Terms of Service
Last updated: October 6, 2026
These terms are an agreement between you and Wenchao Gou (“we”, “us”), the developer of honest-ci. They apply when you buy a subscription to honest-ci or use a license key we issue. If you buy for an organization, you accept them on its behalf and confirm that you may.
1. Who sells honest-ci
Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns.
Paddle’s Buyer Terms also apply to your purchase. You can reach us at support@honest-ci.dev.
2. The software and its license
honest-ci is a GitHub Action, source-available under the Fair Core License, Version 1.0, ALv2 Future License (FCL-1.0-ALv2). The LICENSE file that comes with each version governs the software; in case of doubt, it prevails over this summary. It lets you use honest-ci for any purpose except a Competing Use, but not move, change, disable or get around its license key check. Each version also becomes available under the Apache License 2.0 two years after it is published.
honest-ci asks for a license key only when it runs in continuous integration, and even there not:
- on a repository that is publicly accessible;
- on a private repository owned by an individual’s personal account, as long as only that individual opens its pull requests. Pull requests opened by a GitHub App, such as Dependabot, don’t count. A machine account the individual uses, for example for an AI coding agent, looks like another person to the check: email us, and we’ll send a key for it free of charge.
On any other GitHub repository it needs a key: in practice, a private or internal repository owned by an organization, or a personal one where other people open pull requests. In GitHub Actions it first runs without one for a 14-day trial, once per organization or account. Starting the trial again, for example under a new workflow file or in another repository, is getting around the check.
3. What a subscription gives you
A subscription gives you a license key for one GitHub organization, or for one personal account whose private repositories other people open pull requests on. For as long as it is paid, and for up to the number of people your plan allows, the key lets you run honest-ci on every repository that organization or account owns.
It doesn’t permit a Competing Use as FCL-1.0-ALv2 defines it: making honest-ci available to others in a commercial product or service that substitutes for it, or for another product or service we offer using it, or that offers the same or substantially similar functionality.
Every plan runs the same software. What a subscription buys is the key.
4. Plans, and who counts
The Small team plan covers up to 3 people, and the Team plan up to 10. Above 10, the Larger team plan is priced per person, with no cap. Prices are on the pricing page, which says when they include tax.
A person counts if, in the last 90 days, they opened a pull request, or submitted a review on one, in a private or internal repository the subscription covers. Every human counts, outside collaborators included, even when an AI tool opened the pull request under their own account. Accounts that only act for an app or an AI coding agent, such as GitHub Apps and bot accounts, don’t count.
honest-ci doesn’t count people and reports nothing to us, so keeping within your plan is up to you. If more people count than your subscription covers, bring it up to that number within 30 days: move to the plan that fits or, on the Larger team plan, add the extra people. We may ask you once a year how many people count.
5. License keys
Your license starts when you pay, not when the key arrives. We email a license key within 48 hours of each payment, usually within 24. To issue it we need the name of your GitHub organization or account: if checkout doesn’t ask for it, reply to your receipt with it, and the 48 hours run from your reply.
A key is for one organization or account. Keep it in your GitHub secrets, don’t publish it, and don’t share it with another organization or account.
Your license continues for 30 days after the end of the period you paid for, and honest-ci says so on every run during those days, so that a late renewal doesn’t stop your CI.
The license key check works offline. The license doesn’t allow removing it, changing it or getting around it.
If we sent you a key during the private beta, the email that came with it sets its terms.
6. Billing, renewal and cancellation
Subscriptions are paid in advance, yearly or monthly, through Paddle, and renew automatically at the end of each period until you cancel.
You can cancel any time, from the link in the emails Paddle sends you or by emailing us. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep the license until the end of the period you paid for.
If we change a price, we’ll email you at least 30 days before your subscription renews at the new price.
7. Refunds
Within 30 days of any of these payments, you can have it refunded in full, for any reason: the first payment of your organization’s first subscription, a yearly renewal, or a switch from monthly to yearly billing. Monthly renewals, and payments for moving to a bigger plan or adding people, aren’t refunded; cancelling stops the next renewal. See the Refund Policy.
8. Your code and your data
honest-ci runs on your own CI runners and sends us nothing: no code, no usage data, no telemetry. If you configure an AI model, honest-ci sends that model’s provider the data its README describes, under your own account and that provider’s terms; we are not a party to that.
What we do with the data you give us is in the Privacy Policy.
9. No warranty
honest-ci is a review aid. It reads pull requests, applies rules and reports what it finds. It can miss a problem, and it can hold or block a change that is fine. You remain responsible for what you merge.
To the extent the law allows, honest-ci and our services are provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. If you are a consumer, this doesn’t affect your legal rights when digital content is faulty or not as described.
10. Limitation of liability
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or data. Our total liability for all claims about honest-ci or these terms is limited to the amount paid for your subscription in the 12 months before the claim arose.
These limits don’t apply to death or personal injury, to fraud, to loss we cause intentionally or through gross negligence, or to any other liability the law doesn’t allow to be limited. They don’t take away a right you have as a consumer that can’t be waived.
11. Ending the agreement
We may end your subscription if you materially breach these terms or the license, for example by sharing a key with another organization or by making a Competing Use. We’ll tell you by email first and, where the breach can be fixed, give you a reasonable time to fix it. If we end a subscription for any other reason, we refund the unused part of the period you paid for.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms, and we’ll post each new version here with its date. If a change matters to an active subscription, we’ll email you, and it applies from your next renewal.
13. Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the People’s Republic of China, and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods doesn’t apply. If you are a consumer, this choice doesn’t take away the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live.
Any dispute goes to the courts of Shanghai. If you are a consumer, you can also bring a claim before the courts where you live, and any claim we bring against you goes to those courts. If you are a business, we can also bring a claim before the courts where you are based.