Terms

Part one — this website

This site is published by Meridian Intelligence Pvt. Ltd., trading as The Quiet Loop. Content is provided for general information. It is not advice, and no professional relationship is created by reading it or by sending an enquiry.

Written content belongs to Meridian Intelligence Pvt. Ltd.. You are welcome to quote from it with attribution and a link. Please do not republish whole articles.

No prices are published on this site. Any figure indicated before a written proposal — in conversation, by email, or in an assessment report — is indicative only, current when given, and is not an offer capable of acceptance. The price for your work is the one in your written proposal.

Part two — engagements

These are the standard terms. Each engagement has a written proposal which takes precedence where the two differ. Nothing starts until a proposal is agreed in writing.

Scope

The proposal states what will be built, what is explicitly excluded, and what "complete" means. Work outside that scope is quoted separately rather than absorbed silently or billed as a surprise.

Intellectual property

On payment, all IP in the deliverables assigns to you — source code, documentation and outputs. You may modify, distribute and resell it, and where you are an agency you may assign it onward to your own client.

Two carve-outs, both standard. Pre-existing general-purpose tooling and libraries used to build your deliverable remain ours, and you receive a perpetual, irrevocable licence to use them as part of it. Third-party open-source components remain under their own licences, which will be listed at handover.

General skills, techniques and know-how are not transferred by this or any engagement. Nothing specific to you is reused elsewhere.

Confidentiality

Your information is confidential permanently, not for a fixed term. It is not disclosed, not used for anyone else, and not published in any form. No client is named on this site or anywhere else, and case studies carry no names, no identifying detail and no figures.

An NDA is available on request and can be signed before you share anything.

Your data and credentials

Access is read-only wherever the work allows it, and least-privilege otherwise. Credentials are revoked at the end of the engagement and that is confirmed to you in writing. Copies of your data taken for the work are deleted on completion unless you ask for them to be retained.

Fees and invoicing

• Consulting engagements (time & materials) — a weekly timesheet and a weekly invoice.
• Fixed-scope projects — as set out in the proposal, typically part on agreement and the balance on delivery.
• Process assessments — the fixed fee, invoiced on delivery of the report.
• Retainers — monthly in advance.

Invoices are payable within 14 days. Taxes applicable in your jurisdiction are additional and shown separately. All amounts are in USD unless the proposal says otherwise.

Cancellation

Consulting and retainer work can be stopped at any week boundary, by either side, for any reason. No notice period, no termination fee. You owe only hours already worked, and you receive everything produced to that point.

Fixed-scope projects cancelled part-way are invoiced for work completed to date, and that work is delivered to you.

Defects

Deliverables are covered for a defect period stated in the proposal — 30 days unless agreed otherwise. Within it, anything that does not do what was agreed is fixed at no charge. This covers defects, not changes of mind or new requirements, which are quoted normally.

What is not undertaken

• Financial, investment, trading, legal, tax or accounting advice — see the disclaimer.
• Custody of funds or assets, or holding withdrawal-enabled credentials.
• Operating live systems on your behalf unless separately agreed in writing.
• Work that would breach a third party's terms of service, evade access controls, or infringe another party's rights.

Liability

Work is performed with reasonable skill and care. To the extent permitted by law, total liability arising from an engagement is limited to the fees paid for it. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profits or lost data, except where liability cannot lawfully be excluded.

Automated systems require monitoring and periodic review. Responsibility for how a delivered system is operated, and for reviewing the exceptions it reports, passes to you at handover.

Governing law

Engagements are governed by the laws of India and subject to the jurisdiction of its courts, unless the proposal specifies otherwise. For clients in other jurisdictions this is negotiable and is agreed before work begins rather than argued about afterwards.

Questions

Anything unclear here is worth asking about before you engage rather than after —[email protected].