Terms of Service

Roost Studio LLC · Last updated July 26, 2026

These are the terms for working with Roost. They are written to be read, not to be survived. By buying a Coop, joining Roost Family, or using a Coop I have built, you agree to what follows. If something here does not sit right with you, write to me at lynsie@roost-studio.com and we will talk like people.

Who you are dealing with

Roost Studio LLC, a Virginia limited liability company in Charlottesville, Virginia. Roost is run by Lynsie Steele. When these terms say "I" or "me," that is who they mean.

What Roost offers

Business Coops: hand-built web applications made to order, paid as a one-time build fee.
Roost Family: a subscription giving a household as many family Coops as it needs, billed monthly or annually.
Care plans: optional ongoing maintenance and updates, billed monthly.

Payment

Payments are processed by Stripe. Build fees are due before work begins unless we agree otherwise in writing. Subscriptions renew automatically at the price and interval shown at checkout until you cancel, and prices for existing subscribers will not change without notice by email first.

Canceling a subscription: email me and it is done, no phone tree and no retention script. You keep access through the period you have already paid for, and partial periods are not refunded.

Refunds on build fees

A Coop is made by hand, for you, and the work happens in real time. That shapes how refunds work, and I would rather be clear now than awkward later.

Before I start building: tell me and I will refund you in full, no questions and no hard feelings.
Once I have started building: the fee is committed. The hours are being spent as we go, and they cannot be unspent.
If the finished Coop is not right for you: tell me within thirty days of delivery. My first instinct is always to fix it, and in almost every case that is what happens, revisions during that window are part of the deal, not a favor. If we truly cannot get it right together, I will refund half of the build fee and retire the Coop from the web, and we will part on kind terms even though the fit was wrong.
After thirty days from delivery: build fees are final. Your Coop is yours, and ongoing changes are what care plans are for.

I would always rather make something right than keep money from someone unhappy. That is what the thirty day window is for.

What I promise

To build what we agreed on, with care, and to tell you honestly if something is a bad idea.
To deliver business Coops within about two weeks of our intake conversation unless we agree on a different timeline.
To answer you like a person, not a ticket.

What I ask of you

Give me accurate information at intake. A Coop is only as good as the brief.
Respond within a reasonable time when I need decisions or content. If a project goes quiet for more than sixty days, I may consider it paused and finish it when you return.
Only put content into a Coop that you have the right to use, and nothing unlawful.
Do not resell, relicense, or redistribute a Coop as your own product, and do not use Roost to send spam or host malicious code.

Fair use, and my right to say no

Roost is a small, hand-built studio, not a vending machine. Every Coop is made by a real person, so a few common-sense limits keep things fair for everyone:

The free Coop is one per household or organization. The first family Coop is on the house so you can feel what Roost is like. It is not meant to be claimed over and over with different email addresses, and I may decline duplicate or automated free requests.
Requests are handled by a human, on a human timeline. Submitting a request does not automatically create a Coop; it reaches me, and I build it. Flooding the intake with repeated or automated submissions will not speed anything up, and I may ignore or block requests that look like spam or abuse.
I may decline or limit service. I reserve the right to refuse, pause, or limit any request or account, including free ones, if it is abusive, unlawful, technically disruptive, or simply beyond what a small studio can reasonably take on. If I ever decline, I will try to say so kindly.
Automated features have limits too. Where a Coop offers an AI or other automated feature, please use it at a normal human pace. Scripted, bulk, or automated hammering of these features may be rate-limited or blocked, since they cost real money to run.

Age, and who is responsible for an account

Roost is designed to be used by adults, including on behalf of a family that has younger members. A few things that matter, especially for family Coops:

The account holder must be at least eighteen. Whoever signs up, agrees to these terms, and handles any payment must be an adult. If you are under eighteen, please have a parent or guardian be the account holder.
Kids and teens can absolutely use a family Coop. A household Coop is meant to be shared, and younger family members are welcome to use one. But the adult account holder is responsible for the account, for what goes into the Coop, and for supervising how the young people in their home use it.
Please keep children's information minimal. A Coop is a warm working hub, not a records vault. Share only what a family actually needs day to day, and keep sensitive details about minors to a minimum.

AI-assisted features

Some Coops include AI-assisted features, for example a tool that reads a photo of a worksheet and turns it into text you can use, or a feature that helps draft a note. A few honest things about those:

AI output is a draft, not the last word. These features help you work faster, but they can be wrong or imperfect. Please review anything an AI feature produces before you rely on it, share it, or send it home. You are responsible for what you do with the result.
Use them for what they are for. AI features are provided in good faith for ordinary, lawful use. Please do not upload content you do not have the right to use, anything unlawful, or anything designed to abuse or overload the feature. I may rate-limit, pause, or withdraw an AI feature that is being misused or that becomes too costly to offer, especially on free Coops.
How the processing works. When you use an AI feature, the content you submit (such as a photo) is sent to a third-party AI provider to generate the result. I do not sell that content, and you can read more in the Privacy Policy.

Who owns what

You own your content and your Coop. Everything you put into a Coop is yours. The finished Coop I deliver is yours to use for your business or family for as long as you like. I keep ownership of the underlying craft: the Roost framework, the Feather patterns, the chassis, the code techniques, and the Roost name and marks. I reuse those patterns across clients, which is exactly how a small studio can afford to build bespoke work at these prices.

Demos built from your Coop. I may create a sample Coop based on the structure of yours to show what Roost can do. When I do, every piece of personal, sensitive, and identifying information is removed first: real names, contact details, customer and staff data, prices you consider private, and anything else that belongs to you. What remains is the shape of the work, filled with invented example content. Your actual Coop and its contents are never shown to anyone.

Being named as a partner. For business clients, I would love to feature you on roost-studio.com as part of the flock. Naming the businesses I work with builds trust in this community and is how word of mouth travels, and it sends people your way too. If you would rather stay anonymous, check the opt-out box during intake or email me at any time, and I will remove your name and marks without a word of protest.

Availability and the honest disclaimer

Coops run on third-party infrastructure, primarily Netlify. I do not promise perfect uptime, and outages at a hosting provider are not something I control. Roost is provided as it is, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. I will always try to fix what breaks, quickly and without drama.

Unless your Coop includes an access gate I built for you, anyone with its web address can open it. Please read the corresponding section of the Privacy Policy, since it matters more than most fine print.

Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, my total liability for anything connected to Roost is limited to the amount you paid me in the twelve months before the claim. I am not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages such as lost profits or lost data. Some places do not allow these limits, in which case they apply as far as they legally can.

Ending things

You can stop using Roost or cancel a subscription at any time. I may end service if these terms are seriously broken, if payment fails and goes unresolved, or if a working relationship becomes abusive. If I ever end service without cause, I will refund what you have paid for time you did not receive.

Changes to these terms

If these terms change in a way that matters, I will update the date above and email current clients about anything significant. Continuing to use Roost after that means the new terms apply.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and any dispute belongs in the state or federal courts serving Albemarle County, Virginia. Before anyone calls a lawyer, please call me.

Questions? lynsie@roost-studio.com
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