Legal
Service Level Agreement
Effective 31 May 2026
This SLA sets out the availability, support, and incident-communication commitments Yielde makes for the platform. It is subordinate to, and forms part of, the Yielde Terms of Service and, where applicable, the Data Processing Agreement.
1. Purpose, scope and relationship to other agreements
1.1 This SLA sets out the availability, support, and incident-communication commitments that Splice Computers (Pty) Ltd, trading as Yielde (the "Provider"), makes for the Yielde platform (the "Service") — the per-tenant AI automation workspace (automation workflows, supporting databases, the AI gateway, and the customer portal) supplied on a recurring subscription.
1.2 This SLA is subordinate to and forms part of the Terms of Service and, where the Customer processes personal information of its own end-users or leads through the Service, the Data Processing Agreement ("DPA") — the POPIA section 21 mandatory written operator contract. Where this SLA conflicts with the DPA on a data-protection matter, the DPA prevails. Where it conflicts with the Terms of Service on a commercial matter, the Terms of Service prevail unless this SLA is expressed to override them.
1.3 Data-protection roles.For personal information of the Customer's own end-users or leads processed through the Service, the Customer is the responsible party and Yielde is the operator under POPIA. Yielde is separately a responsible party for its own site, account, authentication, subscription, and billing data. This SLA does not alter those roles; it sits alongside the DPA, which governs them.
2. Definitions
- "Available" / "Availability"— the Service (the Customer's tenant workspace and portal) is reachable and able to execute workflows, excluding the events listed in section 7 (Exclusions) and section 6 (Maintenance windows).
- "Downtime" — a period during which the Service is not Available, measured per the monitoring method in section 4, excluding all section 6 and section 7 events.
- "Monthly Uptime Percentage" — (total minutes in the calendar month, less excluded minutes, less Downtime minutes) divided by (total minutes in the calendar month, less excluded minutes), expressed as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.
- "Service Credit"— a credit applied against a future invoice as the Customer's sole remedy for a missed Uptime Target, per section 8.
- "Business Hours" — 08:00–17:00 South African Standard Time (SAST, UTC+2), Monday to Friday, excluding South African public holidays.
3. Availability commitment (Uptime Target)
3.1 Uptime Target. The Provider will use commercially reasonable efforts to keep the Service Available for a Monthly Uptime Percentage of 99.0%(a "two-nines" target), measured per calendar month. This target is set conservatively to match the current single-node deployment; it will be tightened as high-availability infrastructure matures, not reduced.
3.2 No availability commitment for the pre-DPA cohort.Where a tenant is provisioned under an early pilot arrangement or otherwise without an executed DPA, this SLA's availability commitments and Service Credits do not apply unless expressly agreed in writing.
4. Measurement
4.1 Availability is measured per calendar month in SAST. Downtime is determined from the Provider's internal monitoring of the tenant workspace and portal endpoints (reachability and workflow-execution health checks at regular intervals). The Provider will act reasonably and in good faith in classifying Downtime and applying the section 6 and section 7 exclusions.
4.2 Excluded minutes are minutes attributable to section 6 (scheduled or emergency maintenance) and section 7 (exclusions), which are removed from both the numerator and denominator of the Monthly Uptime Percentage.
5. Support
5.1 Support channel. The Customer logs Support Requests by email to support@yielde.dev (or such other channel as the Provider designates in writing).
5.2 Severity levels and target response times."Response" means a first substantive human acknowledgement that the request has been received and triaged. These are response targets, not resolution or restoration guarantees.
| Severity | Description | Target first response |
|---|---|---|
| S1 — Critical | Service wholly unavailable for the tenant; no workflows can run; a suspected or confirmed security compromise affecting personal information (also triggers section 9). | Within 8 Business Hours of a correctly logged request. |
| S2 — High | Major feature or a key workflow broken; significant degradation; no reasonable workaround. | Within 2 Business Days. |
| S3 — Normal | Minor issue, single workflow affected, a reasonable workaround exists, or a question. | Within 3 Business Days. |
| S4 — Low | Cosmetic issue, documentation query, or feature request. | Within 5 Business Days, on a best-efforts basis. |
A suspected security compromise also engages the immediate operator-to-customer notification duty under POPIA section 21(2) via section 9; that duty is not limited to Business Hours and is not capped by the S1 response target.
5.3 Customer responsibilities for support. The Customer must provide reasonable detail (affected workspace, time, symptoms, steps to reproduce) and a single named contact. Response targets run from receipt of a correctly logged request with sufficient detail to triage.
5.4 Support scope.Support covers the Service as supplied. It excludes the Customer's own workflow logic and content; third-party services the Customer connects; issues caused by the Customer's misuse or unauthorised modification; and the section 7 excluded events.
6. Maintenance windows
6.1 Scheduled maintenance.The Provider may perform scheduled maintenance during a standard maintenance window of Sundays 22:00–02:00 SAST. The Provider will use reasonable efforts to give at least 48 hours' notice of scheduled maintenance likely to cause Downtime. Time within a properly notified scheduled maintenance window is excluded and does not count as Downtime.
6.2 Emergency maintenance. The Provider may perform emergency maintenance without prior notice where reasonably necessary to preserve the security, integrity, or stability of the Service (consistent with the POPIA section 19(2) duty to keep safeguards continually updated). The Provider will notify the Customer as soon as reasonably practicable. Emergency maintenance time is excluded.
