ShepherdForge
Draft — owner/legal review required. This text describes current ShepherdForge application behavior. It is not a finalized legal agreement and must not be treated as public-facing terms until registration is separately authorized.
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern self-service access to the ShepherdForge application at app.shepherdforge.com. ShepherdForge is software for creating and publishing Bible studies. It is currently offered as a limited beta.
The service is intended for adults who create ministry or study content. It is not directed at children under 13. Beta access may be capped, paused, expired, or ended at any time. There is no service-level commitment, uptime guarantee, or paid subscription in this version of the software. A reserved account status named “paid_active” exists for possible future billing; no payment collection is implemented.
Signup requires a name, email address, password, and acceptance of these Terms and the Privacy Policy. The application emails a verification link. A workspace is created only after that link is successfully used. Email becomes the workspace administrator username. New self-service users receive workspace_admin privileges only. They cannot access Owner Tools, other customers’ workspaces, or platform operator functions.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for content you create in your workspace.
You may use ShepherdForge to prepare, store, and (if you choose) publish Bible studies and related ministry pages. You must not attempt to access another workspace, probe or disrupt the service, abuse email verification, or use the service for unlawful content. The operator may suspend an account. Suspension keeps workspace files but blocks login. Archiving a workspace also blocks login without deleting files. Operator deletion of a workspace is not a self-service feature in this version.
ShepherdForge can store drafts and published studies as files in your workspace. Some features send text you provide to a third-party AI provider to generate or revise study material. AI output is not Scripture, is not infallible, and is not a substitute for pastoral care or your own review. You remain responsible for what you publish.
If you publish studies or hosted pages, those pages may be visible on public URLs associated with your workspace. Platform Terms and Privacy for ShepherdForge accounts are at /legal/terms and /legal/privacy. A workspace may also show its own /privacy or /terms page for visitors to that workspace’s public site; those pages are not these platform Terms.
Nothing in the service is legal, medical, counseling, or professional advice.
The beta is provided “as is.” The operator does not warrant uninterrupted availability, preservation of drafts, or fitness for a particular ministry purpose. Persistent disk and application hosting are provided by the operator’s infrastructure vendor.
These Terms may change. The version identifier shown at signup is recorded with your acceptance timestamp. Continued use after a posted change means you accept the updated Terms for later use of the service.
Contact the ShepherdForge operator through the channels published on shepherdforge.com. Transactional mail is sent from noreply@shepherdforge.com and is not a monitored inbox.