or by message. No further monthly invoices are sent; a month already invoiced is still owed. For hosting, we'll give you a copy of your site's files and help you move it, as long as your account is paid up.
• Automatic billing (once available) will only start if you turn it on with a separate checkbox. We'll show the amount, the billing date and how to cancel before you turn it on, email you a confirmation with the same details right after, and you can cancel online as easily as you signed up. If we ever offer longer (for example yearly) hosting plans that renew automatically, we'll email you 15 to 45 days before each renewal, as North Carolina law requires.
• Price changes. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice before a hosting price goes up. You can cancel before it does.
• Unpaid hosting. If hosting is unpaid for 30 days, we may take the site offline. If it's still unpaid 30 days after that, we may delete it. We'll email you before each step.
• If we stop offering hosting, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice and a copy of your site's files so you can move it.
• Uptime. We work to keep sites online, but we don't guarantee they'll never go down. Our hosting depends on other companies (currently Netlify). We aren't responsible for losses caused by downtime.
• What you put on your site is your responsibility (see section 11).

9. Our promise about the work

• We promise that what we deliver will substantially match your accepted Quote when we deliver it, and that we'll do the work with reasonable care.
• Fix period. If something we built doesn't work as the Quote described, tell us within 30 days after you approve it and we'll fix it at no charge. That's our main obligation if something's wrong. Problems caused by changes made by you or someone else, by your computer or accounts, or by outside services changing (for example Google changing how Gmail connects) aren't covered by this fix period. An active program support plan (section 8) covers that last kind; without one, we'll quote a fix if you want one.
• Google connections. Programs that connect to Google (Gmail, Sheets and similar) use a Google project in your own account. If you leave that project in Google's "Testing" mode, Google disconnects the program every 7 days. The README and the installer tell you how to publish it, and the installer asks you to confirm you've read this. We'll reconnect it for free the first 2 times it happens; after that, each reconnection caused by an unpublished project costs a fee we'll tell you before doing the work, even with a support plan.
• Programs that run on your computer (automations, document filing, inventory, invoicing):
  • You install them on your computer using the setup we provide. We test them before delivery in our own test environment, but every computer is different. Test the program on your own files before you rely on it, and keep backups of anything important.
  • Your passwords and email access stay on your computer (in Windows' own password store). We don't receive them and can't access your computer.
  • These programs organize information. They don't give tax, accounting or legal advice, and they can misread a document (for example a blurry receipt photo). Check their results, especially anything going to your accountant or the IRS.
• Accessibility. We build websites with common accessibility practices (readable text, image descriptions, keyboard-friendly menus), but we don't certify that a site meets the ADA or WCAG standards unless your Quote says so.
• Research and AI answers may contain mistakes and are not professional advice (legal, financial, tax, medical or otherwise). Check anything important before acting on it.
• Except for the promises in this section, the work is provided "as is." To the extent the law allows, we don't make other promises, such as that the work will make you money, rank in search engines, be error-free, or fit a purpose you didn't tell us about.

10. Who owns what

• Once the invoice for a job is paid in full, everything we created specifically for that job belongs to you (to the extent anyone can own it; see the AI note below). Until it's paid, we own it, and you may only look at the previews.
• Our tools stay ours. We keep our own methods, templates, scripts and know-how, and can reuse general ideas and techniques for other customers. Where any of our tools end up inside your delivery, you get a permanent, free license to use them as part of it.
• Other people's components. Deliveries may include open-source code, fonts or icons made by others. They come with their own licenses (usually free for commercial use), which you agree to follow. We'll tell you about any that limit how you can use them.
• The AI note. Under current U.S. Copyright Office guidance, material produced by AI without enough human creative control may not be protected by copyright by anyone. We transfer whatever rights exist, but we can't promise your delivery is copyrightable, or stop someone else from making something similar. Your own content, names and logos are unaffected.
• Showing our work. We may show screenshots of finished public websites in our portfolio unless you tell us not to. We never show private programs, documents or data.

