Support Terms

These Support Terms describe how Cloud Posse provides support for our services. These terms are informational and subject to change.

If you purchase a paid support plan, specific support conditions, including response times and billing terms, will be defined in the Payment Terms at the time of purchase.

1. Definitions

1. Business Hours: The hours during which Cloud Posse provides support services: Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM PT, excluding U.S. public holidays.

2. Subscriber: The Subscriber refers to the entity that has purchased services from Cloud Posse. References to “you” or “your” in this Agreement refer to the Subscriber. The Subscriber is responsible for ensuring compliance with these terms by all Authorized Users.

3. Authorized User: An Authorized User is anyone employed by the Subscriber, either as an employee or contractor. For support tiers that include Slack, an Authorized User is any individual in the dedicated private Slack channel between our teams. For Essential Support plans, Authorized Users must be explicitly listed with their full legal name, email address, and GitHub username. Machine users (accounts used primarily for automation) are not considered Authorized Users for support purposes, do not receive priority support, and automated support requests are not covered.

4. Support Request: A request for assistance submitted by an Authorized User.

   • Community Support Request: A Support Request that is submitted via public channels (e.g., GitHub Discussions, GitHub Issues, SweetOps Slack, Public Office Hours) and related to Cloud Posse’s open-source projects.
   • Essential Support Request: A Support Request that is submitted under the "Essential Support" category in Cloud Posse’s GitHub Discussions Forums.
   • Flexible Support Request: A Support Request that is planned and scheduled in advance as part of the Subscriber’s Flexible Support plan. These requests are not available on demand and are handled based on Cloud Posse’s availability and existing commitments.
   • Priority Support Request: Submitted via the designated private Slack channel.
   • Platform Advisory Request: A Support Request that is submitted via the designated Platform Advisory channels (such as the private Platform Advisory Slack channel or scheduled Platform Advisory Zoom sessions).

5. Support Hours: The total number of hours allocated for support under a given support plan. These hours determine the extent of assistance available for Priority Support Requests.

6. Support Availability: The percentage of time during Business Hours when Cloud Posse support personnel are available to respond to support requests within the SLA-defined response times. Availability may be affected by planned maintenance, staff shortages, or unforeseen circumstances. Delays caused by exceeding fair usage limits are not considered a lack of availability.

7. U.S. Public Holidays: The federal holidays observed by Cloud Posse, during which support services are not available:

   • New Year’s Day (January 1)
   • Martin Luther King Jr. Day (3rd Monday in January)
   • Washington’s Birthday (3rd Monday in February)
   • Memorial Day (Last Monday in May)
   • Independence Day (July 4)
   • Labor Day (1st Monday in September)
   • Veterans Day (November 11)
   • Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November)
   • Day After Thanksgiving (4th Friday in November)
   • Christmas Day (December 25)

   Cloud Posse may have reduced availability during the week before, the week of, and the week after these holidays.

2. Authorized Users

Only Authorized Users are eligible to make Support Requests under their designated support tier. You are responsible for all usage by Authorized Users and for any breach of these Terms, the Agreements, or applicable laws by them.

Authorized Users must not share passwords or login credentials. You are solely responsible for all usage of your Authorized Users' login credentials, including unauthorized use. If you suspect unauthorized third-party access to your account, you must notify Cloud Posse immediately and take appropriate action.

2.1 Adding/Removing Users

You can add or remove Authorized Users by managing their access to submit a Support Request. For Essential support plans, you must provide a list of Authorized Users consisting of full names, email addresses, and GitHub usernames.

3. Support Tiers

Cloud Posse is not obligated to modify, customize, or alter its offerings in response to a Support Request, regardless of the elected Support Tier. Cloud Posse reserves the right to review, reject, or decline to merge Pull Requests at its sole discretion.

3.1 Community Support (Free)

3.1.1 Community Support Requests

A Community Support Request is any request for assistance submitted through Cloud Posse's public community channels, including but not limited to:

• The public Slack workspace ("SweetOps") at sweetops.slack.com
• Public Office Hours
• GitHub Issues, Pull Requests, and Discussions related to Cloud Posse's open-source projects

Cloud Posse makes no guarantee of confidentiality for Community Support Requests.

3.1.2 Public Slack Community ("SweetOps")

Cloud Posse provides access to a public Slack workspace where users can discuss technical topics.

1. Participation is voluntary, and Cloud Posse is not required to respond to messages in the Slack community.
2. Clients must exercise discretion when sharing information, as confidentiality is not guaranteed.

3.1.3 Public Office Hours

Cloud Posse hosts a public weekly Q&A session via Zoom.

1. Attendance does not constitute a dedicated support engagement.
2. Cloud Posse is not obligated to provide resolutions.
3. Sessions may be recorded and made publicly available.

3.1.4 GitHub Issues, Pull Requests, and Discussions

Cloud Posse leverages GitHub Issues and Discussions for open-source project collaboration.

1. All responses are best-effort, subject to available resources.
2. Cloud Posse reserves the right to review, reject, or decline to merge Pull Requests at its sole discretion.

3.1.5 Exclusions

Community Support does not include support for Cloud Posse’s commercial products, paid offerings, or implementation services, including but not limited to:

• Commercial Reference Architectures (such as Quickstart and Jumpstart)
• Components developed by Cloud Posse
• Software delivery using Cloud Posse’s GitHub Actions and workflows

Most of Cloud Posse’s projects are permissively licensed as open source and free to use; however, support is not included. All support is offered as a paid service and is available through plans at cloudposse.com/support.

