Terms of Service

1. Scope and Acceptance

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the hosted Hoister service, including the web dashboard, the controller API, and any related applications and integrations (collectively, the "Service") provided by:

By creating an account, connecting an integration, 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 organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Description of the Service

Hoister periodically checks for newer container images, applies updates to running containers, and rolls updates back on failure. The hosted Service aggregates status and deployment information reported by the Hoister agent and can deliver notifications about deployment events to messaging services you connect (such as Slack, Discord, and email).

The Hoister agent can also be run standalone or self-hosted without this hosted Service. Those modes are governed by the agent's open-source license rather than these Terms. See docs.hoister.io/guides/operating-modes.

3. Accounts and Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to use the Service. Authentication is provided through GitHub or Google sign-in via our authentication provider. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date. Notify us promptly at info@hoister.io if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation, or to infringe the rights of others;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other users' data, or the underlying infrastructure, or interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service except as part of a coordinated disclosure agreed with us in advance;
• send excessive automated requests, overload the controller API, or circumvent rate limits or usage limits of your plan;
• use the notification integrations to transmit spam, malware, or unlawful, abusive, or misleading content.

You are solely responsible for the configuration of the Hoister agent in your environment, including which containers it manages and which data it reports to the Service.

The Service is not intended to receive sensitive data (such as passwords, tokens, or keys), and you must not knowingly transmit such data to it. The agent's keyword-based redaction is only a best-effort heuristic; you are responsible for preventing secrets from being transmitted — by extending the redaction list (redact_keywords / HOISTER_REDACT_KEYWORDS) and by not placing plaintext secrets in environment variables, container labels, or command-line arguments. See our Privacy Policy and docs.hoister.io/guides/monitoring.

5. Third-Party Services and Integrations

The Service lets you connect third-party messaging platforms — including Slack, Discord, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Google Chat, Gotify, ntfy, Pushover, email, and generic webhooks — to receive deployment notifications. When you connect such a service, you authorize Hoister to transmit notification content to the recipient you select on your behalf.

Your use of any third-party service is subject to that provider's own terms and privacy policies, including, where applicable, the Slack Terms of Service and the Discord Terms of Service. You are responsible for ensuring you are entitled to connect those services and to send content to the selected channels. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or conduct of any third-party service.

Information about the data processed in connection with these integrations is described in our Privacy Policy.

6. Plans, Fees, and Billing

The Service may be offered with free and paid plans. Plan features, limits, and prices are described in the dashboard at the time of purchase. Paid plans are billed in advance on a recurring basis and renew automatically for successive periods unless cancelled before the end of the current period.

Unless required by mandatory law, fees already paid are non-refundable. We may change prices or plan features with reasonable advance notice; changes take effect at the start of your next billing period. You can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period, through the dashboard.

7. Intellectual Property and Open Source

The Hoister name, logo, dashboard, and the hosted Service are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to access and use the hosted Service.

The Hoister agent and other components published as open source remain governed by their respective open-source licenses, which are not limited or modified by these Terms.

8. Your Data

You retain all rights to the data you or your agents submit to the Service. You grant us a limited right to process that data solely to operate and provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy. You are responsible for ensuring you have the necessary rights to submit that data and that doing so does not violate any obligation you owe to a third party.

9. Service Availability

We strive to keep the Service available but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service, perform maintenance, or impose usage limits at any time. Where reasonably practicable, we will give advance notice of material changes that adversely affect your use of the Service.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that container updates, rollbacks, or notifications will always succeed or be delivered. You are responsible for maintaining appropriate backups and safeguards for your systems.

11. Limitation of Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability where it cannot be excluded or limited under applicable mandatory law, including liability for intent, gross negligence, injury to life, body, or health, or under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).

Subject to the foregoing, we are liable for slight negligence only in the event of a breach of a material contractual obligation (an obligation whose fulfilment is essential to the proper performance of the contract and on whose observance you may regularly rely), and in such cases our liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract. We are not liable for indirect or consequential damages, loss of profits, or loss of data caused by slight negligence beyond this scope.

12. Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold us harmless from third-party claims arising out of your unlawful use of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your infringement of the rights of a third party, except to the extent the claim results from our own breach or negligence.

13. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or if your use poses a security or operational risk to the Service or other users. Where appropriate, we will give you notice and an opportunity to remedy the breach.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends. We may delete your account data after a reasonable period, subject to any statutory retention obligations and our Privacy Policy.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may amend these Terms when the Service or the legal situation changes. We will notify you of material changes by a reasonable means (e.g. email or a notice in the dashboard) before they take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

15. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Mandatory consumer protection provisions of the country in which you have your habitual residence remain unaffected. To the extent permitted by law, the courts of Berlin, Germany have jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be directed to info@hoister.io. Provider identification is set out in our Impressum.