Kearsarge Vault Terms of Service

Effective date: 26 October 2026

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Kearsarge Studios LLC (“Kearsarge Studios,” “we,” “us”) governing your use of Kearsarge Vault: the web app at vault.kearsargestudios.com, the Android app, and the offline tools that come with them (together, the “Service”). Please read them together with the Privacy Policy, which explains what the Service stores and sends and is incorporated into these Terms.

Please note up front:
(1) Only you can open your vault. We cannot reset your master password or recover your vault, so keeping your Recovery Sheet and your own backups is up to you (sections 5 and 6).
(2) The core Service is free (paid plans: section 14) and is provided “as is,” without warranties, and our liability is limited (sections 11 and 12).

1. Acceptance of these Terms

By creating, restoring or opening a vault, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an employer or another organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms, and “you” includes that organization.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum age in your country if that is higher, to use the Service. The Service is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly permit anyone under 13 to use it. If you are under 18, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian who agrees to these Terms.

3. License to use the Service

Subject to these Terms, Kearsarge Studios grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to install and use the Service on devices you own or control, for your own personal use or your work. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.

Your data is never locked in. The vault file format is published so that your data stays readable without the Service. You may read your own vault files with the offline tools that come with the Service, including the copies saved in your “Kearsarge Vault Backups” folder, and you may build your own tools that read or write the format. The limits on copying and reverse engineering in section 4 do not restrict this.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law;
store, share or use passwords, keys or other credentials you are not authorized to hold or use, or get into accounts, systems or data you are not authorized to access;
break the terms or rate limits of a service you connect, such as GitHub or Vercel;
copy, modify, reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service, except as section 3 or an open-source license allows, or to the extent this restriction is prohibited by law;
resell, redistribute, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service itself;
interfere with, disrupt, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, its website, or any connected systems or accounts, or try to reach anyone else’s data; or
circumvent any usage limits or access controls.

If you find a security problem in the Service, please tell us at the address in section 20. Good-faith research that does not touch other people’s data or accounts is welcome.

5. Only you can open your vault

Your vault is encrypted on your device. We never receive your master password, your recovery codes, your passkeys or anything in your vault. That is what keeps your vault private, and it means:

We cannot reset your master password.
We cannot recover your vault or anything in it.
We cannot decrypt your vault for you, or for anyone who asks us to.

If you forget your master password and lose every recovery code, and no other way to unlock is still set up, your vault cannot be opened by anyone, including us. Your data is permanently lost. This is how the Service is designed. It is not a fault we can fix. The app asks you to confirm that you understand this when you create a vault.

6. Backups and recovery are up to you

You are responsible for:

Your master password. Choose one you can remember, and do not share it.
Your Recovery Sheet. Keep it safe and away from your devices. Do not keep it in the same Google account as your Drive backup. When you replace your recovery codes, the old codes stop working, so keep the new sheet instead.
Your own backup copy. Keep an encrypted export (a .kvault file) somewhere you control, and make a new one from time to time. Google Drive backup is optional and lives in your Google account. If you delete the app’s data from Drive, or lose access to that account, those backups can be lost.
Unencrypted exports. A CSV, JSON or .env export can be read by anyone who opens it. Delete it when you are done.
Your devices. Anyone who can use your device while your vault is unlocked can see what is in it. Keep your devices locked and up to date.

Removing a vault from a device, and deleting files from your Google Drive, cannot be undone. We have no copy and cannot restore it.

7. Shares and connected accounts

The Service has no account with us. Some features connect to an account you hold with another company, such as Google Drive, GitHub or Vercel. When you connect one, you authorize the Service to access, from your device, the data necessary to provide that feature, subject to that provider’s own terms. You may disconnect a connected account at any time, as the Privacy Policy explains.

The Service acts on your instructions. You are responsible for what you tell it to do.

Shares. Once you share an item, we cannot recall it. A share does not expire. Share only with people you trust, and rotate anything you shared by mistake.
GitHub and Vercel. When you push a secret, the Service writes the values you confirm to your own GitHub or Vercel account, using the token you supplied. It can replace values that are already there. GitHub never returns a secret’s value, so a value replaced in GitHub cannot be recovered from GitHub. You are responsible for your tokens, what they are allowed to do, and your use of those accounts.

8. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, text, and the “Kearsarge Vault” and “Kearsarge Studios” names and marks, is owned by or licensed to Kearsarge Studios and is protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms grant you no right to use our names or marks without our prior written permission. Your vault and everything in it are yours.

Some parts of the Service are open-source software, listed in Settings → About → Open-source licenses. Each comes under its own license, and where that license gives you more rights than these Terms, it governs. The Python decryptor is licensed under the MIT License.

