How is a user guaranteed to maintain continuous, unrestricted administrative control over the final deployed website—including the ability to move it off the Abacus AI platform—even if their subscription lapses or they hit unpredictable "compute point" usage limits? (Focuses on the long-term control, portability, and independence of the customer's intellectual property versus the platform's constraints).

The ability for a user to maintain continuous, unrestricted administrative control over an AI-generated website, including the power to achieve full portability (moving it off the platform) after subscription lapses or compute credits are spent, is not guaranteed on proprietary AI platforms like Abacus AI. Instead, it is highly restricted by a strategic set of technical, legal, and economic constraints that constitute vendor lock-in.

The only way a user could have an absolute guarantee of unrestricted administrative control and portability is if the platform were based on an Open-Source model with a permissive license (like MIT or Apache 2.0) that explicitly releases the generated source code to the customer. Absent that, the following non-negotiable constraints apply:

1. The Core Constraint: Denial of Source Code Portability

The primary mechanism that prevents a customer from maintaining unrestricted control is the platform’s refusal to release the actual, runnable source code of the entire application stack.

A. Proprietary Code and Runtime Environment (The Black Box)

The AI agent, such as DeepAgent, generates code that is tightly coupled to the Abacus AI ecosystem.

• Proprietary Dependencies: The generated website code is likely interwoven with calls to Abacus AI’s internal APIs, proprietary libraries, and managed services (e.g., for authentication, database interaction, serverless functions). If you were to download the code, it would be unable to connect to the necessary backend services to run independently.

• The Hosting Requirement: The customer purchases a finished product hosted on the Abacus AI cloud. The "compute credits" pay for the AI's generation time and the use of the proprietary infrastructure, not the purchase of the underlying intellectual property (IP) and environment necessary to run the site elsewhere. The DeepAgent is an internal tool, and its output is designed to run only within its native environment.

B. The Output vs. Code Ownership Distinction

The customer's ownership is typically limited to the creative output and the data, not the means of production or execution.

• IP of the Output: The terms likely state the customer owns the IP of the content, text, and images on the site (the Output Content). They may even be assigned ownership of the generated code if any rights exist, as AI-generated works often lack legal copyright protection.

• IP of the Platform: However, the vendor retains full ownership of the generative models, the proprietary CMS, the DeepAgent architecture, and the execution environment. Releasing the full source code would expose these protected assets and trade secrets. This denial of the runnable source code is the non-negotiable restriction that prevents portability.

2. Constraints from Subscription and Compute Limits

The use of "compute points" and a recurring subscription directly ties the administrative control of the website to an ongoing payment.

A. Administrative Access is a Service Feature

The "fully editable backend" the customer uses is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) provided as part of the active subscription.

• Subscription Lapse: If the subscription lapses, the vendor will typically revoke the platform access. This means the customer loses access to the editable CMS/backend—the primary administrative tool. The website may remain live for a grace period, but the ability to update, modify, or add custom details is immediately lost because the administrative interface is gone.

• Compute Point Limitations: Usage limits (the "compute points") relate to the resource-intensive tasks, such as generating new code, re-training a feature, or generating new media. Once these are depleted, the customer's ability to drive major custom changes using the AI is suspended, forcing them to wait for the next billing cycle or purchase more credits, thus maintaining platform dependence.

B. The Data Portability Misdirection

While a vendor may promise data portability, this is not the same as website portability.

• Portable Data: The customer can usually export their raw data (e.g., user lists, content text, product details) in a standard format like CSV or JSON.

• Non-Portable Application: The application logic, theme, database schemas, and custom components generated by the AI are not easily exportable in a portable, runnable format. The customer can take their data, but they must rebuild the entire application on a new platform. This time-consuming and expensive rebuild is the core of the lock-in strategy.

3. Loss of Administrative Control Upon Termination

The lack of an explicit Termination and Exit Strategy clause guaranteeing full, runnable source code release upon non-renewal means control is permanently surrendered.

A. The "Exit Fee" Analogy

The absence of a free, open-standard export feature means the customer's de facto exit fee is the cost of paying a developer to reverse-engineer and rewrite the entire application from the ground up, using the live site as a visual specification. This economic barrier guarantees continuous dependence on the vendor for maintenance and updates.

B. Administrative Downgrade

Upon termination, the customer's level of control drops from:

1. Full Platform Control: Access to the proprietary CMS, database interface, and deployment tools (while subscribed).

2. Zero Control: Access only to the publicly visible, static output of the website, which can no longer be edited, updated, or moved by the customer.

In summary, a user is not guaranteed continuous, unrestricted administrative control because Abacus AI retains the proprietary engine and runtime environment, which are necessary to power the site's back-end features and administrative interface. The subscription and compute points are the keys to accessing this controlled environment. The only path to independence is a complete rebuild of the application off-platform, demonstrating the successful enforcement of the vendor lock-in model.