Contracts

A contract is a written record of what you and the other person in your pairing agreed to: how long, how often to check in, releases, rules, penances and limits. You both sign it by typing your names. Either of you can write one, change it or end it. Some of its terms also lock powers in the app once you've both signed (see What a contract does in the app).

Every contract says this at the top and the bottom, and nobody can edit it out.

Where to find it

• Locked members: the Contract card is on the Keyholder tab. While you have a contract (or one is being agreed), it's on your Home screen too.
• Keyholders: the Contract card is on the page of the person you hold (tap them on Home). On the Pairing page, each person shows their contract, or No contract yet · Write one.
• All your contracts, including past ones: Your contracts at the bottom of the Keyholder or Pairing tab.

You need to be paired to write a contract. Each pairing has one contract in force at a time.

Write one

1. On the Contract card, tap Write a contract.
2. Choose a template: Locktober, Lock, Keyholding, Submissive or Blank. Every part can be changed.
3. Tap Start writing.

The draft is yours alone until you send it. The other person only sees that you're writing one. Fill in as much or as little as you like. Only the title is required:

• Length: Not set, a Number of days (counted from when you both sign) or an End date.
• Check-ins: how often, from at least every 6 hours to at least once a week. This is what you agree to; it doesn't change the lock's check-in schedule by itself.
• Check-ins on the feed: For their followers or For all members puts the locked member's check-in photos and videos on their feed, past ones too, and once you've both signed they can't turn it off until the keyholder lets them. Leave it at Not part of this contract to keep it out. See Check-ins on the feed below.
• Proof on the feed: For their followers or For all members lets the keyholder post the task and penance proof they accept on the locked member's feed (only proof taken in the app, never a private task's). Once you've both signed, the locked member can't take it back until the keyholder lets them. See Proof on the feed below.
• Releases, Rules and Penances: one line each. Tap + Add a rule (and so on) for another line, or × to take one out.
• Hard limits: filled in from the hard limits on your pairing. Tasks and penances always follow your pairing's hard limits, whatever the contract says. See Hard limits.
• Soft limits: things to go carefully with.
• Review date: you're both reminded on the day to talk it through.
• Notes: anything else.

Tap Save draft to keep your changes, or Discard draft to throw it away.

Sign and send

1. Tap Sign and send.
2. Type your full name. It's shown with your signature, to the other person and on downloaded copies. The name you go by with them is fine.
3. Tick I understand this contract isn't legally binding, and either of us can end it at any time.
4. Tap Sign and send.

They get an alert, and an email too if they get Pairing emails (see Email preferences). Changes suggested back to someone come as an alert only. The card shows Waiting for Riley to sign (or whoever you sent it to).

Read it, then sign or suggest changes

When a contract is sent to you, the card shows Waiting for you to sign. Open it and read it through, then:

• Tap Sign, type your name, tick the box and tap Sign. The contract is Active from then on, and the other person is told. The sheet lists What signing locks in the app first, with the dates.
• Or tap Suggest changes. You get your own copy to edit, as a new version. When you Sign and send it, it goes back to them to sign.

Changing a contract

Any change makes a new version, and both of you sign it again. Until you both do, the version you already signed stays in force.

• To change an active contract, open it and tap Suggest changes.
• To change one you sent that hasn't been signed yet, tap Change it.
• Only one of you can be writing changes at a time. If the other person is, you'll see that and be told when they send them.

Every version is kept. Under Versions you can see who wrote each one, when it was sent, and what changed, in plain words (for example "Changed check-ins from at least once a day to at least every 2 days"). Tap a version to read it.

To start over with a different template, tap Start a new contract on the card. Your current contract stays in force until you both sign the new one, which then replaces it.

Check-ins on the feed

When a contract with Check-ins on the feed is signed by both of you, the locked member's signature is their agreement: their check-ins start going on their feed for the people it says, and their past ones go up too. It works just like agreeing to the keyholder's request in Settings (see Check-ins on the feed):

• It's locked until the contract's review or end date (90 days at most): until then the locked member can't turn it off, or show them to fewer people, unless the keyholder lets them. After that date they can stop it themselves (the keyholder is told). Settings says they agreed in their contract, and until when.
• They can always delete a single post, and the keyholder is told.
• If their ID isn't verified yet, nothing is posted: they're asked to verify it and then agree in Settings (they can also say not now).
• A new version without the term lifts it. If the keyholder ends the contract, it's no longer locked, so the member can stop it. If the locked member ends it, it stays locked until its date. Ending the pairing ends it.

Proof on the feed

A signed contract with Proof on the feed works the same way: the locked member's signature is their agreement, and the keyholder can then post the proof they accept on the member's feed, for the people it says. It's locked until the contract's review or end date (90 days at most), and after that the member can take it back. They can always delete a single post (the keyholder is told), and ending the pairing ends it. A new version without the term lifts it; ending the contract works as for check-ins above. See Proof on the feed.

What a contract does in the app

Once you've both signed, some terms lock their powers until the contract's review or end date, or the end of its length, whichever comes first (at the end of that day where the locked member lives; 90 days at most):

• Length (a number of days or an end date) becomes a minimum lock time until it ends: the locked member's release requests wait until then. It doesn't set a timer or end the lock by itself, and emergency unlock and the safeword always work.
• Check-ins lock the check-in schedule: the keyholder can't ask for check-ins more often than the contract says, and a lock that asks for them more often moves to the contract's.
• Check-ins on the feed and Proof on the feed (above).

The contract shows what it locked, under Locked in the app by this contract, and the Powers page marks those powers Set by your contract. In your first week together they lock on day 8, when the locked member confirms them. A lock that already runs longer stays as it is: a contract never shortens one. Like any new lock, the locked member can undo each one for 24 hours with Changed my mind on their Powers page.

A version whose review or end date has come by the time it's signed can't be signed: tap Suggest changes and pick a new date.

Everything else is what you agreed to, in writing:

• Releases, Rules, Penances and Soft limits are words you both agreed to. Tasks and penances always follow your pairing's hard limits.
• The review date reminds you both on the day.

Download and print

On a contract, tap Download for a plain text copy with the fixed wording, every term, both signatures and the version history. Tap Print to print just the contract, in black on white (or save it as a PDF from the print screen).

End a contract

Either of you can end a contract at any time, for any reason.

1. Open the contract and tap End contract.
2. Add a note if you like.
3. Tap End contract.

The other person is told. Ending a contract doesn't end your pairing or your lock. Ended contracts stay readable to both of you under Your contracts.

• If the keyholder ends it, what it locked in the app ends too. A lock the locked member made before the contract carries on to its own date.
• If the locked member ends it, what it locked stays until its dates, so ending a contract is never a way out of a lock. Ending the pairing ends everything.

A contract also ends when the pairing ends, however it ends (including when one of you blocks the other). A contract that was waiting for a signature ends too, and an unsent draft is deleted.

Who can see it

Only the two of you. Nobody else can open your contracts, including CageCheck's moderators. While one of you has blocked the other, neither of you can open it.