ZAMBO.

Direct answer

Your portfolio is not a favour. Price it or keep it.

Buried in the contract, or raised as an afterthought once the work is done, the ask sounds small: please do not show this work anywhere. For the client it can feel like tidiness, secrecy, or control. For you it is the removal of your main sales asset. A portfolio piece is not vanity; it is the proof the next buyer checks before they ever write to you, and a job you cannot show is a job that sells nothing after it pays once. That does not mean never agree. It means treat the right like every other term with value: name what is actually being asked, separate secrecy from display, offer narrower shapes that protect the client's real concern, and charge for a full ban the way you would charge for any other scope the client adds. Here is the sort and the reply.

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Updated November 3, 2026. First published November 3, 2026. The two delivery records quoted below are real and public, with their client decision states read back from the live service on November 3, 2026.

Step 1. Find out which of three different asks this actually is

One sentence from a client can hide three very different requests, and they deserve three different prices. The first is confidentiality: the work itself is sensitive, unreleased, or tied to a launch, and showing it now would harm the client. That ask is about timing and content, and it is often legitimate. The second is anonymity: you may show the work, but not name the client, use their logo, or describe their business. That costs you the endorsement value but keeps the craft on display. The third is a total ban: no showing, no naming, no case study, ever, in any form. That is the expensive one, because it removes the work from your commercial life entirely. Ask one plain question before you answer: what exactly needs protecting, the work, the name, or the fact that we worked together at all. Half of total bans shrink to a delay or an anonymised showing once the real concern is named, because most clients were protecting a launch or a competitor's curiosity, not demanding your silence as a principle.

Step 2. Separate the work itself from the right to display it

Clients often assume that paying for work quietly includes controlling every later use of it, including yours. Keep the two ideas apart in plain words. Ownership and use of the deliverable for the client's own business is one term, agreed and priced in the job. Your right to show that you did the work, in your own portfolio, to win your next job, is a different term, and in most trades the default custom is that the maker can show finished work once it is public. A client who wants that default reversed is asking for an extra, and extras are priced or traded, never silently included. Saying this is not a legal argument and this page is not legal advice; it is a negotiating frame, and it works because it is fair on its face: the client keeps everything they paid to use, and you keep the one thing that keeps your business alive, unless they pay to take that too. Put whichever outcome you reach in the written agreement, in one sentence each side can find later, because portfolio fights almost always start months after delivery, when memories have already edited the conversation.

Step 3. Read the two states a finished job can sit in when display is argued later

A display dispute is settled by what the delivery record holds, not by who remembers the corridor conversation more confidently. The record format is AER-1, published as an IETF Internet-Draft (draft-zambo-aer1-26), and each step carries a verifiable receipt: a receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved. The two public records below show the states a delivery can carry:

Accepted: the decision is on the record

Pending: checked, and still waiting on a decision

An accepted record, 4 of 4 steps checked, decided_by client, release_hint ok_to_release, decided 2026-10-16T14:31:51.146Z in that example, is the portfolio entry in its strongest form even where public display is limited: a real client received step by step work, checked it, and accepted it on a date, and the link itself can be shown to a prospect under whatever limits the agreement sets. It proves the engagement happened and ended in acceptance, which is the part of a portfolio that actually sells. A pending record, 5 of 5 steps checked and release_hint hold, shows the gap to close before any display conversation: the work was checked but never decided, so settle the acceptance first. A client refusing acceptance and refusing display at the same time is keeping both doors shut, and that combination, named plainly, usually moves one of them.

Step 4. Offer the narrower shapes before you discuss a total ban

Most client concerns can be bought off with scope, not silence. A delay: nothing shown until the work is public, the launch lands, or a fixed number of months passes, stated as a date, not as someday. Anonymised display: the work shown with the client unnamed, the sector described in general words, numbers rounded or removed. A private portfolio: the piece shown only to prospects under a direct link, never indexed and never posted publicly, which answers the competitor worry for many clients. A partial showing: process and craft visible, the sensitive screens, figures, or copy held back by name. Price these shapes at zero or close to it when they genuinely protect the client, because goodwill here is cheap and buys the relationship. Reserve the real price for the real loss: the total, permanent, no exceptions ban. Naming the ladder in your reply also does quiet diagnostic work: a client who refuses every narrower shape is telling you the ask was never about protection.

