Terms of Use

The TL;DR

You buy a license, you use Cove on your Mac. One license per Mac. Use it for personal or commercial work — same license. Don't redistribute it or crack it. Cove uses AppleScript to interact with other apps, so it's "best-effort" by nature (Apple changes APIs, third-party apps update, things break). If something goes wrong because of Cove, my liability is capped at what you paid. 14-day refund, no questions. That's the gist.

1. License grant

By purchasing a Cove license, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to install and use Cove on a single Mac that you own or control. Use is permitted for both personal and commercial purposes — you can use Cove in your day job without buying a separate "business license."

If you have multiple Macs (e.g., a personal Mac and a work Mac) and want Cove on both, you can purchase a second license — or contact me, I usually grant a free secondary activation for legitimate dual-Mac setups (one human, two machines).

2. What you can't do

• Redistribute Cove to others (give them your DMG, share your license key, host the DMG on a download mirror, etc.)
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code beyond what's permitted by applicable law (e.g., interoperability rights under EU law)
• Remove or alter copyright notices or branding from the app
• Use Cove to run illegal activities (selling pirated software, automating prohibited content, etc.)
• Resell or sublicense Cove without prior written agreement

3. Updates

All updates are free for the lifetime of your license. New features, bug fixes, performance improvements, security patches — included. The auto-update mechanism uses the Sparkle framework, and every update is cryptographically signed with EdDSA so a man-in-the-middle can't slip a fake build past you. You can disable auto-updates in Cove's Settings, in which case you'll need to update manually by downloading new versions from covemac.app.

If a future major version (e.g., Cove 2.0) introduces such substantial new capabilities that I decide to charge for the upgrade, existing license holders will get a discounted upgrade price (typically ~50% off) or be grandfathered in entirely. I'll never silently break your installed version to force you onto a paid upgrade.

4. Refunds

14 days, no questions asked. If you decide Cove isn't for you within 14 days of purchase, email alexandre.bonnegardedelisle@gmail.com with your order number, and I'll process a full refund through Lemon Squeezy. No forms, no "just one more thing" pitch.

After 14 days, refunds are at my discretion — I'm generally accommodating for reasonable cases (the app stopped working on your specific Mac config, you bought twice by accident, etc.) but reserve the right to decline if the request looks abusive (e.g., refund-and-keep-using patterns).

If you're a consumer in the EU and we can't resolve a complaint between us, you can also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

5. How Cove behaves, and what to keep in mind

Cove is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. A few things to set realistic expectations:

• Cove closes apps when you switch sessions. That's the design — it's what makes context switches actually clean. Cove tries to do this gracefully (it asks apps to quit normally, which gives them the chance to prompt you to save unsaved work), but you should still save your work before switching, the same way you would before quitting an app yourself.
• Cove uses AppleScript to read and restore the state of other apps. That means it depends on third-party apps (Safari, Chrome, Slack, etc.) keeping their AppleScript interfaces stable. When those apps update and change their scripting dictionaries, individual adapters can regress until I update Cove. I push fixes as quickly as I can, but I can't guarantee zero downtime for any specific adapter.
• Cove depends on macOS Accessibility and Automation APIs. Apple changes these APIs between macOS releases. A new macOS major version may temporarily break behavior until Cove is updated to match.
• Always keep backups of work you can't afford to lose, regardless of whether Cove is involved. Cove is a workspace switcher, not a backup tool — it doesn't preserve the contents of unsaved documents.

6. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, my total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of Cove — whether in contract, tort, or any other theory — is limited to the amount you paid for your license. I'm not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages (lost productivity, lost data, lost opportunities, missed deadlines, etc.) even if I've been advised of the possibility.

Some jurisdictions don't allow limitations on certain damages, so this limitation may not fully apply to you. Where it doesn't apply, my liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows. Nothing in these terms is intended to limit your rights under mandatory consumer protection law.

7. Termination

Your license terminates automatically if you breach these terms. In that case, you must stop using Cove and delete it from your Mac. I can also terminate licenses obtained through fraud, chargeback abuse, or repeated breach.

You can stop using Cove at any time. To remove Cove and its data from your Mac: quit the app, trash /Applications/Cove.app, and delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/com.alexbd.Cove/. There's nothing remote to deactivate.

8. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by French law. Any dispute arising from these terms will be resolved in the courts of France, unless mandatory consumer protection law in your jurisdiction provides otherwise.

If you're a consumer in the EU, this clause does not deprive you of mandatory protections under your local law, including your right to bring a dispute before a court in your country of residence. EU consumers can also use the Online Dispute Resolution platform mentioned in §4.

9. Changes

If I update these terms in a way that affects your rights or obligations, I'll email registered license holders before the changes take effect. Minor wording fixes happen silently. Continuing to use Cove after a notified change means you accept the updated terms; if you don't accept, you can request a refund within 30 days of the change notification.

10. Contact

Cove is operated by Alexandre Bonnegarde-Delisle, micro-entrepreneur in France. For terms questions, refund requests, or anything else: alexandre.bonnegardedelisle@gmail.com.