These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of AscentState (the "Service"), operated by Ignaz Hoch ("AscentState", "we", "us", "our").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 16 years old to use AscentState. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at support@ascentstate.com if you suspect unauthorized access.

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts based on false information, abuse, or violation of these Terms.

3.1 Subscription Tiers

AscentState offers three tiers:

• Free: Limited access, no payment required.
• Pro: Paid subscription with extended features.
• Premium: Paid subscription with full access to all features.

Current pricing and feature comparisons are displayed at ascentstate.app/upgrade.

3.2 Billing

• Subscriptions are billed in advance on a recurring basis (monthly or annually, as selected).
• Payments are processed by Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize recurring charges to your selected payment method.
• Prices may change. We will notify you of any price increase at least 30 days in advance. Continued use after the change constitutes acceptance.
• Applicable VAT or sales tax will be added based on your billing location.

3.3 Trial Periods

We may offer a free trial of paid features. Unless cancelled before the trial ends, your account will automatically convert to a paid subscription at the standard rate. You can cancel anytime in your account settings.

3.4 Cancellation

You may cancel your subscription at any time via your account settings or the Stripe customer portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You retain access to paid features until then.

14-Day Refund Window (EU/EEA/Switzerland): If you are a consumer based in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland, you have the right to withdraw from a subscription contract within 14 days of purchase, in accordance with Article 9 EU Consumer Rights Directive and Article 40b Swiss Federal Act on Unfair Competition.

To exercise this right, send a clear withdrawal statement to support@ascentstate.com within 14 days. Refunds are issued via the original payment method within 14 days of confirmation.

Important: By starting to use paid features during the 14-day window, you expressly acknowledge that the right of withdrawal expires once you have begun consuming the digital service. We will inform you of this consequence before you start using paid features.

Outside the 14-day window: Refunds are at our discretion and granted only in cases of significant Service failure or unresolved billing errors.

You agree NOT to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable laws.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other accounts, our systems, or third-party systems integrated with the Service.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service.
• Use bots, scrapers, or automated tools to access the Service beyond what is offered through public APIs.
• Submit malicious content (malware, spam, harassment, hate speech, illegal content) through any feature, including AI Coach conversations, accountability messages, profile fields, notes, or bug reports.
• Impersonate other persons or entities, or misrepresent your affiliation.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service or its content without our written permission.
• Abuse the AI Coach feature to generate prohibited content or extract proprietary prompts.

Violation of these rules may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account without refund.

6.1 Your Content

You retain ownership of content you submit (notes, journal entries, PRs, profile data, AI Coach conversations). You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display your content as necessary to provide the Service.

Public profile content (username, tagline, public PRs, leaderboard status) is visible to other users and may be indexed by search engines unless you disable public visibility in your settings.

6.2 Our Intellectual Property

AscentState, including all software, designs, content, logos, trademarks, lessons, and curriculum, is owned by us or our licensors. You receive a limited, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes per these Terms.

You may not copy, redistribute, or create derivative works of our lesson content, learning paths, or any other proprietary material without explicit written permission.

The AI Coach feature uses third-party AI models (currently Anthropic's Claude). AI responses:

• Are generated automatically and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriate.
• Should not be relied upon as professional advice (medical, psychological, financial, legal, or otherwise).
• Do not constitute therapy, counselling, or medical treatment.
• May reflect biases present in their training data despite our best efforts to mitigate this.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact a qualified professional or emergency services. AscentState is not a substitute for professional care.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AscentState shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, lost opportunity, or business interruption, arising from your use or inability to use the Service.

Our total liability for direct damages is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or CHF 100, whichever is greater.

Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for: (a) gross negligence or wilful misconduct; (b) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (c) any liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law (including consumer protection rights for EU/EEA/Swiss consumers).

You may terminate your account at any time via your account settings. We may terminate or suspend your account if you violate these Terms, engage in fraudulent activity, or for any reason with 30 days' notice (except for paid subscribers, who will receive a pro-rated refund of the unused subscription period).

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (intellectual property, liability, indemnification, dispute resolution) will survive.

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email and/or a prominent notice on the Service at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Liechtenstein, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Any disputes shall be resolved exclusively in the competent courts of Liechtenstein, unless mandatory consumer protection law in your jurisdiction provides otherwise.

EU/EEA Online Dispute Resolution: The European Commission provides an online dispute resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. We are not obligated and do not commit to participate in alternative dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.