Welcome to FateCode. These Terms are the agreement between you and us regarding your use of the service. By registering an account, creating a profile, or otherwise using the service, you confirm that you have read and accept these Terms. If you disagree with any part of them, please do not use the service.
## 1. The service
### 1.1 What we provide
The service performs traditional Chinese metaphysical charting and produces readings from it:
- **Charting** — BaZi (four pillars, ten gods, hidden stems, na yin, strength), Zi Wei Dou Shu (twelve palaces, major and minor stars, the four transformations, triangular aspects), and full shen sha resolution; - **Readings** — analysis reports and multi-turn consultations generated by a large language model on top of the chart; - **Profiles** — storage for multiple sets of birth data, with your reports and conversations kept for later reference.
### 1.2 Charting and readings are different in kind
Charting is a **deterministic computation**. The same birth time and place always produce the same pillars, stars and shen sha. There is no randomness in this layer, and you can verify it line by line against any classical text.
A reading is an **interpretation** built on those texts and rules, generated by a large language model. The same chart may be described in different words at different times or in response to different questions, and the same question may be answered differently on separate occasions. This is inherent to language models, not a malfunction.
### 1.3 The service will change
We may add, modify or retire features, and may adjust algorithms, prompts and models. We will make reasonable efforts to keep previously generated reports readable, but we do not guarantee that any particular feature will exist indefinitely.
## 2. Important: this is not professional advice
### 2.1 Intended use
Everything the service produces is **for cultural study and self-reflection only**.
### 2.2 Not professional advice
Nothing the service produces constitutes medical, psychological, legal, financial, investment, marital, employment or any other form of professional advice. It is not a substitute for the diagnosis, judgement or opinion of a qualified professional.
If you have a health concern, see a doctor. If you face a legal dispute, consult a lawyer. If you are making an investment decision, consult a licensed adviser. **Please do not make decisions of that kind on the basis of anything you read here.**
### 2.3 No predictions
We make no prediction that any specific event will or will not occur, claim no inevitability for any conclusion about fortune or misfortune, and sell no remedies, blessings, talismans or luck-changing goods or services of any kind. Any third party claiming to offer such things is unconnected with us.
### 2.4 Your decisions are yours
You are responsible for any decision or action you take on the basis of content from the service, and for its consequences.
## 3. Accounts
### 3.1 Registration
You need a valid email address or phone number to register. You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date.
### 3.2 Account security
You are responsible for keeping your password safe and for all activity under your account. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately using the channels in section 10.
### 3.3 Age
The service is intended for users aged 18 and over. Users under 18 should only use it with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors — see the Privacy Policy.
### 3.4 Closing your account
You may close your account at any time. Profiles, reports and conversations under it are then handled as described in the Privacy Policy. Closure cannot be undone.
## 4. Profiles and other people's information
### 4.1 Creating a profile for someone else
The service lets you create profiles for other people. **Before entering another person's name, gender, date and time of birth, or place of birth, you must have that person's consent**; where the person is a minor, you must have their guardian's consent.
### 4.2 Your responsibility
You bear responsibility for any dispute or legal liability arising from entering another person's information without consent. We cannot verify the authorisation behind every profile and rely on your undertaking here.
### 4.3 Sharing profiles
If you use the sharing feature to give another user access to a profile, that user will be able to view the chart and the related reports. Please confirm this is what the profile's subject wants before sharing.
## 5. Acceptable use
When using the service you must not:
1. Break the law where you are, or use the service to carry out unlawful activity; 2. Use content generated here to defraud, intimidate or manipulate anyone, or to induce someone into decisions against their own interests; 3. Resell or repackage the readings as the pronouncements of a "master" or as authoritative verdicts, in a way that leads others to believe they carry professional credentials; 4. Scrape content in bulk, circumvent rate limits or interfere with the operation of the service through crawlers, scripts or other technical means; 5. Reverse-engineer, decompile, probe or scan any part of the service; 6. Upload malicious code, or attack the infrastructure in any way; 7. Impersonate anyone, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organisation.
We may restrict or terminate your account without prior notice if you breach these rules.
## 6. Fees and virtual credits
### 6.1 Free and paid
Registration, creating profiles and viewing charts are free. In-depth analysis and long consultations consume credits ("Celestial Sand"). Rates are shown in the app before anything is spent.
### 6.2 What credits are
Credits are an internal usage allowance. They are **not money, not a prepaid instrument, and carry none of the attributes of legal tender**. They cannot be exchanged for cash, transferred between users, or used anywhere outside this service.
### 6.3 How they are consumed
Credits are charged against the tokens actually consumed by the language model, priced separately for input and output. Because charts vary in complexity and conversations vary in length, the same kind of operation may cost different amounts on different occasions. A usage breakdown is available in the app.
### 6.4 Refunds
Credits already consumed are not refundable. If a fault on our side causes an incorrect deduction, contact us and we will investigate and compensate.
### 6.5 Changes
We may adjust rates or introduce expiry periods for credits. We will give notice in the app before doing so, and changes will not apply retroactively to credits already consumed.
## 7. Content and intellectual property
### 7.1 Our rights
The software, interface design, charting implementation, prompt engineering and brand marks of the service are our intellectual property. You may not copy, modify, distribute or commercially exploit them without written permission.
### 7.2 Your profile data
The profile information you enter belongs to you (or to the profile's subject). We process it only as far as necessary to provide the service — see the Privacy Policy.
### 7.3 Generated content
You may use the reports and conversations generated for you for personal study, research and sharing. When sharing publicly, please credit the source and retain the disclaimers; do not edit them out and present the content as professional opinion.
### 7.4 Traditional material
The theoretical systems of BaZi, Zi Wei Dou Shu and shen sha are public-domain traditional culture. We claim no rights over them as such.
## 8. Availability and liability
### 8.1 Provided "as is"
The service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We make no express or implied warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular expectation you may have.
### 8.2 Interruptions
The service may become temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, upgrades, network faults, outages at third-party providers (including the language model provider and the geocoding provider), or events beyond our control. We will work to keep such periods short but are not liable for losses arising from them.
### 8.3 Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you will not exceed the amount you actually paid for the service in the twelve months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect loss, loss of profit, loss of data, or distress.
### 8.4 What cannot be excluded
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded by law, including liability for personal injury caused by our wilful misconduct or gross negligence.
## 9. Changes and termination
### 9.1 Changes to these Terms
We may revise these Terms. We will give advance notice of material changes through in-app notification or email. Continuing to use the service after a revision takes effect means you accept it; if you do not, please stop using the service and close your account.
### 9.2 Termination
You may stop using the service and close your account at any time. We may restrict or terminate your account if you breach these Terms. If the service is discontinued altogether, we will give notice and a reasonable window to export your data.
### 9.3 Survival
The provisions on intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability and dispute resolution survive termination.
## 10. General
### 10.1 Severability
If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in force.
### 10.2 Contacting us
For questions about these Terms, or to exercise any right under them, use the channels listed in the "Contact us" section of our homepage.