Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of the Terms of Use

Welcome to chattr. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the chattr website, reader and related services (together, the “Service”). By opening the Service, starting a playthrough, or otherwise using it, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

2. Changes to the Terms of Use

We may revise these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, for material changes, post a notice on the Service. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the Service.

3. Definitions

• “Story” means an interactive-fiction setting published on chattr, including its title, summary, cover and hero art, stat schema, and the narrator instructions that drive it (for example, Hollow and Resonance).
• “Playthrough” means a single session of a Story that you start, identified by a character name and made up of one or more Turns.
• “Turn” means one unit of a Playthrough: your Player Input, the narrator’s response, the resulting stat state, the suggested choices, and any art panel attached to it.
• “Player Input” means anything you type or select inside a Playthrough — a suggested choice, a freeform action, or a character name.
• “Narrator” means the language-model service that writes each Turn on the Service’s behalf.
• “Art” means the illustrations shown on covers, heroes, and Turn panels, whether generated for a Story in advance or attached to a Turn later.
• “Operator” means the person or organisation hosting this instance of chattr.

4. Ownership and License of Stories, Art and Playthroughs

The Service, the Stories, the Art, the chattr name and logo, and the software that runs the reader are owned by the Operator or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. Except for the limited license below, nothing in these Terms gives you any right, title or interest in them.

Subject to these Terms, the Operator grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to read Stories and to create and read Playthroughs for your own non-commercial use. You may not copy, redistribute, publicly display, sell, or create derivative works from Stories or Art except as the Service’s own share features allow.

You keep whatever rights you have in your Player Input. Because a Playthrough is produced jointly by your Player Input and the Narrator, you may share, quote and export your own Playthroughs freely, provided you do not remove the Story attribution.

5. The chattr Website and Reader

chattr is a web application. You may use it on any device with a modern browser. The Operator may update the Service at any time; some updates may change or remove features, Stories or Art.

You may not interfere with the Service, probe or test its security without permission, scrape it at a rate that degrades it for others, reverse engineer parts of it that are not published under an open-source license, or use it to build a competing narrator or dataset.

If this instance is self-hosted from the chattr source code, the source code license governs the code; these Terms govern your use of the running Service.

6. Conditions of Use

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the consent of a parent or guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. Stories may contain violence, peril and mature themes; see the content notes on each Story page.

When using the Service you agree not to:

• submit Player Input that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, or sexualises minors;
• attempt to make the Narrator produce content that violates these Terms or any law;
• impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• upload malware or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service or its data;
• use automated tools to create Playthroughs at scale or to extract Story content; or
• use the Service for any commercial purpose without the Operator’s written permission.

7. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what information the Service stores (mostly your Playthroughs and the character names you choose), how it is used, and which third-party services it is sent to in order to generate Turns and Art. By using the Service you consent to that handling.

8. Player Input; Feedback

Your Player Input is sent to the Narrator so that it can write the next Turn, and is stored as part of your Playthrough so that you can continue it later. You grant the Operator a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, process, display and transmit your Player Input for the purpose of operating and improving the Service, including showing your Playthroughs in the “Continue reading” and “All playthroughs” lists on this instance.

If you send us feedback, suggestions or bug reports, you agree that we may use them without restriction or compensation to you.

You are responsible for your Player Input. Do not include passwords, payment details, or other people’s personal information in a Playthrough.

9. AI-Generated Content

Every Turn is written by a language model and much of the Art is generated by an image model. This content is fiction. It is produced automatically, is not reviewed by a person before you see it, and may be inaccurate, inconsistent, or unexpectedly intense. It does not reflect the views of the Operator or of any model provider.

The Narrator can be steered by Player Input. If a Turn contains something that should not be there, use the report route described in the Help center. The Operator may remove Turns or entire Playthroughs that violate these Terms.

Stat values, choices and outcomes have no meaning outside the Story. Nothing in a Turn is advice of any kind.

chattrbox members can generate an illustration of a Turn and can write Stories that other players see. Community Stories are written by members, not the Operator. They are published only after an automatic content check against the SFW rules, which can make mistakes; the Operator may unpublish any Story at any time. When you publish a Story you confirm it is your own original work and grant other players the right to read and play it on the Service.

10. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party providers to work: a model gateway for the Narrator, an image generation platform (Higgsfield) for Art and chattrbox turn images, a file store for generated images, Stripe for chattrbox payments, an email provider for password-reset emails, and, where the Operator has enabled it, a hosted database for accounts and Playthroughs. Your Player Input and the Story context are transmitted to the Narrator provider on every Turn under that provider’s own terms and privacy policy. Payments are processed by Stripe; chattr never sees or stores your card number.

The Operator does not control these providers and is not responsible for their availability, output, pricing or policies. Links from the Service to other sites are provided for convenience only.

11. Fees, Stars, Quills and chattrbox

Reading and upvoting are free. Turns cost Quills, which refill over time, can be earned by watching ads, and can be bought in packs. Illustrations cost Stars, bought in packs. chattrbox ($4.99 per month plus any tax Stripe applies) removes the Quill cost, credits a monthly amount of Stars shown on the chattrbox page, and unlocks publishing Stories. It renews monthly until you cancel from “manage billing”; after cancelling, perks last until the end of the period you paid for.

Stars and Quills are virtual credits with no cash value. They are personal to your account, cannot be transferred or sold, are not refundable except where the law requires it, and may be adjusted or withdrawn if the Service is discontinued or these Terms are breached. A Star spent on an image that fails or is blocked is returned automatically. Prices are shown before you pay and may change for future purchases.

If you run your own instance, you are responsible for any charges from the Narrator, Art, payment, email or database providers you connect, and for keeping your API keys private.

12. Termination and Suspension

The Operator may suspend or end your access to the Service, and may delete Playthroughs, at any time and for any reason, including a breach of these Terms, with or without notice. You may stop using the Service at any time. Sections 4, 8, 9 and 13 to 17 survive termination.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE, THE STORIES, THE ART AND EVERY TURN ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE OPERATOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR SECURE, THAT PLAYTHROUGHS WILL BE PRESERVED, OR THAT THE NARRATOR WILL PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR OUTPUT. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE OPERATOR AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA (INCLUDING LOST PLAYTHROUGHS), ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. THE OPERATOR’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO USE THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM (WHICH IS ZERO ON THIS INSTANCE) AND USD 50.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Operator and its contributors from any claims, damages, losses and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your Player Input, your use of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

16. Governing Law; Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Operator is established, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought in the courts of that jurisdiction, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

Before filing a claim, you agree to contact the Operator through the Help center and make a good-faith attempt to resolve the dispute for at least 30 days.

17. Complete Agreement and Severability

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and the Operator about the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will stay in full force. The Operator’s failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

18. Contact Information

Questions about these Terms? Visit the Help center and use “Get in touch”, or open an issue in the chattr repository if you are running your own instance.