End User Licence Agreement

Cygnus Crane L.L.C., a Wyoming limited liability company. 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States. [email protected]

Version 1.0. Applicable to Cygtree for Windows.
Last updated: 20 August 2026.

0. Summary

This clause is a summary of the Agreement, provided so that the Licensee may understand its effect before reading the full terms. It is not exhaustive.

• The Software is purchased once. The licence does not expire.
• The licence binds to a computer and not to an account. There is no account.
• The Licensee's boards are files on the Licensee's own disk. They belong to the Licensee in perpetuity, including after the licence ends and including if the Licensor ceases to exist.
• The Licensor does not sell AI. The Licensee connects an AI service the Licensee already pays for, and anything sent to it is received by that provider under that provider's terms and not the Licensor's. The Licensor does not receive it.
• The Software and the licence key may not be resold, circumvented, or stripped of the Licensor's attribution.
• Clauses 12 and 13 disclaim warranties and limit liability in the ordinary way.

Where this summary and the operative clauses conflict, the operative clauses prevail.

1. Parties, subject matter and defined terms

This End User Licence Agreement (this "Agreement") is entered into between Cygnus Crane L.L.C., a Wyoming limited liability company of 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States (the "Licensor"), and the person or entity that installs or uses the Software (the "Licensee").

"The Software" means Cygtree, the Windows desktop application, including its installer and the files distributed with it.

"The Founder" means the individual who founded the Licensor.

The Software is sold by Polar Software, Inc., of 3500 South DuPont Highway, Dover, DE 19901, USA (the "Reseller"), acting as merchant of record and authorised reseller. The Licensee purchases the Software from the Reseller. The Reseller receives payment, accounts for sales tax and value added tax, issues the invoice, and delivers the licence key. The right to use the Software is granted to the Licensee by the Licensor under this Agreement.

Two separate instruments therefore apply:

Where the two conflict, the Reseller's terms govern the sale and the payment, and this Agreement governs the licence.

2. Grant of licence

Upon purchase, the Licensor grants the Licensee a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Software, subject to the terms of this Agreement.

2.1 Perpetual term. The paid licence has no expiry date. Once activated, the Software does not expire, requires no subscription, and continues to operate however much time passes. There is no renewal and no recurring charge. Clause 3.2 states the number of computers on which one licence key may be activated.

2.2 Single concurrent session. The licence permits use of the Software by one person in one session at a time. The Licensee may install the Software on more than one computer, as provided in clause 3, but the licence does not permit two persons to use the Software simultaneously on two computers.

2.3 Permitted acts. The Licensee may:

• install and use the Software on the computers the Licensee is entitled to activate under clause 3;
• use the Software for personal purposes, for employment, for client work and for any commercial purpose; the Licensor draws no distinction between them and offers no separate business licence;
• create and retain, without limit and in perpetuity, boards, exports, backups and copies of the Licensee's own content, subject to no restriction imposed by the Licensor;
• relocate the Licensee's boards and media folder to any location on the Licensee's disk; the Software supports this directly.

2.4 Prohibited acts. The Licensee may not:

• sell, rent, sublicense, lend or transfer the Software or the licence key;
• publish the licence key, or disclose it to any person outside the Licensee's household or the Licensee's own computers;
• remove or alter any copyright notice, the product name, or the signature applied to the binary;
• distribute the Software, whether modified or unmodified, as part of another product;
• use the Software for any unlawful purpose, or to process content that the Licensee has no right to process.

2.5 Household use. The Licensee may activate the Software on a computer belonging to the Licensee or on a computer belonging to a member of the Licensee's household. The licence binds to a computer rather than to a named individual. Clause 2.2 continues to apply in either case: the licence is granted for use by one person at a time, and not for simultaneous use by two persons.

2.6 Updates and version scope

The Software contains no automatic update mechanism. The Software does not download any new version of itself. The Licensee installs new versions at the Licensee's own initiative, from the download page.

This licence is granted in respect of version 1 of the Software. All releases within version 1 are included at no further charge: the licence covers every release of the Software whose version number begins "1.", up to but not including version 2.0. That is the scope of the USD 20 purchase price, which is payable once. Version 2.0 and any later major version would constitute a separate product and a separate purchase.

