Engagement terms

How work gets agreed

It starts with a conversation to understand what you need. From there comes a written proposal with the scope, the estimated timeline, the price and the payment terms.

Nothing counts as engaged until you accept that proposal in writing — an email is enough. Before that, neither side is committed.

Prices are agreed case by case. There are no published rates on the site because the scope of a consulting engagement cannot be standardised without knowing it.

What is included and what is not

The proposal states exactly what gets delivered. Anything not written there is not included.

A change of scope during the work is discussed and agreed separately, with its effect on timeline and price. It is not assumed to be included just because it came up along the way.

Tutoring is agreed per session or per block of sessions, with the syllabus and duration defined before starting.

Payment

The method and schedule are set in the proposal. For engagements of some length, an upfront payment with the rest against milestones is the usual arrangement.

Invoices are issued from Costa Rica. Any taxes due in your country are yours to cover, unless the proposal says otherwise.

A late payment may pause the work until it is settled. You get told before anything is paused.

If either side wants to stop

Either side can end the engagement with written notice. Work done up to that point is paid for, and whatever is finished is handed over.

For tutoring, a session can be rescheduled with reasonable notice. A session missed without notice counts as given.

There are no penalties for stopping: if the work stopped making sense for you, forcing it helps nobody.

Who owns what is delivered

Once paid in full, the code, documents and designs made specifically for your engagement become yours.

Pre-existing in-house tools, libraries and components used to build it are the exception: those remain Samara One Code's, and you get a perpetual licence to use them within the delivered project. They are identified in the proposal where they apply.

Third-party software keeps its own licences, which are listed on delivery.

Confidentiality

Everything you share to get the work done — code, data, plans, internal documentation — is treated as confidential and shared with nobody else.

That obligation outlives the engagement. If you need a separate signed NDA, it gets signed, no problem.

Work done for you is not mentioned publicly as a reference without your prior permission.

Liability

The work is done with the professional care it deserves, but no engagement can guarantee a business outcome: a well-built system does not guarantee sales, funding or third-party approval.

Liability for an engagement is limited to what was paid for that engagement, except in cases of wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

Decisions about your product remain yours. What is provided is technical judgement, not a guarantee of commercial success.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of Costa Rica, where the provider is based.

If you engage from another country, any mandatory consumer-protection rules that cover you in your jurisdiction still apply: nothing here is meant to remove a right the law gives you.

Before any formal claim, let's talk. Almost everything gets resolved that way.

Changes to these terms

We may update this page. The date it was last updated appears above.

A change here does not affect an engagement already agreed: that engagement is governed by the version in force when you accepted it, together with its proposal.