Step 5. If a total ban is truly required, price it as its own line

A total ban has a real cost and you can reckon it without drama. A strong portfolio piece brings enquiries for years; removing a flagship job removes the enquiries that job would have carried, and removes your best answer to what have you done like this before for the life of the ban. So the ban, if you accept it at all, goes on the quote as a named line with a real number, the way rush work or extra scope does, agreed before the work starts and never conceded after delivery when your leverage is gone. Two protections ride with the price. First, the ban covers display, not existence: you may still name the engagement in a client list or a confidential reference conversation unless that too is separately agreed and separately priced. Second, the ban is written with its scope and end stated, because an unwritten understanding about showing work expands in memory until it covers things nobody agreed. If the client will not pay for the ban and will not accept a narrower shape, you have learned the value they place on the term, and the honest options are to decline the job or to take it knowing the full cost, eyes open, rather than discovering the cost at portfolio time.

Step 6. Build a portfolio that does not depend on any one client's permission

The durable defence is structural. Keep, for every job, a record that shows what was delivered and whether it was accepted, because that record is a portfolio asset in itself: prospects trust a checked and accepted delivery more than a polished screenshot, and you control the record even on jobs where display of the client's material is limited. Ask for display terms at the start of every engagement, while the agreement is being written anyway, so the clause is negotiated when both sides are friendly and nothing has been delivered yet. And keep a small stock of self directed or openly licensed work in the portfolio at all times, pieces no client can restrict, so one ban, however large the client, can never empty the shop window. A portfolio with several foundations wobbles when one is removed. A portfolio that is one flagship job deep falls over.

What a record does not settle

A verifiable receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved; it does not grant or remove a display right, interpret a contract clause, or replace advice on a real rights question. The written agreement, the delivery record, the acceptance, and the exact wording of any display limit are what a later conversation stands on. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

My client wants me to give up the right to show the work in my portfolio. Should I agree?

Not free, not by default, and not before you know which ask it is. Ask what needs protecting: the work itself, the client's name, or the fact of the engagement. A launch or secrecy concern is usually answered with a dated delay. A naming concern is answered with anonymised display. A private link shown only to prospects answers the competitor worry for many clients. A total, permanent ban is different: it removes your main sales asset for the life of the ban, so it belongs on the quote as a named, priced line, agreed before the work starts, with its scope and end written down. If the client refuses every narrower shape and will not pay for the ban, the honest choices are to decline the job or to take it knowing the full cost. Never concede a ban after delivery for nothing; that is when your leverage is lowest and the cost is already locked in.

The clause is already in the contract they sent. Can I push back on one clause?

Yes, and single clause pushback is normal business, not confrontation. Reply in writing on that clause alone: you can accept the confidentiality the client needs, and you propose the shape that delivers it, a delay until the work is public or anonymised display, instead of a blanket ban. Quote the replacement sentence you would sign, short and complete, so the client can accept it by saying yes rather than by redrafting their own document. Where the contract is a standard template, expect the clause to be unexamined boilerplate rather than a considered demand; templates ban everything by default because nobody priced the ban. The fix is the same in both cases: a named concern, a narrower sentence, and a price for anything total that remains.

Can I show the work if the client never said anything about it?

In many trades the working custom is that a maker may show finished work once the client has made it public, but custom is not a contract term and this page is not legal advice. The safe practice is to settle it in writing before the job starts, one sentence in the agreement covering display, naming, and any delay, so the question never has to be argued from custom later. While you work, keep two habits that protect you either way: never display anything the client has not yet made public, and never display material the client shared with you in confidence to do the job, drafts, data, internal documents, which are theirs in a way the finished public work is not. If the agreement is silent and the relationship matters, ask before the first posting; a short yes on the record is worth more than a strong opinion about custom.

They say showing the work would help their competitors. Is that a fair concern?

Sometimes, and the answer is to scope the showing to the craft, not the secrets. Offer the shapes that separate the two: the finished public facing work with strategy, figures, and internal material removed; an anonymised version where the sector is described in general words; a delay long enough that the competitive value of the details has decayed; or a private link for prospects only, never posted or indexed. What a competitor can actually learn from a portfolio piece is usually how well you execute, which is exactly what you need prospects to learn too, and that shared interest is the ground the compromise stands on. If the work itself is genuinely a trade secret in its visible form, that is the rare case where a ban can be justified, and it is exactly the case where the ban should be priced like the asset it removes.

How do I keep a portfolio proof for a job I cannot display?

Keep the delivery record as the entry. When the work runs through Zambo, every step carries a verifiable receipt under AER-1, published as IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26, and the handover shows what was delivered, that the client checked it, and whether they accepted it, so even a display limited job leaves you a checkable proof of the engagement to show a prospect within whatever limits you agreed. New users get 20 calls and 1 wrap-up free every day, and picking up work in another AI is always free. For $0.99, deliver the next job that way and let the record stand as the portfolio proof that survives a display limit: get the Day Pass. A Day Pass is unlimited for 24 hours, no subscription. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month or $290 a year, and $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders, which adds private handover links, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON files.

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