The Licensor intends to continue developing and supporting the Software. That intention is not a term of this Agreement and confers no right on the Licensee. In particular, it does not:

• include a future version 2 or any later major version;
• constitute an undertaking to offer a discount on any such version; or
• entitle the Licensee to any particular feature, release schedule or rate of development.

If a version 2 is released, the price payable by existing licensees will be determined at that time. Nothing in this clause may be relied upon in that regard.

3. Activation and machine binding

The Software is unlocked by a licence key. The Reseller generates the key and delivers it to the Licensee. The Licensee enters the key into the Software and selects Activate.

3.1 Data transmitted on activation, and the recipient

Activation, deactivation and validation communicate with the Reseller's licence API (api.polar.sh) and with no other endpoint. The Licensor operates no server and no API of its own.

On activation, the Software transmits to the Reseller: the licence key, the Licensor's Reseller organisation identifier, a machine identifier, and a label.

The label contains the Windows computer name, for example DESKTOP-4RJ2K1 (a1b2c3d4). This is the only plainly personal information transmitted by the Software. It is transmitted so that the Licensee is able to identify the Licensee's own devices in the Reseller's customer portal, and it is transmitted on activation only.

The machine identifier is not a hardware serial number. It is a SHA-256 hash of a salt together with the Windows MachineGuid value, truncated to 32 hexadecimal characters. The raw Windows value is neither stored nor transmitted. That design is deliberate: the licence record is held in plain text in a folder belonging to the Licensee, and a raw machine GUID held there would constitute a fingerprint capable of use across other products.

The Software also re-validates once on each launch, by a single request carrying the licence key and the activation identifier. There is no background timer, no periodic polling, and no other traffic on this path. A trial key is the sole exception, and clause 4 describes it. The Privacy Policy sets out in full what data leaves the Licensee's computer.

3.2 Number of computers

A paid licence may be activated on two computers. A trial licence may be activated on one computer. Those limits are configured on the product record held by the Reseller and not within the Software; the Software reports the applicable limit when the Reseller declines a further activation.

Where the limit has been reached, selecting Deactivate on a computer that is no longer in use releases the activation slot.

3.3 Events that break the machine binding, and events that do not

The machine identifier survives: restarting the computer, changing drivers, changing or adding disks, renaming the computer, and uninstalling and reinstalling the Software.

The machine identifier does not survive: reinstallation of Windows, or replacement of the motherboard.

Accordingly, the Licensee should select Deactivate before reinstalling Windows or rebuilding the computer, which releases the activation slot cleanly. Where that has not been done, or where the computer has failed without warning, the Licensee may contact [email protected] and the Licensor will seek to release the slot. Clause 10 states the timeframe applicable to support correspondence.

Two further matters are recorded for completeness:

• Where the Software is unable to read the machine identifier at all, access is not withdrawn. The binding is enforced only where the machine identifier stored in the licence record and the machine identifier computed on the computer at launch are both present and do not match. A failure to identify the computer is not treated as a breach.
• Deactivation clears the local licence record only where the Reseller confirms the deactivation. Where the deactivation request fails, nothing is cleared locally. That behaviour is deliberate, so that an activation slot is not left occupied on the Reseller's records while the computer treats it as released.

3.4 Integrity of the licence record

The licence record is a plain JSON file held in a folder belonging to the Licensee. The Licensee is able to edit that file, and editing it to assert a paid tier will unlock the Software on a computer that is offline. The protection applied here is revalidation and not secrecy, and the Licensor makes no representation that the licence record is resistant to tampering.

Editing the licence record to obtain access that has not been paid for is a breach of this Agreement, and is equivalent to non-payment.

4. The free trial

The trial is the same binary as the paid application. It is not a demonstration version and not a reduced build. It is a licence key bearing an expiry date, issued by the Reseller, and every feature is present.

Trial period: 3 days. No payment card is required in order to obtain a trial.

A trial licence may be activated on one computer. A paid licence may be activated on two (clause 3.2). In order to use the trial on a second computer, the Licensee must first deactivate it on the first.

