Terms of service
Clear terms for a product built around trust.
These terms govern your use of the Build Mode website, waitlist, macOS application, beta releases, and any optional publishing service. Please read them before using the product.
1. Agreement and eligibility
By accessing the Build Mode website, joining the waitlist, downloading a beta, or using Build Mode, you agree to these terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the product or submit the waitlist form.
You must be able to enter a binding agreement where you live. If you use Build Mode on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization. Parents or guardians are responsible for a minor’s permitted use.
2. What Build Mode is
Build Mode is a macOS productivity application for recording active work by skill and turning completed time into a visual record of progress. Features may include the notch timer, active-time detection, session notes, manual logs, skill management, Auto Mode, recovery, export, a dashboard, and optional publishing.
Build Mode is intended for personal reflection and focus. Its estimates and records are not certified evidence for payroll, billing, taxes, legal deadlines, compliance, attendance, medical treatment, or any other use that requires an independently audited timekeeping system. You are responsible for checking records before relying on them.
3. Waitlist, launch access, and beta software
Joining the waitlist is free and expresses interest only. It is not a purchase, reservation, promise of access, guarantee of launch timing, or guarantee of a particular price or feature. We may limit, reorder, pause, or close invitations to protect product quality and security.
Early and beta versions are pre-release software. They may be incomplete, change without notice, contain errors, perform differently across Macs, or fail to preserve data. Keep independent backups or exports of information that matters to you. Please report security issues privately rather than publicly exploiting or disclosing them.
Planned early-builder benefits include Build Mode for Mac, a free Builder Page, access to a private builders community, and founder-led launch support. These are pre-release features: their final form, availability, capacity, and separate community rules may change before access opens.
4. License and ownership
Subject to these terms and any purchase terms, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use Build Mode on compatible Apple devices you own or control. If you obtain Build Mode through an app marketplace, its usage rules also apply.
Build Mode—including its software, visual design, ceremony, copy, trademarks, and documentation—is owned by its creator and protected by intellectual-property law. These terms do not transfer ownership to you. You may not sell, sublicense, distribute, rent, lease, copy except for a lawful backup, or remove proprietary notices.
To the extent applicable law permits, you may not reverse engineer, decompile, circumvent technical protections, or use Build Mode to create a competing product. Nothing here restricts rights that applicable law does not allow us to restrict.
5. Your records, notes, and feedback
You retain your rights in the session notes, skill names, and other content you create. You are responsible for that content and for having the right to store or publish it. Do not put confidential, regulated, or highly sensitive information in a note unless you accept the risks of storing it on your device or publishing it through a service you choose.
When you enable publishing, you give us a limited license to host, copy, transmit, display, and process the submitted data only as needed to provide and secure that feature. This license ends when the published content is deleted, subject to reasonable backup, legal, and security retention.
If you voluntarily send product feedback, you allow us to use it without restriction or compensation, but we will not identify you publicly without permission.
6. Acceptable use
You may not use Build Mode or its services to:
- break the law, infringe rights, harass, threaten, or deceive another person;
- upload malware or content designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access;
- probe or bypass service security, rate limits, authentication, or access controls without written permission;
- scrape, overload, automate abusive requests, or interfere with another user’s service;
- publish content you do not have permission to publish; or
- misrepresent Build Mode records as independently verified or guaranteed.
7. Optional publishing and third-party services
Publishing is optional and may require a separately hosted or third-party service. You are responsible for the service address you connect, the information you choose to send, and the people who can view your published page. Disabling publishing stops future submissions but may not delete data already received by that service.
Build Mode may link to or depend on Apple, hosting, database, email, payment, or other third-party services. We do not control those services and are not responsible for their independent content, availability, or practices. Their terms may also apply.
8. Future purchases
The current waitlist is free, is not a checkout, and does not charge you. If Build Mode later offers a paid license, the applicable checkout will disclose its purchase, delivery, cancellation, and refund terms before you pay. Statutory consumer rights that apply where you live remain unaffected.
9. Availability, changes, and updates
We may add, modify, remove, suspend, or discontinue features, beta access, publishing, or the website. We may provide app updates for security, compatibility, or product improvements, and some updates may be required for continued service use. We do not promise perpetual compatibility with every macOS version, Mac model, or third-party service.
We may suspend or end access if you materially violate these terms, create security or legal risk, or abuse the service. You may stop using Build Mode at any time. Sections that by their nature should survive—including ownership, disclaimers, limits, and disputes—continue after termination.
10. Disclaimers
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Build Mode and all pre-release services are provided “as is” and “as available.” We disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted operation, and error-free or loss-free performance. We do not guarantee that a productivity method, amount of tracked time, or visual progress will produce a particular personal, professional, financial, or educational result.
Some places do not allow certain warranty disclaimers. In that case, the disclaimer applies only to the extent permitted, and mandatory consumer protections remain in effect.
11. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Build Mode’s creator will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages; loss of data, profits, goodwill, or opportunity; or damages arising from reliance on time records, beta failure, or a third-party service.
Where liability cannot be excluded, the total liability arising from Build Mode will not exceed the amount you paid for Build Mode during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or US $25 if you paid nothing. This limit does not apply where applicable law prohibits it, including liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
12. Applicable law and disputes
Applicable law, mandatory consumer rights, and the courts or dispute processes available where the parties are legally located will govern. Before filing a formal claim, please contact us with a clear description of the issue so both sides can try to resolve it informally. Nothing in these terms limits a right to contact a regulator, bring an eligible small-claims matter, or use a remedy that cannot legally be waived.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the product changes. We will update the date above and provide reasonable additional notice for a material change. Continuing to use the product after revised terms take effect means you accept them; if you do not, stop using the product. Changes do not retroactively alter a completed purchase unless the purchase terms or law allow it.
14. Contact
For a terms, purchase, or support question, use the official support contact included with your Build Mode invitation, distribution page, or app. If you received a Build Mode email, you may reply to it with a clear description of the issue.