Terms of Service (revised draft)

Oct 15, 2026 · @Ashu

1. Agreement and eligibility

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], a [STATE] [ENTITY TYPE] ("Bonssai," "we," "us"). They govern your use of the Bonssai app and website at bonss.ai and every related feature (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you disagree, do not create an account or use the Service.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter this agreement. You confirm that no law that applies to you prohibits you from using the Service. [COUNSEL: add an age gate beyond a checkbox, such as a date of birth entered at sign-up, and block sign-up under 18.]

2. What Bonssai is and is not

Bonssai is an AI-powered tool for personal reflection and journaling. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, counseling, or emergency services, and it is not a substitute for a qualified healthcare professional. Bonssai is not a licensed professional and does not present itself as one. Using the Service creates no clinician-patient, therapist-client, or other professional relationship between you and us, or between you and the AI.

Every response you receive, including any voice or phone response, is generated by an artificial intelligence system and not by a human being.

Do not change, stop, or delay any medication, treatment, or care, and do not disregard professional advice, because of anything Bonssai says. If a professional is treating you, talk with them about how you use the Service.

3. Emergencies and crisis resources

Bonssai is not a crisis service and does not monitor your entries in real time. No person reads what you write or say as you write or say it, and we cannot send help to you. If you may harm yourself or someone else, or you are having a medical or mental-health emergency, call or text 988 in the US, call 911, or contact your local emergency number or crisis service right away.

Bonssai may display crisis resources when it detects certain language. Detection is automated and imperfect. It can miss warning signs and can flag things that are not emergencies. Never rely on Bonssai to notice, interpret, or respond to an emergency.

4. AI can make mistakes

AI responses, transcripts, summaries, and detected patterns may be incorrect, incomplete, misleading, biased, or inappropriate. Patterns are observations about your entries. They are not diagnoses and do not establish cause and effect. Transcripts of voice or phone sessions may misstate what was said. Check anything important and verify it independently before you rely on it.

You can correct Bonssai as you go. Corrections do not guarantee that future responses will be accurate. You remain responsible for your own choices and for deciding what to share or rely on.

5. Your account and acceptable use

Give us accurate account information, protect your sign-in details, and do not share your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has accessed it. You are responsible for activity under your account.

You may not use the Service unlawfully, harass or harm others, infringe anyone's rights, upload malicious content, bypass or test our security, access another person's data, scrape or reverse engineer the Service, use its output to build a competing model, or disrupt it. We may restrict, suspend, or end your access for misuse or security risks, subject to applicable law.

6. Your content and privacy

You own the content you submit, including journal entries, voice recordings, and transcripts ("Your Content"). You give us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, process, transmit, and display Your Content only as needed to operate the Service for you. That includes generating AI responses, saving check-ins, and providing features you choose to use.

[CONFIRM BEFORE PUBLISHING: We do not use Your Content to train or fine-tune any AI model, and we do not allow our service providers to do so. Keep this sentence only if it is true for you and for every provider under your contracts. Otherwise delete it and describe what actually happens.]

Our Privacy Policy Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect and how we use it, and it forms part of these Terms. Your account records are private to your account and are not publicly displayed. We share Your Content with service providers, such as AI model, telephony, and hosting providers, only as needed to deliver the Service.

Conversations with Bonssai are not protected by medical confidentiality, clinician-patient privilege, or any similar privilege. We may disclose information when the law requires it, for example in response to valid legal process. Do not submit information you lack permission to share, including other people's private information.

7. Phone and voice features

If you use phone or voice features, your sessions are recorded and transcribed so Bonssai can respond and save your check-ins. At the start of every session we will tell you that you are speaking with an AI and that the session is recorded, and you can end it before anything is captured. By continuing past that notice you consent to the recording and transcription.

If anyone else can be heard on your call, you are responsible for making sure they know about the recording and have agreed to it. Some states and countries require every party's consent. Standard carrier charges may apply. Phone features are not for emergencies and cannot place emergency calls. [COUNSEL: confirm the start-of-call disclosure script and recording consent flow against the wiretap and recording laws of the states where users will be located.]

8. Subscriptions and billing

[USE THIS SECTION ONLY IF BONSSAI CHARGES. If it is free for now, replace it with: "Bonssai is currently free. If we add paid features, we will show the price and terms before you are charged."]

Paid plans show their price and billing period before you buy. A paid plan renews automatically at the end of each billing period at the then-current price until you cancel. You can cancel at any time in your account settings [or through the app store you used to subscribe], and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period. We will tell you at least [30] days before a price increase takes effect. Prices exclude applicable taxes. [REFUNDS: state your refund policy here.] [COUNSEL: automatic renewal laws in California and several other states require clear disclosure, affirmative consent, an acknowledgment email, and online cancellation as easy as sign-up.]

9. Service ownership and availability

Bonssai's branding, software, and original service materials belong to us or our licensors. You receive a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable permission to use the Service under these Terms. Features may change, be interrupted, or be discontinued. We do not guarantee availability, accuracy, or any particular health or wellbeing outcome. If we shut the Service down, we will try to give you at least [30] days' notice and a way to export Your Content. Keep your own copies of anything that matters to you.

10. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not promise that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error free, or that AI output will be accurate or right for you.

AI interactions can be emotionally difficult and may cause distress or other unwanted effects. If that happens, stop using the Service and contact a qualified professional or crisis service. Some places do not allow certain disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total liability of Bonssai and its owners, officers, employees, operators, and service providers for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose or $100. They are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including emotional distress, loss of data, or loss of profits, even if advised of the possibility. These limits apply whatever the legal theory of the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, violation of law, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Your mandatory consumer rights are unaffected.

12. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Bonssai and its owners, officers, employees, and operators from third-party claims, and the resulting losses, damages, and reasonable attorneys' fees, that arise from Your Content or your breach of these Terms. We will tell you promptly about any such claim, and you may not settle it in a way that binds us without our written consent. This section does not apply to the extent the law prohibits it.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of [STATE], without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing anything, email [LEGAL EMAIL] with a description of the problem, and give us 30 days to try to resolve it.

If we cannot resolve it, any dispute will be decided by binding individual arbitration under the [AAA/JAMS] consumer arbitration rules, and you waive any right to bring or join a class action or class arbitration. The arbitrator decides only your individual claim. If this class waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim goes to court instead of arbitration. [COUNSEL: address fee allocation for consumers, and draft around the rule that claims for public injunctive relief cannot be waived in California.]

You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days after you first accept these Terms by emailing [OPT-OUT EMAIL] with your name and account email. Small-claims actions, requests to a regulator, and claims to stop misuse of our intellectual property are not subject to arbitration. Any claim that goes to court will be brought in the state or federal courts located in [COUNTY, STATE].

14. Ending use, deletion, and changes to these Terms

You may stop using Bonssai at any time. You can delete individual entries or your entire account inside the app [or by emailing [PRIVACY EMAIL]]. After you delete, we remove Your Content from our active systems within [30] days and from backups within [90] days, except for anything we must keep by law. Where practical, you can export Your Content before deleting it.

We may suspend or end your access for violations of these Terms or for security risk, with notice where practical. Sections that by their nature should continue after your access ends will continue, including sections 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15.

We may update these Terms. We will tell you about material changes through the Service and by email at least [30] days before they take effect, and where the law requires it we will ask you to accept the new Terms again. We record the version of these Terms you accept and when you accept it.

15. General terms and contact

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a provision, we have not waived it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control. Consumer protection laws and other rights that cannot be waived apply regardless of these Terms.

Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE]

Contact: [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [MAILING ADDRESS], [LEGAL EMAIL]