Terms of Use

Last updated August 21, 2026

The service

On the Books provides plain-language summaries of, search over, and question-answering about municipal codes, drawn from each town's official published code and cited by chapter and section. It's a reference tool, offered as-is and as-available.

Not legal advice

Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Answers are generated with AI from the published code text and can be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. Codes are amended; towns differ in how quickly published text reflects amendments. For any decision that matters — building, buying, disputing a ticket, anything with money or rights attached — verify the cited section at the official source and consult your town clerk or a licensed attorney.

The Town Hall Pass

A Town Hall Pass is a personal license to ask up to 150 questions (at most 10 a day) and to use library-wide search without limit, for one year from purchase, for $5. It lives as a token in the browser you bought it in and isn't an account; it's for your personal use, not for resale, automated querying, or bulk extraction. Payments are processed by Stripe.

A Day Pass is the same license for 24 hours from purchase and up to 20 questions, for $2, paid once. A Pro Pass is the same license for 30 days from purchase, up to 400 questions (at most 40 a day), for $15, paid once. Day and Pro Passes do not renew. Question allowances do not carry over between passes. Buying a higher pass while an unexpired lower pass is active on the same device credits the full price paid for the lower pass against the higher one; the lower pass then ends (a Town Hall Pass subscription is cancelled without a further charge), and its remaining questions are not added to the new pass.

Refunds

If the pass didn't work as described, reply to your Stripe purchase receipt within 14 days of purchase and we'll make it right.

Fair use of the service

Don't abuse the service: no scraping the answer engine, no automated bulk queries, no attempts to disrupt it. We may rate-limit or block abusive traffic. The underlying municipal codes are public law; our summaries, structure, and interface are ours.

Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, On the Books is not liable for losses arising from use of the service, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the past twelve months.

Changes

We may update these terms; the date above reflects the current version. Continued use after a change means acceptance.