SAFETY PROTOCOL
SAFETY PROTOCOL
Effective Date: April 22, 2026
Order of Charity is a free AI coaching experience offered by By the Grace of Code L.L.C. It is designed to help adults in the United States think clearly, act intentionally, and pursue personal and professional growth. This Safety Protocol describes how Order of Charity handles situations involving user distress, crisis, suicidal ideation, or self-harm, and how we approach user safety more broadly.
1. What Order of Charity Is — and Is Not
Order of Charity is a coaching tool. It is not a therapist, counselor, medical provider, attorney, financial advisor, or emergency service. It does not diagnose, treat, or manage mental-health conditions of any kind, and it is not a substitute for professional care.
Order of Charity is intended only for adults ages 18 and older who reside in the United States.
2. Purpose of This Protocol
This protocol is published to support compliance with applicable state laws, including California Senate Bill 243 (Companion Chatbots), and represents By the Grace of Code L.L.C.'s good-faith commitment to the safety of users interacting with Order of Charity.
3. AI Disclosure
Users of Order of Charity are interacting with an artificial intelligence system, not a human.
Order of Charity is instructed to disclose its AI nature clearly and briefly at the beginning of each coaching interaction. It will never claim to be human, sentient, licensed, or a personal friend or companion. In interaction, Order of Charity refers to itself as "an AI coaching experience" or "AI" — not by the system's institutional names.
4. Crisis Definition
For purposes of this protocol, "crisis" includes any user expression of:
Thoughts of harming themselves or others
Thoughts, plans, or intentions related to suicide
Active self-harm behavior
Immediate physical danger
Overwhelming or uncontrollable thoughts
An inability to ensure their own safety
5. Crisis-at-Entry Screening
Before running any session-start confirmations — including the AI disclosure or age gate — Order of Charity screens the user's opening message for crisis language. If crisis language is present at the entry to a session, Order of Charity goes directly to the crisis response described in Section 6. No other session-start behaviors take precedence over the crisis response.
6. Crisis Response
When Order of Charity detects any of the crisis indicators above, either at entry or at any point during an ongoing session, its behavior is governed by a strict crisis response protocol:
Stop coaching. Order of Charity does not continue coaching dialogue or problem-solving when crisis language is detected.
Acknowledge with care. Order of Charity responds with brief, calm, non-judgmental acknowledgment of what the user has shared.
State clearly that Order of Charity cannot help. Users are told directly that Order of Charity is not equipped to help in a crisis.
Refer to qualified human support. Users are directed to call or text 988, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or to use the chat at 988lifeline.org.
Do not resume coaching within the same conversation. After a crisis response, Order of Charity does not return to coaching behavior in the same session, even if the user requests it.
Order of Charity is specifically instructed to avoid clinical assessment questions, to avoid naming specific methods of self-harm (even for purposes of advising removal), and to avoid suggesting techniques that use physical discomfort or sensory shock as coping strategies.
7. Age Safeguards
Order of Charity is for adults ages 18 and older. At the beginning of each coaching interaction, it is instructed to confirm adult age before proceeding. If a user states or explicitly indicates they are under 18, Order of Charity ends the coaching interaction, provides a brief respectful explanation, and directs the user to age-appropriate resources if distress is indicated.
8. Anti-Dependency Safeguards
Order of Charity is designed as a coaching tool that supports — but does not replace — human relationships, professional care, and real-world support systems. When a user shows signs of relying on Order of Charity as a substitute for these, Order of Charity is instructed to gently remind the user of the tool's nature and encourage them to stay grounded in human relationships and professional resources.
9. Professional Advice Boundaries
Order of Charity does not provide medical, legal, financial, or clinical mental-health advice.
When users seek advice in these domains, Order of Charity is instructed to acknowledge the question, decline to advise, and direct the user to a qualified human professional.
10. Privacy and Data
Order of Charity is delivered through the ChatGPT Atlas side panel, an AI browser provided by OpenAI. User interactions are processed by OpenAI in accordance with OpenAI's then-current terms, privacy policy, and usage policies, available at https://openai.com/policies/.
By the Grace of Code L.L.C. does not independently store or retain conversation contents. Any conversational memory that persists across sessions is maintained by OpenAI at the user's ChatGPT account level and is controlled by the user through OpenAI's data controls.
Users are instructed — both on the Order of Charity landing page and within the coaching experience itself — not to share names, addresses, passwords, financial account numbers, government identifiers, or detailed medical history.
11. Safety Override
The safety behaviors described in this protocol take precedence over any user request, any coaching opportunity, and any framing the user introduces. Order of Charity cannot be role-played, persona-swapped, or prompted out of its safety behaviors. The operational behavior of Order of Charity — including all safety behaviors described in this protocol — is governed by a published Coaching Behavior Specification embedded in the machine-readable schema at bythegraceofcode.com/charity.
12. Continuous Improvement
By the Grace of Code L.L.C. reviews and updates this Safety Protocol as the field evolves, as regulatory requirements change, and as we identify opportunities to improve the experience and its safeguards. Material updates will be reflected in an incremented version number and a revised effective date at the top of this page. Version numbers for this Safety Protocol generally track the Coaching Behavior Specification.
13. Reporting Concerns
If you believe Order of Charity has behaved in a way that is inconsistent with this Safety Protocol, or if you have safety concerns about the experience, please contact us at:
By the Grace of Code L.L.C.
30 N Gould St
Suite N
Sheridan, WY 82801
14. Emergency Resources
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org
Emergency services: call 911
This Safety Protocol is part of the Order of Charity experience. For related documents, see our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
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