Interim documents — alpha programme.
Cognate is in invite-only alpha. These pages describe, accurately and in plain language, how the software behaves today. They have not yet been reviewed by a lawyer. A reviewed version will replace them before Cognate is offered to anyone outside the programme.
They are published now so that anyone joining the alpha can see exactly what the software does before connecting an account. Retention periods, refund terms and the liability and governing-law sections are our own provisional drafting and may change on review. The product is changing weekly and so will these pages; anything material will be announced by email first. Questions, corrections and objections: privacy@trycognate.com.
These terms cover your use of Cognate during its alpha and beta programmes and afterwards.
Cognate is a product of Charles Araujo International, LLC. In these terms, “Cognate”, “we” and “us” mean that company, and your agreement is with it.
Cognate is an application you install on your own devices. It reads accounts you connect, stores what it builds on your machine, and synchronises between your devices through your own iCloud account. We hold no copy of your content. We do receive usage and diagnostic data, and the AI features send text to Anthropic — both are described in the Privacy Policy.
Cognate is pre-release software. It is used by real people for real work, and it is also still changing. Things will break, features will move, and some will be withdrawn. You should keep your own backups — the export function exists from the first day and your documents are ordinary files. Taking part also means accepting the usage and diagnostic reporting described in the Privacy Policy, which cannot be switched off during the programmes.
Cognate is provided as it stands, without warranty of any kind, to the fullest extent the law allows. Nothing in these terms removes or limits a right you have as a consumer that cannot lawfully be removed or limited.
Access is by invitation. You sign in with a code sent to your email address. One account is for one person; please do not share it. You are responsible for what happens under your account and for the accounts you connect to it.
Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Union you have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days of your first payment, and we will honour it. Beyond that we do not offer partial refunds for a period already begun — though if something has gone badly wrong, write to me.
AI features are part of how Cognate works. Some run when you invoke them and some run automatically as material arrives; the Privacy Policy describes both, and the controls that narrow or stop them. The provider is Anthropic.
During the alpha programme you supply your own Anthropic API key. There is no included allowance, and Cognate does not meter, resell or pay for any AI usage. Requests go from your machine to Anthropic under your own account, on Anthropic's terms, and what you spend is between you and them. Nothing you send to the AI passes through us.
When paid subscriptions open, a subscription will include an allowance of AI usage running through an API key Cognate holds, shown in the application, and supplying your own key will become optional rather than required. AI output can be wrong; it is offered for you to check, and Cognate marks what it wrote.
Members hold a limited number of invitations. When someone you invite becomes a paying subscriber, you receive a credit. Invitations are for people you actually know — not for posting publicly, and not for bulk distribution. We may withdraw invitations that are used that way.
What you put into Cognate is yours. We claim no licence over it — a straightforward position here, since we hold no copy of it.
You can stop at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. We may end an account for a serious breach of these terms, with notice where circumstances allow. If we do, your data stays where it has always been: on your devices.
To the fullest extent the law allows, Cognate's total liability to you is limited to the amount you have paid in the twelve months before the claim, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, or lost or corrupted data. Nothing here excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, and the courts of New York have jurisdiction. Nothing in this section removes the protection of mandatory consumer law in the country where you live.