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Engagement terms

How working together actually works

The commercial detail in one place, so nothing has to be discovered at signing.

  • Who you contract with: Daniyal, trading as AgenticCore, an independent contractor based in Karachi, Pakistan. It is not a registered company. One person, one contract, no agency layer.
  • Scope: every engagement is fixed-scope and fixed-price, agreed in writing before the first invoice. Small changes inside that scope are absorbed. Anything that adds a new surface gets a one-page change note with cost and timeline impact, which you approve before work starts.
  • Timeline: Systems Audit 5 working days · Pilot Build 3 weeks · Full System 6 weeks, measured from the day access and inputs are in place. Delays on either side are noted in writing with a revised date.
  • Payment: the Systems Audit is invoiced after the report is delivered, nothing upfront. On Pilot Build and Full System: 40% at kickoff, 30% at the mid-point demo, 30% on delivery. Invoiced in USD, paid by bank transfer via Wise or Payoneer, Net 7 on each milestone invoice. No cryptocurrency. Prefer escrow? I will run the engagement through Escrow.com at my own cost, so money only releases on accepted milestones.
  • Acceptance & the final milestone: if the agreed deliverable is not running in your environment by the agreed date, the final 30% is not payable. Each milestone hands over working code in your repository, so you never pay for something you cannot see running.
  • Ownership & IP: you own 100% of the code and IP from the first commit. Everything lives in your GitHub and your cloud accounts under your keys, from day one, not after final payment. I retain only the right to describe the work in my portfolio, and not at all if you'd prefer it stays private.
  • Out of scope by default: full brand or design systems, native mobile apps, content production, paid-ads work, and 24/7 on-call. Functional interfaces for the AI systems I build are included; a complete visual identity is not.
  • Running costs: model tokens, hosting, database and eval tooling run on your own vendor accounts and are billed by those vendors directly. I never mark them up, and I size them with you before we start, typically $30–80/month for a pilot-scale system, more as usage grows.
  • Support after delivery: 30 days on Pilot Build, 90 days on Full System, bug fixes, prompt tuning and deploy help, no hourly billing. After that: an optional $1,500/month retainer, cancellable any time, or take it in-house at zero cost using the runbook, ADRs and CI/CD handed over on delivery day.
  • Continuity: I am one person, so continuity is engineered rather than promised: your repo, your cloud, written ADRs, CI-driven deploys and a maintained runbook mean another engineer can take over without me. If I am unavailable for more than five working days I tell you immediately and pause invoicing.
  • Confidentiality & paperwork: send me a mutual NDA before sharing anything sensitive and I'll sign it, or ask and I'll provide a standard one. A DPA where personal data is involved, and a W-8BEN if you're US-based. Your own MSA or vendor forms are welcome, send them over and I will review and sign.
  • Cancellation: either side can stop between milestones. You pay for milestones already accepted, keep everything delivered so far, and there is no exit fee or lock-in.
  • Jurisdiction: by default engagements are governed by the laws of Pakistan, but if your procurement requires your own jurisdiction I will sign under it, disputes resolved first by good-faith discussion.
  • Sample contract: the exact clause text is available before you sign, ask for it in your first message and it comes back the same day.

Questions about any of this? Email daniyal@agenticcore.tech — I reply within one business day.