Legal

Terms of Service

Effective date: March 9, 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to YellowCrab (“YellowCrab”, “we”, “our”, “us”). These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the yellowcrab.ai website, dashboard, and managed hosting service (collectively, the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. What YellowCrab does

YellowCrab is a managed hosting platform. We provision and operate cloud server infrastructure on your behalf to deploy and run an instance of the OpenClaw AI chatbot software. Your bot connects to the Telegram messaging platform (with other platforms planned for the future) and uses the AI model provider of your choice via your own OpenRouter account.

YellowCrab does not provide AI services directly. AI inference is performed through OpenRouter using your own API key and is subject to OpenRouter’s terms and pricing, which are entirely separate from your YellowCrab subscription.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old (or the applicable age of digital consent in your country) to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract.

4. Your account

  • You must provide a valid email address to create an account. Sign-in is handled via Google OAuth.
  • You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.
  • You may not share your account with others or create accounts on behalf of third parties without our written consent.
  • Notify us promptly at support@yellowcrab.ai of any suspected unauthorized access to your account.

5. User-supplied credentials and stored data

To operate your bot, YellowCrab requires and stores certain credentials you provide:

  • Telegram bot token: The API token for the Telegram bot you create via @BotFather. This token is stored in our database and deployed to the server provisioned for your instance to operate your bot. You are responsible for the security and valid ownership of this token.
  • Telegram user ID: Your numeric Telegram chat ID, used to lock the bot to your account and for operational purposes including redeployment. This is retained in our database while your account is active.
  • OpenRouter API key: Your personal OpenRouter API key, which is stored encrypted in our database and deployed to the server provisioned for your instance to enable AI inference. It is retained while your account is active in order to support redeployment and instance recovery without requiring you to re-enter it manually.

By providing these credentials, you grant YellowCrab a limited, revocable right to store and use them solely to provision and operate your bot instance as described in these Terms. You represent that you have full legal authority to share these credentials with us and that doing so does not violate any third-party terms of service.

You are solely responsible for ensuring your use of these credentials complies with Telegram’s and OpenRouter’s respective terms of service. YellowCrab accepts no liability for any actions taken by your bot or for costs incurred through your OpenRouter account.

In the event of a confirmed security incident affecting your stored credentials, YellowCrab will notify you at your account email address as promptly as reasonably possible so that you can revoke and rotate any affected keys. You can revoke your OpenRouter API key at any time directly from your OpenRouter account. YellowCrab’s liability in connection with any such incident is limited as set out in §14.

6. Subscriptions and billing

  • Subscription plans: Access to the Service requires a paid monthly subscription. Current plan details and pricing are shown at checkout on yellowcrab.ai. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled.
  • Payment processing: Payments are processed by Stripe. By subscribing, you agree to provide accurate billing information. We do not store your full payment card details.
  • Pausing: You may pause your subscription from the dashboard. While paused, billing stops. Your bot instance continues to run during a pause period unless you explicitly stop it. Pausing is subject to the limitations described at checkout.
  • Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time from the dashboard. A 30-day grace period applies after cancellation, during which your instance remains accessible. After the grace period, your instance will be shut down.
  • Refunds: All fees are non-refundable once the billing period has begun, except where required by applicable law. If you believe a charge was made in error, contact us at support@yellowcrab.ai within 14 days.
  • Price changes: We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days’ notice. Continued use after the effective date of a price change constitutes your acceptance of the new price.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

  • Violate any applicable laws or regulations.
  • Infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.
  • Operate a bot that distributes spam, malware, or unsolicited content.
  • Harass, threaten, or harm other individuals.
  • Engage in any activity that places excessive or unreasonable load on our infrastructure.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems or the systems of other users.
  • Use the Service in a manner that violates Telegram’s Terms of Service or OpenRouter’s Terms of Service.

You are solely responsible for all content sent to or by your bot, for your bot’s conduct on Telegram, and for ensuring your bot operates in compliance with Telegram’s rules, OpenRouter’s terms, and all applicable laws. YellowCrab has no ability to monitor, control, or moderate your bot’s conversations and accepts no liability for any consequences arising from your bot’s behavior.

Do not share sensitive data via your bot. You should not use your bot to process, transmit, or store sensitive personal information (such as financial credentials, passwords, identity documents, health data, or third-party personal data). Conversations with your bot pass through Telegram’s infrastructure, the OpenClaw software, and OpenRouter’s AI inference pipeline — none of which are under YellowCrab’s control. YellowCrab accepts no liability for any loss, exposure, or misuse of sensitive data you choose to transmit via the bot.

Protecting your credentials. Your OpenRouter API key and Telegram bot token are stored as environment variables on your dedicated server. While your bot is restricted to your Telegram user ID, you should be aware that prompt injection attacks (including via web search content processed by your bot) or malicious third-party skills could attempt to extract these values through the bot’s responses. To reduce this risk, only install skills from sources you trust, and rotate your credentials immediately if you notice unexpected bot behaviour. YellowCrab publishes guidance on skill safety but cannot audit every third-party skill or guarantee the OpenClaw software is immune to all prompt injection techniques. YellowCrab accepts no liability for credential exposure resulting from third-party skills or content your bot processes.