7. Exclusions (no Downtime, no Service Credit)
The following do not count as Downtime and do not entitle the Customer to a Service Credit:
7.1 Force majeure.Events beyond the Provider's reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disaster, fire, flood, war, civil unrest, government action, pandemic, strikes, load-shedding or national/regional power-grid failures, and large-scale internet or telecommunications failures.
7.2 Customer-caused unavailability.Any unavailability caused by the Customer's acts or omissions; the Customer's or its end-users' equipment, software, network, or connectivity; the Customer's workflow configurations or content; the Customer's breach of the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy; the Customer's exhaustion of usage credits or failure to pay (including suspension for non-payment); or use of the Service outside its documented limits.
7.3 Third-party sub-processor / upstream outages.Unavailability caused by a third-party sub-processor or upstream provider outside the Provider's reasonable control, including AWS (af-south-1 / EC2); Supabase; the AI gateway path and the upstream LLM providers it routes to (OpenRouter and OpenAI / Anthropic, US-hosted); Retell (voice) and Twilio (telephony); Resend (email); Vercel (hosting) and Cloudflare (DNS / access SSO); and Paystack (payments). This exclusion applies to outages only and does not exclude or dilute the Provider's data-protection obligations for those flows, which are governed by the DPA and our sub-processor register.
7.4 Other exclusions. Beta, preview, or experimental features; suspension or termination in accordance with the Terms of Service; and any availability commitment that, per section 3.2, does not attach.
8. Service Credits and remedies (sole remedy)
8.1 If the Provider fails to meet the Uptime Target (section 3.1) in a calendar month, the Customer may claim a Service Credit calculated on the recurring monthly subscription fee (excluding usage/metered charges and once-off fees) for the affected tenant:
| Monthly Uptime Percentage | Service Credit (% of that month's recurring subscription fee) |
|---|---|
| At or above 99.0% | None (target met) |
| At or above 97.0% and below 99.0% | 5% |
| At or above 95.0% and below 97.0% | 10% |
| Below 95.0% | 15% |
8.2 How to claim. The Customer must request a Service Credit in writing within 30 days after the end of the affected month, with reasonable supporting detail. Credits not claimed within that window are waived. The Provider will validate the claim against its monitoring records, acting reasonably.
8.3 Cap.Total Service Credits in any single calendar month will not exceed 15% of that month's recurring subscription fee for the affected tenant.
8.4 Form of credit. Service Credits are applied against a future invoice (a reduction of the next subscription charge through Paystack, in ZAR). They are not a cash refund and have no cash value except as a credit.
8.5 Sole and exclusive remedy.Service Credits are the Customer's sole and exclusive remedy for the Provider's failure to meet the Uptime Target. This section does not limit either party's rights or obligations under the DPA or under POPIA (including the Provider's section 21(2) breach-notification duty and any statutory liability), which stand independently of, and are not capped or substituted by, Service Credits.
9. Incident and breach communication (POPIA)
9.1 Operational incidents. For S1 availability incidents (section 5.2), the Provider will keep the Customer reasonably informed of status and expected resolution through the support channel.
9.2 Security compromises (POPIA sections 21(2), 22).Where the Provider, as operator, has reasonable grounds to believe that personal information processed on the Customer's behalf has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, the Provider will notify the Customer (as responsible party) immediately, consistent with POPIA section 21(2). This duty is not limited to Business Hours and is not subject to the section 5.2 response targets or the section 7 exclusions. The Provider does not notify the Information Regulator or affected data subjects (that outward duty rests on the Customer as responsible party under POPIA section 22); the Provider will assist the Customer to make that notification.
9.3 Primacy of the DPA. The detailed breach-notification mechanics, timing, content requirements, and assistance obligations are governed by the DPA. This section is a signpost and tie-in only. Where this SLA and the DPA differ on breach communication, the DPA prevails.
10. Backups and data
10.1 The Provider takes regular backups of tenant data as described in the DPA and security documentation. On termination, data export and deletion are governed by the Terms of Service and the DPA.
11. Customer obligations
11.1 The Customer must keep its account credentials secure; use the Service in accordance with the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy; not exceed documented usage limits; keep a current technical and billing contact on file; and pay subscription fees when due.
11.2 The Customer remains the responsible party for the personal information it processes through the Service and is responsible for its own POPIA obligations to its data subjects, including its section 18 collection notices (which, where applicable, must disclose the cross-border processing by the US-hosted sub-processors in section 7.3), its lawful basis under section 11, and its outward section 22 breach notifications.
12. Liability
12.1 The Provider's liability under this SLA for any failure to meet the Uptime Target is limited to the Service Credits in section 8 (subject to section 8.5).
12.2 Nothing in this SLA limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded under South African law, including under POPIA and the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where it applies. The overall liability cap and exclusions in the Terms of Service apply to all other claims.
13. Changes to this SLA
13.1 The Provider may update this SLA on reasonable prior written notice. Material reductions in the commitments will take effect at the start of the next billing period after notice, unless a shorter period is required for security or legal reasons.
14. Governing law and contact
14.1 This SLA is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the South African courts. All monetary amounts are in South African Rand (ZAR) and billed via Paystack.
14.2 Contact: Splice Computers (Pty) Ltd, trading as Yielde · 55 York Street, George, Western Cape, 6529 · support@yielde.dev · 063 611 2952.