Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-05-20

These Terms govern your use of recap.at - the website, the public REST API + MCP server, and any other service we offer under the Recap.at brand. By using the site or the API, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

1. The service

Recap.at publishes editorial recaps of historical and current events, reconstructed from public sources (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, the Internet Archive, GDELT, Library of Congress, OurAirports, and more). We expose those recaps via a public web reader, an RSS feed, an HTTP API + MCP server, and downloadable formats (Markdown, YAML, JSON-LD, sitemap).

2. Free use, fair use

The reader-facing site is free for personal and non-commercial use. You may link to any recap, share via the built-in share controls, and embed a recap card on your own site or social channels with attribution.

For programmatic / commercial access, see the API pricing page. Free-tier API keys carry a daily call cap; paid tiers unlock higher caps + commercial use.

3. What's ours, what's not

3.1 Platform IP - All Rights Reserved

The Recap.at platform - the source code, the autonomous content-orchestration model, the editorial templates, the design system, the trademark, the brand - is the proprietary intellectual property of Recap.at. Despite the corpus being publicly readable, the platform is not open source. You may not copy, reverse-engineer, or republish the platform code or interface design without our written permission.

3.2 Recap content - mixed licenses

The content of each recap is assembled from sources with varying licenses, and the assembled recap text + structure is editorial work product of Recap.at. Specifically:

Text excerpts derived from Wikipedia carry the CC BY-SA 4.0 license of the underlying article.
Images from Wikimedia Commons carry the license shown in their credit line - typically CC BY, CC BY-SA, public domain, or government-work (PD-USGov / PD-NASA / PD-Park).
Archived web snapshots are surfaced via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, owned by archive.org under their terms.
Editorial framing, the lede, the timeline narrative, the relationship graph, the quiz, the chapter spine, and any prose summarization we layer on top remain the property of Recap.at.

When you reuse a recap, you must respect the license of each element you reuse + give attribution to Recap.at for the editorial assembly.

3.3 Your contributions

Reactions (anonymous emoji aggregates), corrections you send us, and journey progress are contributions. By submitting a correction or feedback, you grant Recap.at a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use it to improve the archive. We may credit you by name or anonymize as appropriate.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Scrape the reader-facing site at a rate beyond the daily call cap of the free API tier (1,000 calls per day at the time of writing). Use the API.
Use the service to harass, defame, or surveil any person.
Reverse-engineer the platform, its proprietary editorial pipeline, or its anti-abuse mechanisms.
Misrepresent Recap.at content as your own original reporting, or strip attribution.
Resell or sublicense the API output without holding a paid tier that permits commercial redistribution.
Use the API to train large language models if your tier does not explicitly include training rights. (Currently: no tier includes training rights without a separate agreement.)

We may rate-limit, suspend, or terminate access at any time for abuse. Material abuse may be reported to the relevant authorities.

5. Advertising + commercial monetization

Recap.at is a commercial entity. We may, at our sole discretion:

Display advertising (contextual, display, sponsored modules) on the free reader-facing site.
Introduce additional paid tiers, premium content, or ancillary services.
Sell aggregated, non-personal analytics about content consumption (e.g. "the most-read decade this week was the 1990s").
License the editorial assembly for commercial republication under a separate agreement.

Personal data is handled separately under our Privacy policy. Ads (when present) will respect that policy.

6. Disclaimer of warranty

Recap.at is provided "as is" and "as available." We do our best to keep recaps accurate and sources up to date, but we make no warranties about the completeness, reliability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The site may be unavailable, slow, or contain inaccuracies. Verify against primary sources before relying on a recap for any high-stakes decision.

7. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Recap.at, its operators, officers, employees, and contributors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses arising from your use of the service.

8. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Recap.at from any claim arising out of your use of the service in breach of these Terms, including any third-party claim of copyright infringement based on content you republish from the API without respecting the underlying source license.

9. Termination

We may suspend or terminate API access at any time for breach of these Terms or for non-payment on a paid tier. We may discontinue the service at any time on 30 days' notice (via email to the address on file for API key holders, and a banner on the homepage for everyone else).

10. Governing law + disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the operator's country of incorporation, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the service will be resolved in the competent courts of that jurisdiction, unless local consumer law gives you the right to sue in your own jurisdiction.

11. Changes

We may update these Terms as the service evolves. Material changes will be announced via the homepage banner for 30 days before they take effect, and (for API key holders) via email to the address on file.

12. Contact

Legal questions: legal@recap.at. API + billing: api@recap.at. Editorial corrections: hello@recap.at.