8. Third-party services

The Service depends on the following third-party providers. Your use of the Service is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies, which are independent of these Terms:

  • Supabase: Database, authentication, and edge function infrastructure.
  • Stripe: Payment processing for subscriptions.
  • Google: OAuth authentication (if you choose to sign in with Google).
  • Hetzner Cloud: Cloud infrastructure on which YellowCrab provisions and administers the server for your instance. YellowCrab owns and controls this server as part of providing the Service.
  • Coolify: Deployment orchestration software running on the server provisioned for your instance.
  • OpenClaw: The AI chatbot software deployed on your instance. OpenClaw is an independent open-source project, not developed or maintained by YellowCrab. YellowCrab deploys it on your behalf but accepts no liability for any defects, security vulnerabilities, data handling behavior, or unexpected output of the OpenClaw software itself.
  • OpenRouter: AI model gateway accessed via your own API key. AI inference costs, output quality, and data handling are governed by OpenRouter’s terms, which are entirely separate from your YellowCrab subscription.
  • Telegram: Messaging platform on which your bot operates. Your bot’s behavior on Telegram is your sole responsibility.

We are not liable for any service interruption, data loss, or policy changes caused by these third-party providers.

9. Privacy and data protection

Our Privacy Policy explains in detail how we collect, store, and process your personal data. It is incorporated by reference into these Terms. By using the Service, you agree to the Privacy Policy.

10. Intellectual property

The Service — including without limitation its software, source code, compiled binaries, website, dashboard interface, visual design, user experience flows, onboarding concepts, product ideas, feature concepts, branding, logos, trade dress, marketing copy, and all written and graphical content — is the exclusive intellectual property of YellowCrab and is protected by applicable copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws.

You agree not to:

  • Copy, reproduce, scrape, or otherwise extract any part of the Service, including website copy, design elements, UX patterns, or feature concepts.
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Service.
  • Create any product, service, or website that imitates, incorporates, or is derived from the ideas, concepts, design, or content of YellowCrab.
  • Use YellowCrab’s name, logo, or branding in any manner that suggests endorsement or affiliation without our prior written consent.
  • Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices in or on the Service.

Nothing in these Terms grants you any license to use our intellectual property beyond the narrow right to access the Service for its intended purpose as a paying subscriber.

11. Your content

YellowCrab does not process, read, or store the content of conversations between you and your bot. Conversational data flows between Telegram, the OpenClaw process running on your dedicated server, and OpenRouter — none of this conversation data transits or resides in YellowCrab’s own database. You retain all rights to your conversational content. YellowCrab makes no claim over it.

12. Service availability and changes

We aim to maintain a reliable platform but do not provide any uptime guarantee or service-level agreement at this stage. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features or the Service itself, and will endeavour to provide reasonable advance notice where practicable. We are not liable for any loss resulting from service interruption.

We are not liable for service interruptions or failures caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including failures of third-party infrastructure providers (Hetzner, Supabase, Stripe, Telegram, OpenRouter), network outages, distributed denial-of-service attacks, or other force majeure events.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or uninterrupted availability. We do not warrant that your bot will operate without errors or interruptions, that the AI models accessible through OpenRouter will produce accurate or appropriate output, or that third-party services (Telegram, OpenRouter, Hetzner) will remain available.

No data backup guarantee: YellowCrab does not guarantee the preservation of any data stored on the server provisioned for your instance, including bot configuration, conversation history retained by OpenClaw, or any other data residing on that server. You are solely responsible for any backups you require.

OpenClaw software: YellowCrab deploys OpenClaw on your behalf as a convenience but makes no warranty regarding its security, reliability, or fitness for any purpose. If OpenClaw has a vulnerability that results in data exposure or loss, YellowCrab’s liability is limited to the extent provided in §14. YellowCrab does not review, audit, or guarantee the security of OpenClaw releases.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, YellowCrab and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of data, profits, revenue, or business opportunities, arising out of or related to your use of or inability to use the Service, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to the Service shall not exceed the total fees paid by you to YellowCrab in one (1) month immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless YellowCrab and its operators from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these Terms, your use of the Service, your bot’s conduct on Telegram, or your misuse of any third-party service credentials.

16. Termination

You may stop using the Service and cancel your subscription at any time from the dashboard. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you materially breach these Terms, create legal risk for us, engage in prohibited conduct, or fail to pay fees when due. Upon termination, your right to access the Service ceases. We will handle your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

17. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of Poland and, where applicable, European Union law. If you are located in the EU/EEA, mandatory consumer protection laws of your country of residence also apply and take precedence where they provide greater protection. Any dispute that cannot be resolved through good-faith negotiation will be submitted to the competent courts in Poland, unless otherwise required by mandatory law.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If changes are material, we will provide reasonable advance notice via email or in-app notice. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

19. Contact

If you have questions or concerns about these Terms, please contact us at support@yellowcrab.ai.