the box — terms of use

In short

These Terms of Use (“agreement” or “terms”) is the agreement between you and Arx (VoxCura LLC) when you use your box. We tried to keep it short and honest. The legal precision is here where it matters — warranty, liability, disputes. Everywhere else, it’s plain English.

1. Who this is between

This agreement is between you (the person using the box) and VoxCura LLC, doing business as Arx(“we,” “us,” “Arx”), a New Hampshire limited liability company.

You must be a legally competent adult, at least 18 years old, and able to enter a binding contract to use the box or accept these terms. For purposes of these terms, where the context permits or requires, “you” is intended to include anyone that has access to or use of your box after delivery to you by Arx, whether or not specifically authorized by you.

By setting up your box and using it — and by accepting these terms when the box asks you during setup — you agree to them. If you don’t agree, don’t finish setup: return the box within 30 days for a refund under our return policy.

2. What the box is

The box is a consumer hardware appliance that runs a local AI model on its own hardware. It’s designed for general personal use — productivity, conversation, lightweight research, household automation, and similar.

It’s not a medical device, a financial advisor, a lawyer, or a therapist, and its outputs are not intended to be, and are not, a substitute for qualified professional advice. It can be wrong. See Section 4.

3. How you can use it

Permitted use:

• Personal and household use.
• Non-commercial automation (your own schedules, reminders, notes).
• Modifying your own box’s software — it’s yours. We don’t sell you locked-down hardware.

Not permitted:

• Reselling your box without disclosing that it’s been used.
• Copying, selling, or transferring all or any part of the installed software separate from your box.
• Using the box to harm others, violate their rights, or break the law.
• Generating child sexual abuse material, malware, or content designed to deceive at scale.
• Using the box as the inference backend for a public commercial service without a separate written agreement with us.

Passphrase responsibility.Keep your passphrase private. We treat anyone with your passphrase as you. If someone uses your passphrase to do something on the box, that’s the responsibility of the account holder — you. If you believe your passphrase has been compromised, change your passphrase and notify us immediately at support@voxcura.io so that we are aware of the issue.

4. The AI is not authoritative

The AI on the box generates plausible-sounding text. It can be wrong. It can be confidently wrong. This is true of every current language model, not just ours. It is not intended to replace your personal or professional judgment or experience; you are solely responsible for reviewing and verifying any output is true, accurate, and complete before relying on it

• Not medical, legal, or financial advice. If a decision matters — health, money, the law, your kids — verify with a qualified human professional before you act.
• You are responsible for actions you take based on AI output. That includes actions you let the AI take on your behalf through connected services.
• No warranty of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any purpose. We disclaim any such warranty in Section 8.
• You assume the risk of relying on AI output. Using the box does not create any professional relationship — medical, legal, financial, or otherwise — between you and Arx or the AI. The AI is not a licensed professional and does not provide professional advice.

5. Third-party services you connect

If you connect an outside service to your box — Signal or Tailscale today, and others such as Gmail or a calendar as they become available — that service has its own terms with you. We don’t override them, replace them, or guarantee them.

• We’re not responsible for what those services do with data you authorize the box to access.
• You can revoke any connection at any time in Settings → Connected services. Revocation takes effect immediately on the box; the underlying box software is untouched.
• If a third-party service changes its API, integration, pricing, or terms in a way that breaks something on the box, we’ll do our best to update — but we can’t promise that we will be able to fix the issue.

6. Skills, plugins, and modifications

We curate the default software and features and functionality that the box ships with. We don’t vet third-party add-ons that you install.

• If you install a third-party add-on, you accept the risk of what it does. Treat skills the way you’d treat phone apps — only install from sources you trust.
• You may modify the box’s software. It’s yours. We can’t promise to support modified boxes, and security updates may not apply cleanly.
• If you remove or modify the curated default skills, sections of this document and our privacy policy about what the AI “can’t reach” or other relevant terms and conditions may no longer apply — you’ve expanded the box’s reach.

6a. Open-source software bundled on the box

The box ships with open-source software written by other parties. This includes (but isn’t limited to) Hermes (the AI agent framework), llama.cpp (the inference engine), hermes-webui (the chat interface), Mnemosyne (the on-box memory store), the Tailscale client, and signal-cli, along with each of their dependencies.

