API Terms
Effective Date: August 16, 2026
These API Terms (“API Terms”) are Exhibit C to the Terms of Service (“Agreement”) between Customer and Berkman LLC (“Berkman,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern access to and use of the Lextree Customer API and the Lextree MCP server, as provided in Section 3.4 of the Agreement.
Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Agreement.
If these API Terms conflict with the Agreement on a matter of API usage, these API Terms control. On all other matters, the Agreement governs.
1. Definitions
“API” means the Lextree Customer API served under /api/v1, the MCP Server, and any related endpoints, schemas, tools, and software Berkman makes available for programmatic access to the Platform, together with the API Documentation.
“API Documentation” means the reference material Berkman publishes for the API, including the interactive reference served with the API and the API sections of the Documentation.
“API Key” means a credential Berkman issues through the Platform that authenticates requests to the API on behalf of Customer’s subscription.
“MCP Server” means the Model Context Protocol server Berkman makes available, whether hosted by Berkman or run by Customer from a Berkman-provided image, that exposes API endpoints as tools an AI assistant or other MCP-compatible client can call.
“Application” means any software, script, integration, AI assistant, or other client that Customer or a person acting for Customer uses to access the API.
2. Access and Eligibility
2.1 Plans
The API is available on the Subscription Plans identified in the Documentation. Berkman may change which Subscription Plans include the API, and on what terms, as described in Section 3.2 of the Agreement.
2.2 Who May Use the API
Customer may use the API only through its Account, for the subscription that issued the API Key. Customer may permit its Authorized Users and its contractors and service providers to use the API on Customer’s behalf, provided each is bound by written obligations at least as protective as the Agreement and these API Terms. Customer is responsible for their acts and omissions as if they were Customer’s own.
2.3 Read-Only Access
The API currently provides read-only access to Customer Data. Nothing in these API Terms obligates Berkman to provide write access, additional endpoints, or any particular feature. If Berkman adds capabilities in the future, these API Terms will apply to them unless Berkman publishes different terms for those capabilities.
3. API Keys
3.1 Issuance
Administrators of Customer’s Account create and revoke API Keys through the Platform. Berkman displays each API Key once, at creation. Berkman cannot retrieve a lost API Key; Customer must create a new one.
3.2 Scope of an API Key
An API Key is scoped to Customer’s entire subscription, not to an individual person. It is not subject to the per-user access groups and permissions that apply to Authorized Users in the Platform. A request made with an API Key can read any Customer Data in every module enabled for Customer’s subscription, including records that a particular Authorized User could not see in the application. Customer decides who holds an API Key and what Applications use it, and accepts that consequence.
3.3 Security of API Keys
API Keys are Berkman’s Confidential Information and Customer’s credential. Customer will:
(a) store API Keys securely and treat each API Key with the care Customer would give an administrator’s credentials;
(b) not publish API Keys, embed them in client-side or publicly distributed code, or share them with anyone other than persons permitted under Section 2.2;
(c) revoke any API Key Customer no longer needs or suspects has been exposed; and
(d) notify Berkman at team@lextree.ai promptly after discovering any unauthorized use of an API Key.
Customer is responsible for all activity conducted with its API Keys, whether or not authorized by Customer, until Customer revokes the API Key. Berkman may revoke or suspend an API Key without notice if Berkman reasonably believes it has been compromised or is being used in violation of the Agreement or these API Terms.
4. Permitted Use
Subject to the Agreement and these API Terms, Berkman grants Customer a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right during the Subscription Term to access the API and to develop and operate Applications that use the API for Customer’s internal business purposes, including:
(a) synchronizing, reporting on, or backing up Customer Data in Customer’s own systems;
(b) integrating Customer Data with other software Customer uses; and
(c) connecting AI assistants and other MCP-compatible clients to Customer Data through the MCP Server.
Customer will use the API in accordance with the API Documentation.
