Terms of use

1. Scope

These terms govern access to LockBounty, including bounty posting, claiming, pull request verification, trust scoring, and payout coordination features.

2. Early access status

LockBounty is currently being prepared for controlled early access. Payment, payout, GitHub App, AI review, trust, and moderation features may be rolled out progressively and may require sandbox or controlled production configuration before public availability.

3. User responsibilities

• Sponsors must describe bounty requirements honestly.
• Builders must submit original, authorized, and reviewable work.
• Users must not abuse claims, impersonate others, or submit malware.
• Users must respect repository licenses and contribution rules.

4. Bounties and payouts

A bounty is visible to builders only after LockBounty confirms that the sponsor payment has been secured through an enabled payment provider. Builders do not fund bounties. Builders may be required to connect a Stripe Connect payout account before claiming work so accepted payouts can be transferred automatically.

A bounty can have up to three competing claims unless the platform configuration states otherwise. Only the claim accepted through LockBounty is paid by default. Non-selected builders are not compensated by LockBounty unless a separate written agreement applies.

GitHub comments, labels, repository messages, or manual claim messages outside LockBounty do not reserve a bounty and do not create a payout right. The sponsor or maintainer must accept the LockBounty-submitted claim before payout release.

5. Sponsor cancellation and refunds

A sponsor may cancel and request an automatic refund only while the bounty is funded or claimed and before any pull request evidence has been submitted through LockBounty. Once a LockBounty PR is submitted, automatic refund is blocked and the case must go through support or dispute review.

LockBounty records refund, dispute, and support evidence in the platform audit trail. This protects builders from sponsors who try to bypass the pipeline after work has been submitted, while still letting honest sponsors recover funds before any PR work enters the system.

6. Signed workflow rules

Sponsors and builders may be required to accept versioned workflow clauses before creating, claiming, submitting, cancelling, accepting, or paying bounties. These clauses explain the payment responsibility, three-claim competition model, LockBounty-only submission path, refund limits, advisory AI review, and final sponsor acceptance decision.

7. AI review

AI-assisted review may summarize diffs, highlight scope fit, check tests, and flag security-sensitive changes. AI review is not a guarantee that code is safe, correct, compliant, or production-ready. Viktor, Kael, or any other review agent provides advisory evidence only. The sponsor or maintainer keeps the final acceptance decision.

8. Trust and moderation

LockBounty may calculate trust signals from evidence such as funded bounties, accepted PRs, payout events, disputes, chargebacks, and admin decisions. Accounts may be warned, restricted, or banned for fraud, repeated non-payment, abusive claims, or unsafe submissions.

9. Support and disputes

Support decisions are based on LockBounty records, Stripe and GitHub App events, submitted PR evidence, signed workflow clauses, and admin review. External side agreements are not the source of truth for automated payout or refund decisions.

10. Limitation

LockBounty is provided without warranties to the maximum extent permitted by law. Users remain responsible for reviewing code, verifying security, handling taxes, and complying with applicable laws.