11. Using what we build, and things we won't build

• You're responsible for how you use what we deliver and what you put on your website or store, including: your products and their legality, your prices, your refunds and shipping, collecting and paying sales tax, your own customers' privacy, and the accounts you open with payment processors and store platforms. If your site collects information from your visitors (a contact form, a store), you need your own privacy policy and terms. We never write legal wording (contracts, terms, privacy policies, refund or late-fee policies). Any such page we build is a placeholder, made so you can paste in your own wording from your lawyer without a rebuild.
• Online stores we set up for you (Anvil Shops). Your shop takes payments through your own payment account (for example your own Stripe account), so the money goes straight to you; we never take a cut and never handle your shoppers' card details. You are the seller: your products, prices, stock, shipping, refunds, sales tax and dealings with your shoppers are your responsibility. Your admin login lets you change products, prices and photos yourself, and you're responsible for what you or your helpers post there.
• Copyright complaints about sites we host. If someone tells us that material on a site we host infringes their copyright, we may remove or disable it and will tell you, following the notice-and-takedown process in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Send notices to thebuilders@anvilandautopilot.com. We close the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe.
• We won't build, host or knowingly support anything illegal, fraudulent, deceptive, harassing, sexually explicit, or that infringes someone else's rights, or anything meant to collect other people's passwords or payment details without their clear consent. We may refuse or stop work, and take a hosted site offline, if we reasonably believe it breaks this rule.

12. Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows:

• Our total liability to you for any claim about a job is limited to the amount you paid us for that job, and for hosting, to the hosting fees you paid in the 3 months before the claim, or $100, whichever is more.
• We aren't liable for indirect losses, such as lost profits, lost sales, lost data, business interruption, or problems with your own customers, even if we knew they were possible.
• These limits don't apply to anything the law doesn't allow to be limited (for example, losses caused by fraud or intentional wrongdoing).

13. You protect us for your part

If someone makes a claim against us because of Your Content, the way you used a delivery, your website or store's products or practices, or your breaking these Terms, you'll cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it (including lawyers' fees). We'll tell you promptly and let you help handle it.

14. Ending things

• You can close your account at any time by messaging us, once nothing is owed. Open jobs are cancelled under section 7.
• We can suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, doesn't pay, or abuses our staff. We'll explain why unless the law or safety prevents it.
• After closing, we keep records (requests, quotes, invoices, messages) for as long as we need them for taxes, accounting and legal reasons, usually 7 years, and delete the rest. Ask for a copy of your files before you close.
• Sections 6 (amounts owed), 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16 keep applying after an account closes.

15. Disagreements

• Talk to us first. Message us or email thebuilders@anvilandautopilot.com and give us 30 days to try to fix it.
• Small claims. Either of us can take a claim within its limit to small claims court.
• Otherwise, these Terms are governed by North Carolina law, and any lawsuit goes to the state courts of North Carolina in the county where Anvil & Autopilot is based (or the federal court for that area).
• Time limit. Any claim must be brought within 1 year after it arises, unless the law requires a longer period.

16. Everything else

• Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms. For changes that matter, we'll tell you by email or in your portal at least 14 days before they apply. Every Quote shows the version you're accepting. Accepting a new Quote, or keeping hosting active after the change date, means you accept the new version. Changes never apply to a Quote you've already accepted.
• Electronic records. You agree to receive notices, quotes and invoices electronically, and that clicking Accept, Approve or similar buttons is your electronic signature.
• Outside events. We aren't responsible for delays caused by things outside our reasonable control (power or internet outages, outages at AI or hosting providers, storms, illness).
• Assignment. You can't transfer this agreement without our OK. We may transfer it if the business is sold or reorganized.
• Whole agreement. These Terms, your Quotes and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement. If one part can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• Contact. Anvil & Autopilot, thebuilders@anvilandautopilot.com.

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