3.2 Essential Support

1. An Essential Support Request is any support request submitted by an Authorized User under the Essential Support plan. Essential Support Requests are limited to the following designated support channels: Customer Workshops, GitHub Discussions.
2. Essential Support does not cover GitHub Issues, Pull Request Reviews, Email, Slack, or the public SweetOps Slack community.
3. Upon cancellation, access to Customer Workshops, and prioritized support will be discontinued. Canceling your support does not impact your rights to use our open-source software.
4. Customer workshop attendees must have email address tied to subscriber and registered in advance

3.2.1 Customer Workshops

Cloud Posse offers weekly multi-subscriber workshops during regular U.S. business hours for guidance and knowledge sharing.

1. Clients may attend as often as desired, with no limit on attendees per organization.
2. Attendees must have an email tied to the subscriber and be registered in advance. Workshops may include multiple clients; confidentiality is not guaranteed, and discretion is advised when sharing sensitive information.
3. Recordings are shared with authorized Essential Support subscribers for internal use.
4. Workshops scheduled on U.S. public holidays may be rescheduled
5. Calls are scheduled for 30 minutes and may continue at Cloud Posse’s discretion. Sessions are canceled if no clients join within the first five (5) minutes.
6. Workshop times may be adjusted periodically at Cloud Posse’s discretion to optimize overall attendance and are not guaranteed to be convenient for any particular Subscriber.

3.2.2 GitHub Discussions

1. Any Authorized User may submit an Essential Support Request. Essential Support Requests may include non-confidential questions, troubleshooting, code reviews, and design reviews.
2. Essential Support Requests do not include bug fixes performed by Cloud Posse.
3. All Essential Support Requests must be reasonably related to Cloud Posse's open source or documentation.
4. Client acknowledges that GitHub Discussions is a public forum where confidentiality agreements do not apply. Cloud Posse makes no guarantee of confidentiality, and clients are responsible for discretion when sharing sensitive information.

3.3 Flexible Support

Flexible Support is designed for ongoing, scheduled work and is not an on-demand service. Support requests are planned in advance and integrated into Cloud Posse's workflow to ensure predictable and efficient execution.

1. A Flexible Support Request is any support request that is planned and scheduled in advance as part of the Subscriber's Flexible Support plan. Flexible Support Requests are not available on-demand and are integrated into Cloud Posse's workflow based on availability and existing commitments.
2. Flexible Support Requests must be submitted through designated channels. Requests made through any other channels will not be processed.
3. Flexible Support Requests are scheduled ahead of time based on Cloud Posse's capacity and existing commitments. While all Flexible Support Requests will be accommodated, Priority Support Requests receive precedence when scheduling.
4. Time spent on scheduling and coordination does not count against support hours.
5. Flexible Support Requests are scoped, scheduled, and completed within agreed-upon timeframes. Unscheduled or ad-hoc Pay-as-you-Go requests may be deferred to the next available time slot.
6. Flexible Support responses are provided during Cloud Posse's standard business hours, as defined in Section 3. While Cloud Posse makes a good-faith effort to address requests in a timely manner, Flexible Support does not include a guaranteed SLA for response times. Requests are scheduled based on availability and existing commitments.

3.4 Priority Support

Priority Support is a premium service that provides Subscribers with expedited access to Cloud Posse for hands-on operational support and issue resolution through designated Slack and Zoom channels. Priority Support operates on an hourly basis and is subject to the terms outlined below.

1. A Priority Support Request is any request for support submitted through the designated Slack channel(s) for Priority Support. Cloud Posse will only process and respond to Priority Support Requests submitted through these designated channels. Requests made through any other channels, including but not limited to email, GitHub Issues, or GitHub Discussions, will not be processed.
2. Priority Support Requests covers the following types of assistance: calls, documentation, coding assistance, Slack-based support, bug fixes, and incident management. Cloud Posse absorbs all project management overhead associated with these services.
3. All activities performed by Cloud Posse in connection with the resolution of a Priority Support Request will be deducted from the Subscriber's accrued support hours.

3.5 Platform Advisory

Platform Advisory is a premium consulting service that provides strategic guidance, architectural reviews, and best practices for platform engineering. It gives Subscribers trusted advisor access to Cloud Posse through unmetered interactions on Slack and Zoom.

Response times are governed by the 1.3 Platform Advisory SLA.

3.5.1 Platform Advisory Scope

Platform Advisory provides advisory and consultative interactions through:

• Designated Slack channel(s)
• Scheduled Zoom calls

Typical Platform Advisory Requests include:

• Architecture reviews
• Strategic guidance
• Migration planning
• Enterprise architecture recommendations
• Best practices
• Troubleshooting assistance
• Slack-based Q&A
• Live discussions via Zoom

3.5.2 Platform Advisory Requests

A Platform Advisory Request is any request that is initiated through Designated Slack channel(s).

Requests may reference content in other systems (such as email, GitHub Issues, or Discussions), but requests initiated through those other channels do not constitute a Platform Advisory Request, and will not be processed as such or covered by SLA.

3.5.3 Interaction with Flexible Support

Any request that falls outside the scope of Platform Advisory—such as resulting in hands-on work (for example, writing code, submitting pull requests, fixing bugs, or creating documentation)—may be addressed through Flexible Support, if available under the Subscriber’s plan.

Platform Advisory subscriptions may include a certain number of Flexible Support hours per month. Any work performed by Cloud Posse under Flexible Support is governed by the terms of Section 3.3 Flexible Support.

Cloud Posse will notify the Subscriber if a request transitions to Flexible Support.