A complete list — with upstream URLs, license names, and copyright notices — is in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md on the box.

A few things about that software:

• We didn’t write it. Each component is provided by its upstream authors under its own open-source license (most are MIT or Apache-2.0; a few are BSD or GPL).
• Those licenses already disclaim warranty from the upstream authors. Your use of those components is governed by those licenses, which we ship alongside the software.
• We don’t add a warranty on top. We are not responsible for the behavior of upstream open-source projects beyond what those projects warrant themselves (which is, for the most part, nothing).
• We will patch when upstream patches.If a security issue is found in an upstream component and an upstream fix exists, we’ll ship that fix in a box update as soon as we reasonably can. We can’t promise to fix it ourselves if upstream doesn’t.
• You keep the rights upstream granted you. Including the right to inspect, modify, and redistribute those components per their respective licenses.

If you’d like the source code for any GPL-licensed component on the box (such as signal-cli), email support@voxcura.io and we’ll send it.

6b. Open-weight AI models

The AI on the box runs on open-weight models— models whose trained weights are published by third parties. We select, install, configure, optimize to run well on the box, and test the models that ship on your box, but we did not create the models or their training data, and we don’t control what went into them.

• We didn’t train them. The models come from their upstream developers under their own model licenses, which we ship alongside the software. We test what we ship, but no one can fully inspect everything inside a set of trained weights.
• They can be wrong, and they can be biased. Open-weight models can reflect errors, gaps, or biases from training data we didn’t choose and can’t see. This is part of the “the AI is not authoritative” risk in Section 4, and you assume it.
• Security risk from the models themselves.As with any software obtained from a third party, we cannot rule out that a model behaves in an unintended or unsafe way — for example, generating insecure code, or attempting to open network access or otherwise create a vulnerability (“backdoor”) on the box. We design the box to run models locally and to limit what they can reach without your involvement (see Sections 4 and 6), and we ship a fix when a problem is found and a fix exists — but we cannot guarantee any open-weight model is free of hidden or harmful behavior.
• No warranty on the models; our liability is limited. The models are covered by the “AS IS” software disclaimer in Section 8 and the limitation of liability in Section 9. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for harm arising from the behavior of an open-weight model, and your use of the models is at your own risk.

7. Updates and changes to the box

We may offer software updates — security patches, model refreshes, new features or functionality, and similar. Updates are always opt-in:

• Your box checks once a day whether a new version exists. The check is anonymous; see the Privacy Policy.
• When a new version is available, you see a banner in Settings → Updates. You choose whether and when to install: “Install Now” (typically about three minutes of downtime) or “Install Tonight” (3:00 AM local).
• We never push updates silently. We never apply an update to your box without your explicit click-on authorization.
• If an update fails health checks, your box automatically rolls back to the previous version. You’ll see what happened on the next screen.
• A “system update” — one that requires a reboot of the operating system, such as a kernel or openssl fix — follows the same model: you approve, the box installs and reboots, runs health checks, and rolls back if they fail.

If you decline updates, the box keeps working with the software it has. Eventually, third-party integrations may stop working over time if their APIs change, and we may stop supporting very old versions for security fixes. We will warn you in the Settings page when this is the case.

8. Warranty

Hardware warranty:one (1) year from the date of purchase, against manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship under normal use. This warranty runs to the original Buyer only and is not transferable. Details on the warranty card in the box. This written warranty doesn’t take away rights you may have under state law; where the law doesn’t allow implied warranties to be disclaimed, any implied warranty on the hardware is limited to the duration of this written warranty. Any repair work performed by you or a third party will void this warranty. This warranty does not cover normal wear and tear, cosmetic wear that does not affect function, accidental damage, liquid damage, misuse, neglect, power surges, unauthorized repair, use of incompatible third-party parts, or modifications made after delivery. This limited warranty is the only express warranty we provide on the hardware.

Software warranty: the software on the box, including the AI, is provided AS IS and AS AVAILABLE, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement.