Two distinct and separate periods apply to a trial key:

1. The trial period itself, which is set by the Reseller and is the key's expiry date.
2. A separate offline allowance of 3 days. A trial key must reach the licence server periodically. Where a computer holding a trial key has completed no successful check for more than 3 days, the trial is treated as ended, even though the key's expiry date has not passed.

The two periods are of equal length at present. That is a coincidence and not a rule, and either may be varied independently of the other.

A paid licence is subject to no such allowance and requires none. An activated paid licence does not expire and continues to operate offline indefinitely.

One trial is available per email address. Before a trial key is issued, the website records a salted, irreversible hash of the address supplied, in order to distinguish a repeat request from a first request. The address cannot be recovered from that hash.

5. Consequences of a licence ending

Where a trial expires, a licence is revoked, or the Software is unable to match the machine identifier, the Software ceases to save changes to board files. That is the entirety of the enforcement, and its scope is set out below.

5.1 What continues to operate:

• Existing boards remain on the Licensee's disk, unaltered. Nothing is deleted, concealed, encrypted, withheld or degraded. They are ordinary files in a folder that the Licensee may open in Windows Explorer.
• Every board remains capable of being opened and read.
• Export continues to function. Saving a copy and writing an archive do not pass through the write path to which enforcement is applied. A Licensee whose licence has ended remains able to export their data in full.
• The media store, the chat records and the settings remain on the Licensee's disk and remain the property of the Licensee.

5.2 What ceases:

• Saving changes to a board is refused, with the message "This is a paid feature — please purchase the app."

No further restriction is applied. Upon purchase or re-activation, saving resumes, and no data is lost in the interim.

5.3 Revocation. Where a licence is revoked, for example following a chargeback or a fraudulent purchase, that state persists on the computer until a successful activation clears it. Clause 5.1 continues to apply in full: the boards remain the Licensee's files, and remain readable and exportable.

6. Ownership of Licensee content

Every board, card, note, image, PDF, audio recording, export and chat record created by the Licensee using the Software belongs to the Licensee. The Licensor claims no ownership of it, no licence over it, no right to use it and no right to inspect it.

The Licensor is not technically capable of inspecting it. The Software provides no cloud service, no account, no synchronisation and no upload path. Boards are held in a folder on the Licensee's own computer — by default under %LOCALAPPDATA%\com.cygnuscrane.cygtree\, or at any location to which the Licensee has moved them — as plain files that may be copied, backed up, placed under version control, or opened in a text editor.

Because that work is held as files on the Licensee's own disk, it is unaffected if the Licensee ceases to use the Software, or if the Licensor ceases to exist.

Two default settings write files that the Licensee may not otherwise expect:

• Chat records are enabled by default. Conversations with an AI are written to a permanent transcript file stored alongside the board.
• Board memory is enabled by default. The assistant is instructed to write notes concerning the Licensee and the Licensee's project into the board document itself.

Both are the property of the Licensee, both are stored locally, and both may be disabled within the Software. They are described in further detail in the Privacy Policy.

7. Ownership of the Software

The Software is licensed and not sold. The Licensor retains all copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Software itself, including the code, the binary, the product name and the mark.

Nothing in this clause affects clause 6. The Licensee owns the content the Licensee creates; the Licensor owns the tool by which it was created.

The Software incorporates third-party open-source components. The licences applicable to those components govern them, and are reproduced in the third-party notices within the Software.

8. Reverse engineering

The Licensee may not decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer the Software, or attempt to derive its source code, except to the extent that applicable law confers a right to do so which cannot be excluded by contract.

That exception is preserved in full. Where the Licensee is resident in the European Union or the United Kingdom, software law confers rights to study and observe the operation of the program and, in defined circumstances, to decompile it for the purpose of interoperability. Those rights survive this clause.

The Licensee may not circumvent, disable or defeat the licence check, nor assist any other person in doing so.

9. Third-party AI services

The Licensor does not sell AI services, does not resell tokens, does not hold an API key, and does not operate an AI service. No provider key is contained in the binary, and the Licensor operates no endpoint of its own.

