Client Portal and Services Terms.

What these terms cover #

These terms are between you and Stacklumen LLC. They govern work Stacklumen does for you (builds, retainers, migrations, upgrades, and hosting and maintenance plans), the client portal where you follow that work (Your projects with Stacklumen), and stacklumen.com itself. You accept them by signing in to the portal, approving an estimate or paying an invoice.

They supplement, and do not replace, any signed statement of work (SOW), mutual non-disclosure agreement or other written agreement. Where a signed agreement conflicts with these terms, the signed agreement controls for that matter. The products you subscribe to yourself (the Hub, Terminal, StackIDE and Baselumen) are governed by the Terms of Service, not these terms. The Acceptable Use Policy and the Privacy Policy apply to both.

Portal access #

You must be at least 18 and able to form a binding contract. Each person gets one account; shared logins are prohibited. You are responsible for the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity under your account. The primary contact named in the SOW administers the portal for your organisation and manages teammates' access. We may decline, suspend or revoke portal access at our discretion. Keep confidential any non-public information you receive through the portal.

Who owns what #

You retain all rights to the data, files, comments and other content you submit ("customer content"), and you give Stacklumen a limited licence to host, store, transmit, display and process it as needed to provide the services you have asked for. You are responsible for having the rights to submit it.

Stacklumen retains all rights in (a) the products, including all software, designs, templates and documentation; (b) pre-existing tools, libraries, frameworks and patterns, including Baselumen, our component library, design tokens, internal templates, and the SDFC, SDF, SAF and SLF framework tiers; and (c) generic patterns, methods and know-how developed through providing services.

For deliverables produced under an SOW, rights are granted as that agreement specifies: on delivery the client holds a licence to use, host, modify and extend the deliverable for as long as invoices are current, and outright copyright transfer is available where the SOW or another signed agreement provides for it. Either route covers the deliverable only, never the frameworks and pre-existing material above. Where this section and a signed SOW differ, the SOW controls.

Fees and invoices #

Fees for engagements are set out in the applicable SOW, estimate or other written agreement. Invoices are issued in US dollars unless otherwise agreed, and payment is due as stated on the invoice (typically net-15 for retainers and milestones). Past-due balances accrue interest at 1.5% per month or the maximum the law permits, whichever is lower, together with the reasonable cost of collection, and may suspend work and hosting until they are paid. Taxes are added where applicable.

Refunds, disputes and chargebacks #

Unless the law requires otherwise or a signed agreement expressly says so, fees for engagements are non-refundable, including deposits, milestones once started, and work completed before a cancellation. For monthly retainers and plans, cancellation by either party ends billing at the close of the current billing cycle; no pro-rata refund applies to a mid-cycle cancellation.

If you believe an invoice or charge is incorrect, raise it with support@stacklumen.com within 30 days of the invoice date; charges not disputed within that window are accepted. Disputing a valid charge with your bank or card issuer instead is a breach of these terms: we may suspend the work, the portal and any site we host for you until it is resolved, the amount and the processor's dispute fees remain owed, and the licence to the deliverable is not current while they are unpaid.

Upgrades, paid and free #

Stacklumen may recommend or offer upgrades to your site or application, including migrating an older code-embed or third-party build to the Stacklumen Framework (our native Terminal and Astro standard), for a fee (such as a flat upgrade fee) or, at our sole discretion, at no cost. All upgrades, paid or complimentary, are subject to these terms and to the following:

• No guarantee of results. An upgrade is provided to improve your site; Stacklumen makes no promise or guarantee of any specific outcome, such as search rankings, traffic, conversions, revenue or any business result. Results vary and are outside our control.
• Subjective preference is not a defect. Deliverables are assessed against the agreed scope, not personal taste. Stacklumen is not liable for dissatisfaction based solely on aesthetic or subjective preference.
• Indemnification and hold harmless. To the fullest extent the law permits, you indemnify, defend and hold harmless Stacklumen and its members, officers, employees and contractors from any claims, damages, losses or expenses arising out of or relating to an upgrade, except to the extent directly caused by Stacklumen's gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
• Free upgrades are offered at Stacklumen's sole discretion, may be modified or withdrawn at any time, carry no additional warranty, and confer no ongoing entitlement to further complimentary work.
• As is. Upgrades are provided "as is" and "as available", under the disclaimers and liability limits below.

Hosting and maintenance #

For all engagements going forward, every site or application Stacklumen delivers is hosted and maintained by Stacklumen under a single, all-inclusive monthly hosting and maintenance plan. The flat monthly fee is scaled to your company size: $100/month for small businesses (under 20 employees) and $300/month for medium businesses (20–500 employees). Organisations over 500 employees are quoted a custom plan.

The fee is all-inclusive: it covers hosting and infrastructure, tool and software costs, database upkeep and fees, other operational software costs, ongoing software and content updates, application management and monitoring, dependency and security patching, and small changes. Nothing is passed through; the flat monthly fee is the only recurring charge that comes to Stacklumen. Domain registration and any optional third-party services you specifically request (premium APIs, media licences) sit outside the plan and are paid to those providers. Hosting is billed monthly and may be cancelled by either party with 30 days' notice; no pro-rata refund applies to a mid-cycle cancellation.

On cancellation or the end of a hosting arrangement, and once every invoice is paid, Stacklumen will provide a reasonable handover of the deliverable, after which hosting, updates, management, dependency maintenance and infrastructure costs become your responsibility. Full detail is on the Hosting page.

Portal service level #

For portal customers with an active engagement, Stacklumen targets 99.0% monthly uptime for the portal. Planned maintenance is announced at least 48 hours in advance where reasonably possible and excluded from the calculation. If monthly uptime falls below the target, you may request a service credit equal to 5% of that month's portal fees by writing to support@stacklumen.com within 30 days of the affected month. Service credits are the sole remedy for a missed uptime target, and have no cash value.

Warranties, liability and indemnity #

Except where a signed agreement provides otherwise, the Disclaimers, Limitation of liability and Your indemnity sections of the Terms of Service apply to the services and the portal as if written here, with "the products" read as including the services, deliverables and portal, and the cap read as the fees you paid Stacklumen for the services in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim.

By Stacklumen. Subject to those limits, Stacklumen will defend you against third-party claims alleging that a deliverable, as provided by Stacklumen and used in accordance with these terms, infringes a US patent, copyright or trademark, and will pay damages finally awarded by a court or agreed in settlement. This does not apply to claims arising from use in combination with anything not provided by Stacklumen, modifications made by you or for you, or use after Stacklumen has told you to stop.

Suspension and termination #

You may close your portal account at any time by writing to support@stacklumen.com. Closure does not relieve you of prior obligations, including outstanding invoices. Stacklumen may suspend or terminate access, with or without notice, for breach of these terms, non-payment, a chargeback, abusive or threatening conduct, suspected security incidents, or a legal or regulatory requirement. On termination, outstanding payment obligations and the surviving provisions (ownership, licences, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity and disputes) remain in effect, and you may request an export of your portal data within 30 days.

Disputes and governing law #

Except where a signed agreement provides otherwise, the Disputes and binding arbitration, Governing law, Changes and General sections of the Terms of Service apply to these terms, including binding individual arbitration in Kentucky, the class-action and jury waiver, the 30-day opt-out and the one-year limit on claims.

Contact #