9. Third-party services

The Service works with services that other companies run, when you choose to use them:

Google Drive, for sync and backup.
Google Calendar, which opens in your browser when you choose Open in Google Calendar.
GitHub and Vercel, when you add a token.
Have I Been Pwned, if you turn on the breach check.
Your passkey provider, if you set up passkey unlock.
Google Play, if you install the Android app from it or buy Pro or Pro+, and Vercel, which hosts the website.

We do not control and are not responsible for third-party data, services, or terms, or for websites the Service links to. Your use of each service is governed by your agreement with that company, and the data you keep there is in your account with them. Those companies may change or end their services, and if they do, a feature of the Service may stop working.

10. Updates, test versions and the web app

Updates. We release updates to fix problems, including security problems. We may change or remove features. The app may ask you to update before it can open a vault that a newer version saved.

Test versions. Test versions, such as Google Play test releases, may have more bugs than regular releases. If you use one, keep a recent encrypted export.

The web app is provided “as available.” We do not promise that the website will always be available, fast or free of interruptions. If we decide to stop offering the web app, we will say so on the website and in the app at least 90 days before it stops. Stopping the web app does not affect the copies of your vault on your devices or in your Google Drive. The offline tools and the published file format keep your data readable.

11. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service and all data, calculations, and content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

In particular, we do not promise that:

the Service is free of bugs or security vulnerabilities;
your data can be recovered if you lose your master password and recovery codes, or if your copies are deleted or damaged;
sync or backup will always succeed or be complete;
the website, or any service from another company, will be available or keep working with the Service; or
password health checks, breach checks, expiry reminders, rotation guides and links to other sites are complete or current. A password the Service does not flag can still be weak or exposed.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Kearsarge Studios and its owners, employees, and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) US $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

The damages excluded above include losses from a vault that cannot be opened or recovered, from loss of access to accounts or systems, and the cost of rotating credentials or replacing services.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Kearsarge Studios from any claims, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your misuse of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

14. Paid features

Kearsarge Vault has a free plan and two optional paid plans, Pro and Pro+. They are sold in the Android app through Google Play. Before you buy, the app shows the plan’s price from Google Play and what it adds.

One-time purchase, yours to keep. Pro and Pro+ are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. Nothing renews and you are not charged again.
Google Play processes the payment. Google Play’s terms and refund policy apply to the purchase, in addition to these Terms. Refunds go through Google Play, under its policy. Except where the law or Google Play’s policy requires otherwise, payments are not refundable by us.
A purchase unlocks your vault. The app records the plan inside the vault you have open (the plan, the purchase date and Google Play’s order number, never payment details), so the same vault gets the plan in the web app and on your other devices. A change of plan never removes or hides anything already in your vault, and it stays readable and exportable.
The free plan holds up to 50 items (logins, secrets and notes, not counting the Trash). A vault with more, for example one made on another device, keeps working in full. Only adding items is limited.
Never paid, on any plan: Google Drive sync and backups, the web app’s core features, export, recovery, the command-line and Python readers, and the security features (requiring a passkey, recovery codes and biometric unlock). Opening your vault, recovering it, exporting it, and reading it with the offline tools will never require payment.
Features may change. We may change which features each plan includes, and the prices of future purchases.
The web app. A plan bought in the Android app also unlocks the vault in the web app for as long as we offer the web app (section 10). Plans are sold for the Android app, and stopping the web app is not a reason for a refund.

15. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. Section 9 of the Privacy Policy explains how to delete your data from your devices and your Google Drive.

If you violate these Terms, your license to use the Service ends, and we may suspend or terminate your access to the website if necessary to protect the Service or comply with law. We may stop offering the Service or any part of it. For the web app, the 90 days’ notice in section 10 applies.

Ending these Terms never deletes your vault. We cannot reach your devices or your Google Drive.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including sections 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17, and this survival clause) will survive.

16. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. The exclusive venue for any matter is the state and federal courts located in New Hampshire, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

17. Export and sanctions

Kearsarge Vault contains strong encryption. United States export control and sanctions laws apply to it, as may the laws of other countries. You may not use, export or re-export the Service in breach of those laws. This includes a country or region under a comprehensive US embargo, and use by anyone on a US government list of restricted parties. Some countries restrict importing or using encryption software. You are responsible for following the laws where you use the Service.

18. App store terms

If you obtained the Service from Google Play, your use is also subject to the Google Play Terms of Service, and you acknowledge that Google is not responsible for the Service. Google is not a party to these Terms.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If we make a material change, we will update the effective date and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. We have no account or email address for you, so that notice is given in the app or on this website. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to a change, stop using the Service. You can always export your vault first.

20. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@kearsargestudios.com, Kearsarge Studios LLC.

For privacy questions, email privacy@kearsargestudios.com.

Never send us your master password, recovery codes or secrets. We will never ask for them.