Beta Terms & Data Use

Who runs AstroFetch

AstroFetch is developed and operated by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) / Caltech-IPAC as a research prototype. It is not a NASA product and is not part of the official NASA Exoplanet Archive interface.

What this beta is

AstroFetch is an AI-powered conversational interface to astronomical data archives. You ask questions in natural language; the agent writes ADQL, runs queries against TAP services, and returns tables, plots, and follow-up analysis. It is experimental software. Outputs may be wrong, incomplete, or misleading and must be verified before being used in research or publications.

Data we collect

• Your name and email address (from Google or ORCID sign-in).
• Your institution and career level (from the signup form).
• Timestamps for your acceptance of these terms.
• Every chat message: your prompts, the agent's responses, the ADQL it executed, the rows returned by the archive, plots, code that ran in the sandbox, and code outputs. Chats are kept indefinitely while the beta is active.
• Token usage and cost data per request, used for billing reconciliation and capacity planning.
• Star ratings and free-text feedback you submit through the rating widget.
• Standard server-side request logs (timestamps, status codes, IPs). These are kept for ~30 days for debugging and security.
• Aggregate page-view analytics via Google Analytics 4 on the homepage, FAQ, Beta Terms, and signed-in chat interface. GA4 records page loads and basic browser context (referrer, browser, approximate country) but does not see your prompts, the model's responses, or any chat content. The admin pages do not load analytics.

Where chat data goes

When you send a prompt, the conversation history (system prompt, prior turns, your new prompt) is sent to Anthropic's commercial API so the model can generate a response. Per Anthropic's commercial terms, your prompts and the model's outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. If you bring your own API key, requests go through your own Anthropic account on the same commercial-terms basis.

AstroFetch is hosted on Amazon Web Services in the United States. Database backups (full chat data) are retained on AWS infrastructure during the beta.

ADQL queries are forwarded to the relevant archive's TAP endpoint (currently the NASA Exoplanet Archive). Each archive has its own privacy and acceptable-use policy.

How we use this data

• To operate the service: storing your chats so you can return to them, scoring quality from feedback, and tuning prompts and tools.
• To monitor cost and usage so the institutional API budget doesn't run out for everyone.
• To investigate issues reported by users or surfaced by low-rated responses.
• For research and publications about the system itself: aggregate or de-identified examples may appear in talks, papers, or technical reports. Identifiable content (your name, institution, or any directly attributable text) will not be published without your explicit consent.

Acceptable use

Do not use AstroFetch to harass others, generate harmful content, circumvent any archive's published terms or rate limits, attempt to extract content the model was not designed to surface, or issue abusive volumes of queries. Accounts that violate these terms may be suspended.

No warranties

AstroFetch is provided as-is for beta evaluation. We make no guarantees about availability, accuracy, or fitness for any particular purpose. The service may change, go down, or be terminated at any time. Always verify outputs against the source archive before citing them.

Your rights

• You can request deletion of your account and all associated chat data at any time by emailing astrofetch-help@ipac.caltech.edu.
• You can withdraw from the beta at any time. Sign-out revokes your session; deletion removes your account and data.
• You can export your chats on request: email the address above and we will provide a JSON export of your chats within a few business days.

Changes to these terms

If material changes are made to these terms during the beta, this page will be updated and the change will be announced within the application. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else: astrofetch-help@ipac.caltech.edu.