Terms of Sale and Use

Deep Work is made and sold by Joshua Vennetti, an independent developer. Buying a license or using the app means agreeing to what follows. It is written to be read, not to be got past.

Who you are buying from

The software is mine. The sale itself is handled by Polar (polar.sh), acting as merchant of record. Polar takes the payment, works out and remits any VAT or sales tax owed where you live, and emails you the license key. Your card details go to Polar and its payment processor. I never see them.

Polar's own terms cover the payment. These terms cover the software.

What $20 buys

One perpetual license to Deep Work. Paid once. It does not expire, and nothing renews.

The license covers up to three devices at a time and every future version of this app. No second version is planned, and no later payment adds features. One price, the whole app, for as long as you keep it.

There is no free tier and no trial. There is also nothing held back above what you paid for.

Activating a device

Each device needs one online moment to activate. It sends the license key and a short label for the device — something like "Windows · Chrome" — to Polar, which checks the key and counts the activation. The three-device count is enforced at that moment, and only there.

After activating, the device works offline for as long as you use it. When it happens to be online, the app rechecks the key quietly in the background. A recheck that fails or never runs will not lock a device: an offline device keeps working.

Three devices at once is the limit, not three devices ever. Disconnecting a device inside the app frees its slot straight away, so a replaced laptop or a wiped phone costs you nothing.

Disconnect first, though. The activation is recorded on the device, so clearing the app's data, uninstalling it, or wiping the machine without disconnecting leaves the slot held by a copy that no longer exists, and the app can no longer release it. Use "Disconnect this device" in the ⇅ panel before you clear or hand on a device. If one is already gone, you can release it from your purchase page, or write to joshua.vennetti@gmail.com and a slot will be freed for you.

What keeps working without a license

Everything already on a device stays readable there, and stays exportable to CSV, for good. Your entries sit in that device's own storage, and nothing in these terms reaches in to remove them.

The license governs use of the app. Syncing and scanning are not gated by it: they ride on services you already hold in your own name, described below.

Refunds

Ask, and recent payments come back — no questions, no form, no reason required. Email joshua.vennetti@gmail.com and say so.

"Recent" is meant generously and is judged in your favour. The refund is processed through Polar to the original payment method, normally within a few business days of being agreed. A refunded key stops working for new activations. Devices already activated are left alone, and everything you have logged stays on them, readable and exportable.

Where you buy through an app store rather than through Polar, that store's own refund process applies as well, and this promise takes nothing away from it.

Syncing, if you turn it on

Sync is optional and stays off until you connect it. It runs on your own Dropbox, in a folder Dropbox scopes to this app alone.

What goes there is one file, encrypted on your device with AES-GCM under a key derived from your license key. Dropbox cannot read it. I cannot read it either, and I have no way to: I operate no servers, and nothing of mine sits between your device and your Dropbox. Keep the license key safe, because without it that file cannot be opened by anyone.

The file lives in your Dropbox, so Dropbox's own terms govern its storage, and you can delete it yourself whenever you like.

Scanning, if you turn it on

Scanning is optional and stays off until you turn it on. It is free for now and runs on my Anthropic account. A photographed page goes from your device through Deep Work's scanning server to Anthropic, and the server keeps no copy. If scanning ever costs money, the app will say so before any charge, and you can leave it off.

You can also use your own Anthropic API key, entered in Settings. Then a page goes from your device straight to Anthropic, you pay Anthropic for what you use at their rates (roughly $0.004 a page at the time of writing), and Anthropic's own terms govern that side of it. The key is held on your device and sent only to Anthropic.

Your content

What you write and photograph is yours. Nothing here transfers ownership of it, and you grant me no license to it, because none is needed: your entries stay on your device.

You can export all of it to CSV at any time. You can delete all of it by clearing the app's data on the device, and, if you sync, by deleting the file from your own Dropbox. Disconnect the device in the ⇅ panel before you clear it, or the device slot stays held — see "Activating a device" above.

What you may not do with a license

Please do not resell, share, or publish license keys. A license is meant for one person, or one household, in spirit rather than by machinery: the app counts devices, not people.

Do not use the app to break the law, and do not attack or attempt to circumvent the activation check. A key offered for sale in public may be revoked and the purchase refunded.

Availability, and what is not promised

This is a small independent app, not an enterprise service, and it is offered as it is. There is no uptime guarantee and no warranty beyond what your consumer law gives you and does not let me disclaim.

Three outside services are named here honestly. Polar checks activations, so an outage there can delay activating a new device; it cannot stop a device that is already activated. Dropbox and Anthropic are involved only if you choose sync or scanning, and only through services you hold yourself. None of the three sits in the path of ordinary daily use.

What is promised in return is that an interruption cannot cost you your work: every entry is written to your own device first, and it stays there.

To the extent the law allows, liability for any claim arising from the app is limited to what you paid for it. Nothing here limits any right you have as a consumer that cannot be limited by agreement, and consumer protection law where you live takes precedence over anything in this document.

Tax

The $20 is shown before tax. Where VAT or sales tax applies to your location, Polar calculates it and shows it at checkout before you pay, and remits it as merchant of record.

Ending it

You can stop using the app whenever you like and delete its data from your devices. There is nothing to cancel and no sign-up to close, because none exists. A license you bought is a license you keep.

Changes to these terms

These terms may change as the app changes. The "Last updated" date at the top is how you know they did. A change never applies retroactively: the terms in force when you paid are the ones that govern your purchase.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules — again, without taking away any consumer right that applies where you live.

Contact

Anything at all, including a refund: joshua.vennetti@gmail.com