# Terms of service

> The terms under which inspect.software publishes inspection results, issues badges, and accepts public-repository submissions.


These terms govern use of inspect.software — the public record, badges, and
the current public-repository submission flow.

## 1. The service

inspect.software analyzes software repositories against a published,
versioned methodology and publishes the resulting reports, indices, and
badges. The methodology, its formulas, and its version history are public at
[/methodology](/methodology) and in the [wiki](/wiki).

## 2. Results are signals, not warranties

All results — reports, indices, bands, badges, and certifications — are
**informational signals about publicly visible practice**. They are not a
code audit, not a security guarantee, not an endorsement, and not advice.
inspect.software disclaims all warranties, express or implied, regarding the
software described in the record, and accepts no liability for decisions
made in reliance on published results. The full statement of what results do
and do not claim is at
[signals, not warranties](/wiki/signals-not-warranties).

## 3. The public record

- Reports on public repositories are published openly and remain published.
  Confirmed data errors are corrected by re-inspection, not by removal.
- Published results are computed from publicly available data (repository
  contents, hosting-platform metadata, package-registry metadata).
- Published results may not be altered, misquoted, or presented in a
  misleading manner; badges must link to their underlying report.

## 4. Accounts and submissions

- Submitting a repository requires GitHub authentication and currently supports
  public GitHub repositories only.
- Account balances pay for inspections that fall outside free
  public-interest coverage, as described at [pricing](/pricing). Consumed
  inspections are non-refundable once the scan has run.
- Abuse of the submission system — spam, automated flooding, attempts to
  game eligibility — may result in rejected submissions or closed accounts.

## 5. Paid services

The current product supports on-demand public-repository inspections through
the account-balance and developer-code paths. Private audits, monitoring, and
enterprise reporting are planned services; if offered, they will be governed
by engagement-specific terms. **Payment never affects a result**: the
methodology and formulas are identical on every tier, and no fee purchases a
different published value.

## 6. Badges

Badges may be embedded freely by anyone for any repository in the record,
provided they are served from the official badge endpoint and link to the
repository's report. Fabricating, altering, or imitating a badge — or
presenting one as a warranty — is prohibited.

## 7. Intellectual property

Report contents, methodology texts, and site content are © inspect.software.
Reports may be cited and quoted with attribution. The underlying facts about
repositories are public data and remain free.

## 8. Changes

These terms and the methodology may change. Methodology changes are always
versioned and dated ([methodology versions](/wiki/methodology-versions));
material changes to these terms are announced on this page with an updated
date.

## 9. Contact

Questions about these terms: [contact](/contact).