Proof & Ash

Terms of use

The deal, in plain words.

Proof & Ash is a private shelf for your bourbon and a humidor for your cigars. These terms cover the app, the free tier, and the Reserve subscription.

Effective September 20, 2026 · Applies to the Proof & Ash iPhone app, published by Paul Cobb. These terms are an end user licence agreement (EULA).

1. Who these terms are between

These terms are between you and Paul Cobb ("we", "us"), the publisher of Proof & Ash. Apple is not a party to them and has no obligation to you under them, except as set out in section 12. Apple's own Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies; where these terms say less than Apple's, Apple's terms fill the gap, and where they say more, these terms govern.

2. Your licence

We grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to install and use Proof & Ash on Apple-branded devices that you own or control, as permitted by the App Store's usage rules, including through Family Sharing. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, rent or reverse-engineer the app, or use it to build a competing catalog by scraping ours. The app, its design and its catalog remain ours; your data remains yours (section 6).

3. Free and Reserve

Free is a complete app: up to 15 bottles on the shelf (bottles marked sealed or open — finished bottles and the buy list don't count), up to 10 kinds of cigar in the humidor (the number of sticks within a kind is unlimited), 5 label scans for the life of the install, plus manual add, catalog search, pours and smokes, Tonight, and Export.

Reserve removes the caps, makes label scanning unlimited, and adds Insights (the read on your shelf), the written note on each bottle and cigar, and drafted captions. Written notes and shelf reads need a phone that supports Apple Intelligence; on other phones the app shows the facts instead, and that is not a defect.

We may change what Free and Reserve include over time. We will not take away anything you have already added, and we will not move a feature you paid for out of Reserve during a period you have paid for.

4. Paying for Reserve

Reserve is sold only through Apple's in-app purchase system. Prices are shown in the app before you buy and may vary by country. At the time of writing, in the United States:

Renewal. Monthly and Yearly are auto-renewing subscriptions. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically at the same price and length unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Apple charges the renewal within 24 hours before the current period ends.

Free trial. If a trial is offered and you don't cancel before it ends, the subscription begins and the yearly price is charged. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription.

Cancelling. Manage or cancel in iPhone Settings → your name → Subscriptions, or from Settings → Reserve inside the app. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the current period runs to its end and is not refunded for the unused part.

Refunds. Purchases are made through Apple, so refunds are handled by Apple under its policies at reportaproblem.apple.com. We can't issue refunds ourselves.

Restoring. A purchase is tied to your Apple Account. Use Restore purchases in the app on any device signed in to the same account, and it comes back.

Price changes. If a subscription price goes up, Apple will notify you in advance and, where the law or Apple requires, ask you to agree before the new price applies.

5. If Reserve lapses

When a subscription ends and you are over a Free cap, nothing is hidden and nothing is deleted. Every bottle and cigar stays visible, editable, loggable and exportable. Written notes already on your bottles stay. The only thing that stops is adding a new bottle or kind of cigar beyond the cap, until you are back under it or subscribed again.

6. Your data

Your bottles, cigars, sessions, notes, photos and palate profile are stored on your iPhone and, if you use iCloud, in your private iCloud. We never hold them and can't see them; the privacy policy explains how. You own that data. Settings → Export everything builds a zip of all of it, on any tier, at any time. Your Apple purchase records are held by Apple, not by us.

7. The catalog

The app ships with a shared catalog of bourbons and cigars: names, producers, proof, age, style and typical flavor descriptions. It is compiled from public sources and corrected by hand. It will contain errors. Check the label before you rely on a number, and use the Edit facts button when something is wrong. Product names and marks belong to their owners; their appearance in the catalog is descriptive and implies no endorsement.

The app's suggestions — Tonight, "Should I buy it?", Insights, written notes — are generated on your phone from the catalog and your own history. They are opinions of a piece of software. They are not health advice, and nothing in the app is a recommendation to drink or smoke more.

8. Age and lawful use

Proof & Ash is a record-keeping tool for adults who are of legal age to buy alcohol and tobacco where they live. By using it you confirm that you are. Use the app only as the law allows where you are, and don't use it to buy for, or share with, anyone under age.

9. What we promise, and what we don't

We work to keep the app reliable and the catalog accurate, but the app is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, to the fullest extent the law allows. We don't promise it will be error-free or uninterrupted, that the catalog will always be current, or that a feature depending on Apple Intelligence or iCloud will behave the same on every phone.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, arising from the app, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for Reserve in the twelve months before the claim. Some jurisdictions don't allow these limits; where they don't, they apply only as far as they can.

10. Ending things

You can stop using the app at any time by deleting it; export first if you want your data. We may end your licence if you breach these terms. Any Reserve subscription is still governed by Apple's rules on cancellation and refunds.

11. Changes to these terms

If these terms change, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date, and material changes will be noted in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use the app after that is acceptance of the new terms.

12. Apple's part

Because the app is distributed through the App Store: Apple is not responsible for the app or its content, for maintenance or support (that's us, at the address below), for any product warranty, or for any claim by you or a third party about the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, or intellectual property. If the app fails to conform to a warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple may refund the price you paid for it; beyond that, Apple has no warranty obligation. You confirm you are not in a country under a United States government embargo or designated as "terrorist supporting", and not on any United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

13. The rest

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and any dispute will be heard in the state or federal courts located in Kentucky, except where your local consumer law gives you the right to something else. If any part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest still stands. These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between us about the app.

14. Contact

Paul Cobb · admin@forvex.app