This includes the AI itself: we don’t warrant that it will be correct, consistent, available, or fit for any particular purpose.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Our total cumulative liability to you in connection with the box, the software, or these terms is capped at the amount you paid for the box.
• We are not liablefor indirect, incidental, consequential, special, reliance, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or business, under any legal theory and even if advised of the possibility of such liability, and notwithstanding the failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy — including without limitation in connection with decisions you or someone else made relying on the AI’s output, loss of data on the box, loss of use, loss of business, or any harm to your relationships with third parties whose services you connected.
• Some states don’t allow these limitations. In those states, our liability is limited to the maximum extent the law allows.

9a. Your responsibility to us (indemnification)

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Arx and its members, officers, employees, contractors, representatives, vendors, agents, and professional advisors from and against any third-party claim, action, investigation, audit, inquiry, proceeding, demand, loss, liability or expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use or misuse of the box; (b) any outside service or third-party skill you connect to or install on the box; (c) content you generate, store, or send using the box; (d) your violation or alleged violation or breach of these terms or of any law or regulation; (e) your violation or alleged violation of anyone else’s rights; or (f) your gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud. We’ll tell you about any claim we seek indemnification for, and you may participate in the defense at your sole cost and expense.

10. Termination

You can stop using the box at any time. A factory reset (hold the power button for 15 seconds) wipes all on-box data — chat history, passphrase, paired devices, Signal pairing, Tailscale credentials — and returns the box to its factory state.

We may suspend or terminate your access to optional services (firmware updates, support, our hosted endpoints) if you materially violate these terms. Termination of those services does not affect your ownership of the box itself.

11. Disputes

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, without regard to its conflict or choice of law principles.

Binding individual arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or the box will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, seated in New Hampshire (or conducted by phone, video, or documents only, where the rules allow). Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. This agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.

Class-action waiver. You waive any right to bring or take part in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. Disputes are arbitrated only on an individual basis. If this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim — and only that claim — may proceed in court.

30-day opt-out. You can opt out of arbitration by emailing support@voxcura.io within 30 days of first setting up your box, stating your name and that you opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, you agree that any disputes must be brought in the state or federal courts located in New Hampshire, and you and we consent to their exclusive jurisdiction. Each party waives any right to a jury trial.

Carve-out. Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either of us may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property rights or confidential information.

Sales scope at launch. The box is sold solely to purchasers located, and for use, in the United States only at this time. Terms for EU/UK customers will be provided as and when relevant; we will not ship the box to customers located outside the US until and unless those terms exist.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms over time. When we do:

• The new version will be posted on the box and on our website, with an updated effective date.
• For material changes, we’ll use our commercially reasonable efforts to give you at least 30 days’ notice through the in-box update channel (Settings → Updates) and on the website.
• Continued use of the box after the effective date of an update means you accept the new terms. If you don’t accept, you can stop using the box.

13. Contact

For everything — support, privacy requests, legal notices — email support@voxcura.io. We read it.

Mail: VoxCura LLC d/b/a Arx, 221 Main St, Ste N, Nashua, NH 03060

14. Miscellaneous

Severability. If any part of these terms is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.

Entire agreement. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Safe Use Guide, are the entire agreement between you and Arx about the box with respect to its subject matter hereof and thereof, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings, whether written or verbal. No third party beneficiary rights are intended or implied by these Terms.

No assignment by you.You can’t transfer your rights under these terms to someone else without our prior written consent. You can sell or give the box itself to someone else — they then become the user, and these terms apply to them, provided that the hardware warranty will not transfer from the original purchaser.

No waiver.If we don’t enforce a provision, that’s not a waiver of our right to enforce it later; any waiver must be in writing.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive — including Section 4 (the AI is not authoritative), Section 6a (open-source software), Section 6b (open-weight AI models), Section 8 (warranty), Section 9 (limitation of liability), Section 9a (indemnification), Section 11 (disputes), and this Section 14 — survive after you stop using the box.

Feedback. If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the box, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use them, with no obligation to you.

Force majeure.We’re not liable for failures or delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control — including without limitation natural disasters, war, network or power outages, supply-chain disruptions, labor disputes, carrier delays, or government action.

Notices. Legal notices to Arx must be sent to the address and contact above. We may give you notice at the email or address on your proforma invoice.

Export & sanctions. You represent that you are not located in, and will not export or re-export the box to, any country or party subject to U.S. sanctions or export restrictions.

Electronic acceptance. You agree that any electronic signatures are valid, binding, and enforceable.