Where an AI is connected to a board, the following occurs:

1. The Software launches the AI tool already installed by the Licensee — Claude Code, Codex, cursor-agent, or any Agent Client Protocol agent — as an ordinary program on the Licensee's own computer.
2. The Licensee's prompt, together with any card content or images attached to it, is passed to that program.
3. That program then communicates with its own provider, using the Licensee's account and the Licensee's credentials, whether Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, or such other provider as the Licensee has configured.
4. The Software serves board tools back to that program over a connection opened for that purpose.

9.1 Consequence

Anything the Licensee sends to an AI is sent to that AI provider, under that provider's terms and that provider's privacy policy. The Licensor is not a party to that relationship, receives none of that traffic, holds none of those credentials, and is unable to view, log, store, retain or recover what was sent or what was returned.

It follows that:

• The provider's terms govern the processing. What the provider does with the Licensee's prompts — whether it retains them, logs them, trains upon them, or discloses them to a sub-processor — is determined by the Licensee's agreement with that provider. The Licensor is unable to vary it, gives no undertaking in respect of it, and accepts no responsibility for it.
• The provider's billing governs the charges. The Licensee pays the provider under the Licensee's own plan. The Licensor receives no share of it and charges nothing for AI.
• The provider's availability governs access. Where a provider alters its interface, applies rate limits, or ceases to operate, that is a matter between the Licensee and that provider.

9.2 Capabilities of a connected AI agent

A connected AI agent is a program executing on the Licensee's computer with the Licensee's permissions. Coding agents ordinarily include their own file-reading, file-writing and shell tools. Those tools belong to the agent and not to the Software, and they operate on the Licensee's disk irrespective of what the Software does or does not request. The Software does not sandbox those tools and makes no representation that it does.

The connection opened by the Software in order to serve board tools carries a token. That connection is not a security boundary, and the Licensor does not represent it as one: any program executing as the Licensee's user could in principle reach it.

The Licensee should connect only agents the Licensee trusts, and only to boards the Licensee is willing to permit them to read. That decision rests with the Licensee alone.

9.3 Other third parties reachable through the Software

• Video cards. A card containing a YouTube or Vimeo link renders a live embed served by Google or Vimeo, and a YouTube card retrieves its thumbnail from Google. The Licensee's IP address and player activity are disclosed to those parties whenever such a card is displayed.
• Model downloads. Where the Licensee requests additional dictation languages or the voice package, the Software downloads them from Hugging Face and GitHub at that time. This does not occur automatically.
• Media links. Where the Licensee, or an AI, adds media by URL, the Software retrieves it from that address.
• Microsoft. The Software runs within the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime, and the installer may download that runtime from Microsoft where it is not already present on the computer. Microsoft's conduct is governed by Microsoft's own terms.

Each of these is addressed in full in the Privacy Policy. This clause is not a representation that the Software communicates with no third party.

10. Support

Support is provided by email at [email protected].

The Licensor shall use reasonable endeavours to respond within two business weeks, being ten working days.

That is an endeavour and not a guarantee. No service level is undertaken by this clause.

Support does not extend to: causing the Software to operate with a third-party AI tool that has changed or ceased to function; recovering data deleted by the Licensee; or diagnosing faults in the Licensee's computer.

11. Refunds

Refunds are administered by the Reseller, which is the seller. Requests are directed to the Reseller, and the Reseller issues any refund.

The Reseller may also issue a refund at its own discretion, including in order to forestall a chargeback.

The Licensor sets no refund period and administers no refunds. Refunds are the Reseller's responsibility in their entirety. The Licensor receives no payment, holds no card details and issues no funds, and accordingly has nothing to administer and no period of its own to state. Any applicable refund period is set out in the Reseller's own terms.

Where a request is to be directed. To the Reseller, using the receipt issued by the Reseller or the Reseller's customer portal. A request directed to the Licensor will be referred to the Reseller, which is the only party able to issue a refund.

Statutory rights are unaffected. Where the law of the Licensee's country of residence confers a right to cancel or a right to a remedy, the Licensee retains that right, notwithstanding anything in this clause and notwithstanding any policy of the Reseller.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

CYGTREE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CYGNUS CRANE L.L.C. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR FREE OF DATA LOSS, OR THAT IT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY PARTICULAR THIRD-PARTY AI TOOL.

