ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Last Update: November 6, 2026

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") specifies the policies that govern your access and use of Chainguard’s Products, Services or Technology Previews, including any Optional Features, add-ons, supplemental capabilities, or other offerings (“Selected Offerings”) made available by Chainguard, Inc. (“Chainguard”) That includes Web Services as described in our Website Terms of Use: https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/terms-of-use. 

You must use Chainguard’s Selected Offerings in a lawful manner that is consistent with Chainguard’s AUP. The examples provided by Chainguard are a non-exhaustive list of prohibited conduct. Chainguard may modify this AUP at any time by posting an updated version of the AUP on Chainguard’s website. Changes to the policy are deemed effective upon posting and you are responsible for monitoring the website for changes to the policy. 

Use of any Chainguard Selected Offering is deemed your acceptance of the most current version of the AUP. If the terms of this AUP are violated, Chainguard reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate your use of Chainguard’s Selected Offerings for cause in accordance with Section 7(b) of the online Master Service Licensing Agreement, located here: https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/master-service-and-license-agreement.

1. Responsibility for Content

1.1. You are responsible for the use of data, information and materials (“Content”) you provide to Chainguard and use in conjunction with Chainguard’s Selected Offerings, and you shall be solely responsible for maintaining a copy of your Content. You shall comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Any transmission, storage or distribution, or any use that directly facilitates a violation of applicable law or regulation is strictly prohibited.

1.2. Shared Security Responsibilities. Security of the Selected Offerings is a shared responsibility: Chainguard is responsible for the security commitments stated in Chainguard’s Master Services and License Agreement, unless a separate and binding agreement between you and Chainguard is in effect and governs the Selected Offerings, in which case that agreement applies, and the applicable terms for the Selected Offerings available at Product and Services Offerings (https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/offerings-overview). You are responsible for the security of your environment and for how you configure, deploy, and use the Selected Offerings.

1.3. Without diminishing Chainguard’s commitments in the Agreement, you agree to the following:

(a) Identity and Access. You are responsible for managing and protecting your organization, users, roles, and credentials, including the scope and duration of access. This includes: enforcing single sign-on and multi-factor authentication where available; keeping credentials confidential, using short-lived credentials where available, rotating and revoking static credentials, and removing access for departed personnel; and monitoring available audit logs and activity for anomalous behavior. 

(b) Keeping Products Current. Chainguard regularly updates the Selected Offerings and you are responsible for retrieving and deploying updates when available. 

(c) Your Environment and Additions. You are responsible for anything you add to, modify, or combine with the Selected Offerings, including your own code, third-party components, AI Agents (defined below), configuration, and secrets; configuring your tools and systems so they retrieve Selected Offerings from Chainguard as intended, and not from unintended sources; and the security of your runtime environments, hosts, networks, and systems. Chainguard may provide findings, advisories, or other security-related information. You are responsible for reviewing that information, deciding what action to take, and remediating issues in your environment. No Selected Offering guarantees detection of every vulnerability, misconfiguration, or policy violation. 

1.4. Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents. “Agent” means any software or service that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action on behalf of, or at the instruction of, any person or entity. This includes, without limitation, AI coding assistants, AI agents, autonomous or semi-autonomous AI systems, and automated workflows (“AI Agents”). You are responsible for every AI Agent you use, allow, enable, or deploy. All actions an Agent takes are deemed your actions, whether or not you reviewed or approved the specific action. You must ensure each AI Agent complies with this AUP and you are responsible for ensuring:

(a) Credential Governance. Scoping, monitoring, and revoking of each AI Agent’s credentials ensuring the minimum scope and duration the AI Agent’s task requires; 

(b) Dedicated, Least-Privilege Credentials. AI Agent authenticates with credentials issued for that AI Agent, such as an assumable identity, service identity, or pull token; 

(c) No Use of Human Credentials; Revocability. AI Agent does not use a human user’s interactive session or personal credentials and you are able to identify, suspend, and revoke each AI Agent’s credentials;

(d) Human Review Before Production. Review of changes an AI Agent makes before promoting them to production; 

(e) Agent Transparency. AI Agent does not conceal or obscure that its access, use, or interactions come from the AI Agent (e.g. mimicking the speed or pattern of human keystrokes, page navigation, or other interactions, and completing or circumventing CAPTCHAs or other measures intended to tell computers from humans); 

(f) No Circumvention of Agent Controls. AI Agent does not circumvent or avoid any measure intended to block, limit, modify, or control whether and how AI Agents access, use, or interact with the Selected Offerings;

(g) Human Authorization and Payment. Human individual with authority to bind you ultimately accepts Chainguard’s terms and authorizes payment; and 

(h) Rate Limits and Permitted Purposes. AI Agent does not exceed prescribed rate limits or access Selected Offerings for any purposes not set out in applicable product documentation.

