API Commercial Use & Redistribution Terms

1. Scope and definitions

The “API” includes SignedOff’s REST endpoints, webhooks, event feeds, Model Context Protocol tools, sandbox and playground surfaces, API documentation, and associated developer services. “API Output” means permit records, search results, status changes, inspections, histories, events, metadata, and other content returned through the API. A “Customer Product” is your application, service, report, or workflow that uses API Output as one component of a broader product or business process.

API Output may originate from city, county, or other third-party government sources. Your inputs, account data, and other data you submit remain “Your Data” under the Terms of Service.

2. API access

Subject to these API Terms and your selected plan, SignedOff grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to access the API and use API Output for your internal business purposes and Customer Products. Your plan’s request, search, watch, webhook, and feature limits apply. Enterprise order forms may add or replace terms for the services they cover.

3. Permitted commercial use

You may, subject to these API Terms:

• use API Output in your internal operations, compliance, underwriting, project, customer-support, and portfolio workflows;
• display individual permit results and status updates to your employees, contractors, and end users;
• embed permit status, inspections, history, alerts, and webhook-driven updates in a Customer Product;
• create reports, dashboards, scores, trends, and other derived analytics from API Output;
• charge for a Customer Product whose substantial value is broader than providing a substitute for SignedOff or a standalone copy of API Output; and
• use the API from AI-assisted workflows, including tool calls and retrieval at inference time, so long as the use does not train a model or create a redistributable permit-data corpus.

These permissions apply to the Free, Developer, and Pro plans unless a plan description expressly says otherwise. They do not transfer ownership of the API, SignedOff software, documentation, or branding.

4. Display and redistribution boundaries

Without separate written permission, you may:

• show the individual or limited results reasonably needed for an end user’s workflow;
• provide project-specific exports and reports to the customer or party for whom the work was performed;
• share aggregated or derived insights that do not allow a recipient to reconstruct a material portion of API Output; and
• provide API Output to service providers acting only on your behalf, under confidentiality and data-use restrictions at least as protective as these API Terms.

You may not, without a separate written agreement:

• sell, license, sublicense, publish, or redistribute raw API Output as a standalone product, dataset, database, bulk file, download, or feed;
• systematically mirror or republish a material portion of SignedOff’s permit dataset;
• operate a pass-through API, proxy, shared-key service, or other product that lets a third party access SignedOff as though it held your API key;
• offer a product whose primary purpose is to substitute for the API by repackaging substantially the same records, search, or monitoring service; or
• use plan limits, pagination, multiple accounts, or rotating identifiers as a bulk-data-acquisition license.

If your use case requires a raw-data feed, bulk redistribution, white-label API access, or sublicensing, contact support@signedoff.io for enterprise terms.

5. Caching, retention, and deletion

While your API access is active, you may cache API Output for as long as reasonably necessary to operate your integration, maintain customer records, show historical changes, and produce permitted analytics. A cached record must not be presented as current when its supplied observation or freshness metadata shows otherwise.

Preserve the supplied jurisdiction, source, and observation timestamps where they are needed to understand a record. Refresh or re-verify data before a decision when accuracy or current status is material.

Within 30 days after your API access ends, delete raw API Output that is not reasonably required for an existing customer record, legal obligation, dispute, audit, or secure backup cycle. Any retained exception remains subject to these API Terms and may not be used to continue collecting, refreshing, or commercially redistributing SignedOff data. You may retain aggregated or derived analytics that cannot reasonably be used to reconstruct individual API records.

SignedOff’s own operational records are covered by the separate API Data Retention & Deletion Policy.

6. Attribution and source integrity

SignedOff branding or a “Powered by SignedOff” label is not required unless your order form says otherwise. When API Output is shown outside your organization, you must preserve or clearly communicate the government jurisdiction or source and the relevant observation date when SignedOff supplies them and they are material to interpreting the result.

You may not remove source or freshness context in a misleading way, imply that SignedOff or a government agency endorses your product, or present API Output as a certified official record. You may not use SignedOff names, logos, or marks except to identify SignedOff as the API provider in accordance with applicable trademark law.

7. Source-specific rules and responsible data use

You are responsible for laws and third-party source terms that apply to your industry, location, end users, or intended use. A source may impose additional restrictions, and SignedOff may omit, restrict, correct, or remove affected fields or jurisdictions to comply with law, source rules, security needs, or individual rights.

Do not use API Output to harass, discriminate against, stalk, or unlawfully profile a person; send unsolicited marketing; determine eligibility for credit, employment, housing, insurance, or another regulated benefit without satisfying all laws that govern that decision; or infer sensitive personal information beyond the purpose for which a public record was made available.

8. Machine learning and search corpora

Normal AI-assisted use of the API at inference time is permitted. Using raw API Output to train, fine-tune, benchmark, or evaluate a machine-learning model, or to build a general-purpose retrieval corpus, search index, or knowledge base for third-party access, requires SignedOff’s prior written permission. This restriction does not prohibit private calculations or derived analytics that are otherwise permitted and do not reproduce or expose a material portion of API Output.

9. Credentials, enumeration, and abuse

Keep API keys and webhook secrets confidential and use a separate authorized key for each account or environment. Do not share, publish, sell, or embed a secret in client-side code; evade quotas or security controls; create accounts to aggregate limits; guess identifiers or enumerate records to build a bulk mirror; interfere with the API or an upstream government portal; introduce malicious code; or use the API for unlawful activity. You are responsible for activity under your credentials until you revoke them or notify SignedOff of compromise.

10. Third-party data and official-record disclaimer

API Output is assembled from dynamic third-party government systems and may be delayed, incomplete, unavailable, incorrectly normalized, or changed at the source without notice. SignedOff is not a government agency, and API Output is not a certified copy or official determination. Verify material information with the responsible jurisdiction before relying on it for deadlines, payments, inspections, site access, legal compliance, safety, financing, or other consequential decisions.

11. Availability, support, and service levels

Published plan limits describe available capacity, not a guarantee of uninterrupted access, data completeness, freshness, response time, webhook delivery time, or government-source availability. The public API Service Levels & Enterprise SLA Policy defines SignedOff’s operational objectives and measurement boundaries. No service-level agreement or service credit applies unless it is stated in a signed enterprise order form. Any such order form controls its service-level commitments and exclusions, including treatment of upstream government portals and events outside SignedOff’s reasonable control.

12. Suspension and termination

SignedOff may limit or suspend API access to protect customers, the API, or upstream sources; investigate suspected abuse or compromise; comply with law or source restrictions; or address nonpayment or a material breach. Where practical, SignedOff will give notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure. Termination does not end provisions that by their nature should survive, including redistribution limits, retained-data restrictions, disclaimers, liability terms, and dispute provisions.

13. Changes to these API Terms

SignedOff may update these API Terms by posting the revised version and effective date. Material API-term changes will be identified in the API changelog and otherwise communicated when required by law or an applicable agreement. Your continued API use after revised terms take effect constitutes acceptance, except where applicable law requires another form of consent.