The Software writes files to the Licensee's disk. The Licensee should maintain backups of any data the loss of which would be material.

Where the Licensee is a consumer, the Licensee holds rights under the law of the Licensee's own country which cannot be excluded by contract, and nothing in this clause excludes them. In the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere, statutory guarantees apply irrespective of this clause.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CYGNUS CRANE L.L.C. SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SOFTWARE OR THIS AGREEMENT, EVEN IF THE LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF THE LICENSOR TO THE LICENSEE FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SOFTWARE IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID FOR IT.

Nothing in this clause limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

The Licensor is not liable for the acts or omissions of a third-party AI. Where an agent connected by the Licensee deletes a file, corrupts a board, transmits data, or executes a command the Licensee did not anticipate, that is a matter between the Licensee and the maker of that agent. See clause 9.

14. Termination

14.1 The Licensee may cease using the Software at any time, by uninstalling it, or by selecting Deactivate first where the Licensee wishes to release the activation slot. The Licensee's boards remain on the Licensee's disk in either case; see clause 5 and clause 6.

14.2 The Licensor may terminate this licence where the Licensee materially breaches it — by redistributing the Software, publishing the licence key, or defeating the licence check, for example — and fails to remedy the breach following written notice from the Licensor.

14.3 Where a licence is terminated, clause 5 continues to apply in full: the Licensee's boards remain the Licensee's files, readable and exportable. Content is not withheld as a remedy.

14.4 Clauses 6, 7, 12, 13 and 15 survive termination.

15. Governing law and disputes

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Wyoming is the jurisdiction in which Cygnus Crane L.L.C. is incorporated.

Where the Licensee is a consumer, this clause does not displace the law of the Licensee's own country. Where the Licensee resides in a jurisdiction whose consumer law cannot be excluded by contract, including the European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia, the Licensee retains every right and every forum that law confers, and nothing in this clause affects that. The choice of Wyoming law applies only to the extent permitted by the law of the Licensee's place of residence.

This Agreement contains no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver.

The purchase is a contract with the Reseller and not with the Licensor (clause 1), and the Reseller's Buyer Terms govern payment, taxation and refunds under the Reseller's own choice of law. This clause governs the licence only.

16. Intention in the event the Founder is unable to maintain the Software

This clause is a statement of intention. It is not a promise and it is not a term of this Agreement. It is recorded so that a prospective licensee is informed of the position before purchasing a perpetual licence, and not because it creates anything upon which the Licensee may rely.

Where the Founder is no longer able to support the Software, the intention is to release it as open source. The same intention is set out on the story page, where the stated alternative is transferring the Software to a custodian.

For the avoidance of doubt:

• it is the Founder's present intention;
• it is not a contractual commitment, and this Agreement does not require it to occur;
• it creates no obligation upon Cygnus Crane L.L.C., its successors, or any other person;
• it confers no right, no claim and no enforceable expectation, whether to the source code, to a release, or to any timescale;
• circumstances, ownership and applicable law may render it impossible, and nothing in this clause represents otherwise.

The paid licence does not depend upon it in either event. Clause 5 states what the Licensee retains if development of the Software ceases: the Licensee's boards are files on the Licensee's own disk, in a documented format, and they remain readable.

17. General

17.1 Variation. The Licensor may amend this Agreement in respect of future versions and future purchases. The version in force at the date of purchase applies to that purchase, and the terms of a perpetual licence already paid for are not varied after the fact. Material changes will be dated on this page.

17.2 Severability. Where a court finds any part of this Agreement unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect.

17.3 No waiver. A failure by the Licensor to enforce a term immediately does not constitute a waiver of that term.

17.4 Assignment. The Licensee may not transfer this licence. The Licensor may transfer it as part of a sale of the business, in which case the licence continues to operate, being bound to the Licensee's computer rather than to the continued existence of the Licensor.

17.5 Entire agreement. This document, together with the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, constitutes the entire agreement between the Licensee and the Licensor in respect of the Software. The Reseller's Buyer Terms separately govern the purchase.

17.6 The website. Use of cygtree.com is governed by the Terms of Use, which apply to the website rather than to this licence.

17.7 Notices. [email protected] · Cygnus Crane L.L.C., 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States.