2. Inappropriate and Illegal Content

2.1. You may not use, distribute, or instruct others to use the Chainguard Selected Offerings for illegal or harmful conduct. The following is a non-exhaustive list of prohibited conduct:

(a) Illegal Activities: illegal, harassing, defamatory, libelous, indecent, obscene, pornographic, promotion of online gambling, or any business that is otherwise objectionable, such as propagating hate or violence or causing harm to others or to Chainguard’s reputation.

(b) Harmful Content: Content that is harmful to Chainguard’s network or other users of the network including, but not limited to, viruses, Trojan horses, time bombs, or any other computer programming that may damage, interfere with program data or information.

(c) Infringing Content: Content that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property or property right of others including, but not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secret.

(d) Export Violations: Violations of U.S. and International export laws, regulations and rules.

(e) Fraudulent/Misleading Content: Material or advertising containing fraudulent offers, misleading statements, or representations.

(f) Falsification/Impersonation: Using Chainguard products or services to impersonate any person or entity. Using invalid or forged headers information that would indicate that Chainguard was involved in the transmission of such material.

(g) Competition: Using Chainguard products or services for the purposes of developing or offering competitive products or services to that of Chainguard; or employing or authorizing a Chainguard competitor to use or view the Selected Offerings, or to provide management, hosting, or support for the Selected Offerings.

3. Security Violations

3.1. You may not use Chainguard Selected Offerings to violate the security or integrity of Chainguard’s network or Chainguard Products or Services. The following is non-exhaustive a list of prohibited conduct:

(a) Unauthorized Access. Unauthorized access of Chainguard networks, data, servers, databases, etc., without obtaining permission.

(b) Unauthorized Testing, Scanning, or Breach. Any attempt to test the vulnerability of Chainguard’s network or system, probe, scan, reverse-engineer to find limitations, evade filtering capabilities, or to breach security or authentication measures without permission or in violation of the Chainguard Vulnerability Disclosure Policy, located here: https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/inbound-vulnerability-disclosure-policy.

(c) Interference or Disruption of Service. Any attempt to interfere with, disrupt or disable Chainguard Selected Offerings to any user, or network, including, but not limited to, via means of attempts to overload the system, crashing, mail bombing, denial of service attacks, or flooding techniques.

(d) Forged Headers and Concealed Sources. The forging of any TCP/IP packet header or using a computer system or program that intentionally conceals the source of information.

(e) Circumvention of Use Limitations. Any attempt or action designed to circumvent or alter any use limitations, including but not limited to, storage restrictions or billing measurement on Chainguard Selected Offerings.

5. Reporting Violations: Chainguard’s Rights and Remedies

5.1. It is your responsibility to report all known or suspected violations of this AUP to legal@chainguard.dev. You agree to cooperate fully with Chainguard to investigate and remedy any actual or suspected violation. Chainguard reserves the right, but is not obligated to investigate any violation or misuse of Chainguard Selected Offerings.

5.2. Chainguard reserves the right to immediately block access, suspend or terminate any Chainguard Selected Offerings Chainguard deems in its sole discretion, has violated the terms of this AUP or would have an adverse effect on Chainguard. This includes limiting, conditioning, or blocking, including by technical measures, whether and how any AI Agent accesses, uses, or interacts with the Selected Offerings. No AI Agent may access, use, or interact with a Selected Offering if Chainguard has asked that AI Agent to refrain. When determining whether there has been a violation or assessing the appropriate remedy, Chainguard may consider your ability and willingness to comply with this AUP, including the internal policies and processes you have in place to prevent or identify prohibited conduct.

5.3. Chainguard may cooperate with legal authorities and third parties to help in the investigation of any activity that violates laws or regulations. 

5.4. Chainguard shall not be liable for any damages arising out of the violation of this AUP and you shall indemnify Chainguard for any and all damages that may arise from your violation of this AUP.

If you entered into an Order prior to November 6, 2026, you can find your applicable terms here: https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/acceptable-use-policy-20260714