5. Restrictions
Customer will not, and will not permit any person to:
(a) sell, resell, rent, lease, or otherwise make API access or API Keys available to third parties, or offer a service whose primary function is to provide access to the API or Customer Data retrieved through it to persons who are not Customer’s Authorized Users;
(b) use the API to build, train, or improve a product or service that competes with the Platform;
(c) circumvent or attempt to circumvent rate limits, concurrency limits, authentication, plan gating, or other technical restrictions, including by using multiple API Keys or subscriptions to multiply Customer’s allowance;
(d) access or attempt to access data that does not belong to Customer’s subscription, or probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the API without Berkman’s prior written consent;
(e) interfere with or disrupt the API or the systems that serve it;
(f) remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notices in the API or API Documentation;
(g) use the API in violation of applicable law, the Acceptable Use Policy, or the rights of any person; or
(h) misrepresent an Application’s identity or origin, or represent that Berkman sponsors or endorses an Application without Berkman’s written consent.
6. Rate Limits and Fair Use
Berkman applies rate limits, concurrency limits, and an abuse threshold to the API. The current limits are published in the API Documentation, and every response carries headers describing Customer’s remaining allowance. Requests that exceed a limit may be queued briefly or rejected with a 429 Too Many Requests response and a Retry-After header. Applications must honor those signals and back off; repeated failure to do so is a violation of these API Terms.
All of Customer’s API Keys, and all traffic through the MCP Server, share one allowance per subscription. Berkman may change the limits, or throttle or restrict Customer’s access, to protect the stability, security, or fair use of the Platform for all customers. Berkman will make reasonable efforts to publish changes to the limits in the API Documentation in advance.
7. MCP Server and AI Clients
7.1 What the MCP Server Does
The MCP Server is a forwarder: each tool call becomes a request to the API using Customer’s API Key, and it inherits the same authentication, subscription scope, read-only guarantee, rate limits, and error contract. Customer may use the MCP Server hosted by Berkman or run the Berkman-provided image on Customer’s own infrastructure. If Customer runs it, Customer is responsible for that deployment’s security and configuration.
7.2 Customer’s AI Provider
When Customer connects an AI assistant or other client to the MCP Server, Customer Data returned by the API is delivered to that client and, through it, to whichever AI model provider the client uses. That transmission is Customer’s decision and Customer’s instruction. Berkman does not select, contract with, or control Customer’s AI provider, and that provider is not a Berkman Sub-Processor under the Data Processing Agreement. Customer is responsible for:
(a) choosing an AI provider whose terms, security, and data-handling practices satisfy Customer’s own legal and contractual obligations, including obligations to the individuals whose personal data is in Customer Data;
(b) any processing, retention, or training on Customer Data that the AI provider performs; and
(c) all fees the AI provider charges.
Section 19.2(a) and (e) of the Agreement (Customer’s relationship with AI providers; no endorsement) apply to Customer’s AI provider under this Section as if it were an AI provider connected with Customer AI Keys.
7.3 AI Outputs
Sections 19.4 (No Guarantee of Accuracy) and 19.5 (Human Review Required) of the Agreement apply to any output an AI assistant produces from Customer Data retrieved through the API. The API returns Customer Data as stored in the Platform; Berkman is not responsible for how an AI assistant summarizes, interprets, or acts on it.
8. Customer Data Retrieved Through the API
8.1 Ownership
Customer Data retrieved through the API remains Customer Data, owned by Customer under Section 4.1 of the Agreement.
8.2 Copies Outside the Platform
Once Customer or its Application retrieves Customer Data, the copy exists outside the Platform. Berkman’s security measures, export tools, deletion tools, retention commitments, and the DPA apply to Customer Data in the Platform. They do not reach copies Customer has made. Customer is responsible for securing, retaining, and deleting those copies in accordance with Customer’s own obligations, including any Data Subject requests that concern them.
8.3 File Downloads
File download routes in the API resolve to short-lived, presigned storage URLs. Customer will request files through the API’s download route each time rather than storing, embedding, or redistributing presigned URLs.
9. Changes to the API
9.1 Additive Changes
Berkman may add endpoints, fields, filters, tools, and other capabilities to the API at any time without notice. Applications should tolerate additional fields and values in responses.
