Terms of Service

Agreement

By using Chinilla™ ("the Service"), you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. Chinilla™ is operated by Alex Kwon, DBA Chinilla.

Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States. Any disputes arising from these terms or the Service shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California. By using the Service, you consent to the personal jurisdiction of these courts.

The Service

Chinilla™ is an AI-powered system design tool. You can create system architecture diagrams, add components and connections, validate designs against the Six Survival Instincts framework, run deterministic simulations, generate specifications, and use AI chat for design assistance. The Service is provided "as is" and may change over time.

Accounts

An account is required to use Chinilla. You can sign up using Google or GitHub OAuth. Your account enables cloud saving, syncing designs across devices, and access to your dashboard.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account. We authenticate through your OAuth provider and do not store passwords.

Your Content

You own your designs. System architectures, components, connections, notes, tickets, drawings, and any other content you create on Chinilla belong to you. We do not claim ownership or intellectual property rights over your content.

Your designs are stored in our cloud database. By saving designs, you grant us a limited license to store, transmit, back up, and display your content back to you. This license exists solely to operate the Service and terminates when you delete your content or account.

We do not use your content for AI model training, marketing, or any purpose other than providing the Service to you.

AI Features

AI features (describe, generate, simulate, spec export) are powered by Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 model. Pro subscribers receive 300 AI credits per billing cycle. AI output is generated content and may contain errors, inaccuracies, or suggestions that are not appropriate for your use case. When you use AI features, your canvas data and messages are sent to Anthropic for processing under Anthropic's privacy policy.

AI output is not professional advice. Chinilla is a design exploration tool. AI-generated scores, recommendations, and specifications should not be treated as engineering sign-off, security audit, or compliance certification.

You are responsible for reviewing and validating any AI-generated content before using it in production systems.

GitHub Integration

When you connect a GitHub repository, you authorize Chinilla to read your repository's file tree, configuration files, and metadata via the GitHub API using your OAuth token. We do not store the contents of your source files; we only store the resulting architecture diagram, repo identifiers, branch, privacy flag, and last-synced commit SHA.

No cross-user caching. Repo analyses (public and private) are not cached or shared between users. Every re-analyze runs a fresh AI pass and the resulting diagram is stored only on your account.

You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to analyze any repository you connect. Disconnect a repository at any time from the GitHub panel; this removes the stored diagram association from your account.

Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to bypass safety measures, rate limits, or content filters
• Use the AI features to generate harmful, abusive, or deceptive content
• Reverse engineer, scrape, or programmatically access the Service outside of normal use
• Impersonate others or misrepresent your identity
• Interfere with the Service's infrastructure or other users' experience
• Share, sell, or redistribute your account credentials or Pro subscription access

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms.

Paid Plans

Chinilla offers a Pro plan with cloud saving, AI credits, and additional features. Pricing is listed on the pricing page. Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually through Stripe.

You may cancel your subscription at any time from your dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period.

Free tier users have access to core design features (canvas, components, connections, cloud save, export).

Pricing and Credit Allocation Changes

Chinilla relies on third-party AI providers (currently Anthropic's Claude models) whose pricing, model availability, and rate limits we do not control. When a provider changes their terms, for example deprecating a model, raising token costs, or imposing new throttling, we may need to adjust our prices, credit allocations, per-action credit costs, or the underlying model used to fulfill your AI requests.

Pricing, monthly credit caps, per-action credit costs, and the AI model in use are subject to change. We will give existing subscribers reasonable notice (at least 14 days for material changes affecting the current billing period) via an in-app notice on the dashboard or pricing page, and any change takes effect at the start of your next billing cycle unless legal or provider constraints require it sooner.

If a change is unacceptable to you, you can cancel from the dashboard before it takes effect. Your existing balance for the current billing period is honored at the rate in effect when you subscribed for that period.

Refund Policy

We don't offer automatic refunds for subscription payments, partial billing periods, downgrades, or unused AI credits.

If something went wrong (e.g., accidental duplicate charge, extended service outage), contact us at squeak@chinilla.com and we'll review your case.

We recommend trying the free tier before subscribing to ensure the Service meets your needs.

Availability and Outages

We aim to keep Chinilla available and performant, but we do not guarantee any specific level of uptime or availability. The Service is not designed for mission-critical or life-safety applications.

The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance and updates (we will provide advance notice when possible)
• Unplanned outages of our hosting provider (Render), database (Supabase), or AI provider (Anthropic)
• Network disruptions, denial-of-service attacks, or other circumstances beyond our control
• Emergency security patches or vulnerability remediation

During outages, cloud-saved projects and AI features require an active connection to our servers. We recommend exporting important designs regularly as local backups.

We are not liable for any data loss, business interruption, or damages caused by outages, whether scheduled or unscheduled. We recommend exporting important designs regularly.

We do not offer service level agreements (SLAs) or outage credits for any plan tier.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Chinilla and its operator shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenue, whether incurred directly or indirectly.

Our total liability for any claim arising from the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Termination

You can delete your account from your dashboard. Deleting your account cancels any active subscription, removes your cloud-saved projects, and deletes your data from our systems. Locally stored designs in your browser are not affected.

Before deleting your account, you can export all your data (projects, subscription info, usage history) from the dashboard.

We may terminate or suspend your access to server-side features (AI, cloud save) if you violate these terms, with or without notice depending on the severity of the violation.

Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes will be communicated through the app or via email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

External Links

The Service may contain links to third-party websites and services (e.g., GitHub, Anthropic, Stripe, documentation sites). These links are provided for convenience and reference. We do not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites. Accessing external links is at your own risk, and we encourage you to review the terms and privacy policies of any site you visit.

Intellectual Property

Chinilla™ is a trademark of Alex Kwon. All rights reserved. The Chinilla name, logo, visual design, UI components, documentation, and marketing materials are the intellectual property of Alex Kwon, DBA Chinilla.

You may not use the Chinilla name, logo, or branding in any way that suggests endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship without prior written permission.

The Service's source code, algorithms, system prompts, AI pipeline configurations, and security mechanisms are proprietary and confidential. Reverse engineering, decompiling, or attempting to extract these materials is prohibited.

Your content remains yours. Nothing in this section limits your ownership of designs, architectures, or other content you create using Chinilla. See the "Your Content" section above for details.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email squeak@chinilla.com or use our contact form.