9.2 Breaking Changes
Berkman will give at least ninety (90) days’ notice before making a change that would break an Application that follows the API Documentation — such as removing or renaming an endpoint or field, or changing an existing field’s type or meaning — by publishing the change in the API Documentation and notifying Customer’s Account administrators. Berkman may make a breaking change on shorter notice, or without notice, where required to address a security vulnerability, comply with law, or prevent harm to the Platform or its customers.
9.3 Beta and Preview Features
Any API endpoint, tool, or feature that Berkman labels beta, preview, experimental, or similar is a Beta Service under Section 18 of the Agreement. Section 9.2 does not apply to Beta Services.
9.4 Retirement
Berkman may retire the API or a version of it. Berkman will give at least ninety (90) days’ notice before retiring the API version Customer is using, unless Berkman offers a replacement version and a migration path in the API Documentation, in which case Berkman will give at least ninety (90) days’ notice from the date the replacement is generally available.
10. Availability, Monitoring, and Support
10.1 Availability
Berkman makes the API available on the same basis as the Platform. Berkman does not commit to any specific API uptime or response time under these API Terms. Berkman may suspend or limit API access as provided in Sections 6.6 and 10.3 of the Agreement, or temporarily for maintenance, security, or to address a fault.
10.2 Monitoring
Berkman monitors API usage — including request counts, rate-limit events, and errors — to operate, secure, and improve the API and to enforce the Agreement and these API Terms. Berkman may make usage information available to Customer’s Account administrators.
10.3 Support
Berkman provides support for the API as part of the support included in Customer’s Subscription Plan. Berkman does not provide support for Customer’s Applications, Customer’s AI provider, or third-party MCP clients.
11. Intellectual Property
Berkman and its licensors own the API, the API Documentation, and any software Berkman provides for use with the API, including all improvements. Section 11 of the Agreement applies. Customer owns its Applications and its Customer Data. If Customer provides feedback about the API, Section 11.3 of the Agreement applies to that feedback.
12. Disclaimers and Liability
THE API IS PROVIDED SUBJECT TO THE WARRANTIES, DISCLAIMERS, AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY IN SECTIONS 13 AND 14 OF THE AGREEMENT, WHICH APPLY TO THE API AS PART OF THE PLATFORM. WITHOUT LIMITING THOSE SECTIONS, BERKMAN DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE API WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH ANY PARTICULAR APPLICATION, AI ASSISTANT, OR AI PROVIDER, OR THAT ANY OUTPUT AN AI ASSISTANT PRODUCES FROM CUSTOMER DATA WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. Berkman’s total liability arising from the API is included in, and does not add to, the limits in Section 14 of the Agreement.
Customer’s indemnification obligations under Section 15 of the Agreement extend to claims arising from Customer’s Applications, Customer’s AI provider, and Customer’s use of Customer Data retrieved through the API.
13. Term, Suspension, and Termination
13.1 Term
These API Terms apply for as long as Customer has access to the API under the Agreement.
13.2 Suspension
Berkman may suspend Customer’s API access, or specific API Keys, without liability if Berkman reasonably believes Customer or an Application is violating these API Terms, threatening the security or stability of the Platform, or using the API in a way that exposes Berkman to legal risk. Berkman will notify Customer and, where practicable, give Customer an opportunity to cure before suspending.
13.3 Effect of Termination
When the Agreement ends, or Customer’s Subscription Plan no longer includes the API, all API Keys stop working and Customer’s rights under Section 4 end. Customer will stop using the API and delete or securely destroy any API Keys. Copies of Customer Data Customer retrieved before termination remain Customer’s, subject to Section 8.2. Sections 3.3, 5, 7.2, 8, 11, 12, and 13.3 survive.
14. Changes to These API Terms
Berkman may update these API Terms as described in Section 9 of the Agreement. Berkman will post the current version at lextree.ai/legal/api-terms and update the effective date above.
These API Terms are Exhibit C to the Terms of Service. If you have questions about the API or these API Terms, contact us at team@lextree.ai.