Your own domain

Show your live site at your own address, like www.yourapp.com. You add the domain, add two records where you manage its DNS, and Gemmein checks them and sets up the secure connection (https) for you.

Add it

1. Add the domain. On the dashboard, open Domains and choose Add a domain. Type it without www (yourapp.com). Or ask your AI: it asks you to approve adding it, in your browser, with the code Gemmein emails and your authenticator code if you set one up.
2. Add the records. Where your domain's DNS is managed (usually the company you bought it from), add the two records the domain's page lists:

   Type	Name	Value	What it does
   TXT	_gemmein	The value on the domain's Records list	Proves the domain is yours
   CNAME	www	<slug>.gemmein.dev	Shows your live site at www.yourapp.com

3. Forward the bare domain. Most DNS providers can't put a CNAME on the bare domain (yourapp.com), so your site is shown at www.yourapp.com. To have yourapp.com open it too, turn on forwarding from yourapp.com to https://www.yourapp.com at the company you bought the domain from.
4. Wait for "Live at". Gemmein checks the records on its own and sets up the secure connection. The domain's page shows each step.

The domain's page gives you your DNS provider's own guide and the exact steps. Gemmein never holds a login or a key for your DNS. See Is your domain working?

How long it takes

Once the records are in, the secure connection is usually ready within a few minutes, sometimes up to an hour. A DNS change reaches everyone once the old answer's cache time runs out; the domain check says how long that is for your domain. While a record is still waiting, the domain's page checks every minute; Check again looks at once.

What the domain's page says

What Gemmein checks

• That the domain is yours. The TXT record, before anything is shown there. Once proven, the domain stays yours while either the TXT record or the CNAME is there, so you can delete the TXT record after proving. Only when both are gone, on three checks in a row at least two hours apart, does the domain stop showing your site; Gemmein emails you, and the TXT record proves it again. Either record back before the third check resets the count. A check that can't reach DNS never counts.
• That it points at your site. The CNAME, about every 10 minutes while a domain is connecting and every few hours once it is live. Pointed elsewhere, it stops showing your site and reads Needs attention; pointed back, it comes back on its own.
• That nobody else holds it. A domain another app has already proven is refused, and the refusal is on your Logs.

Is your domain working?

On the domain's page, Check it now under Is your domain working? looks at what the internet sees. Ask your AI "is my domain set up right?" and it runs the same check (domain_check). Both answer in three parts:

• What's there now: the records at your domain, its www and _gemmein, as three public DNS services (Cloudflare, Google and Quad9) see them.
• What Gemmein needs: the ownership TXT record and, for your live site, the CNAME.
• Where it stands: proven or not, whether the live site is connecting, live, offline or needs attention, the secure connection, and the one record to change, in your DNS provider's own menu words. For example: "Change the CNAME record named www that says @ so it points to plantshop.gemmein.dev."

It also says how far a change has spread, such as "2 of 3 public DNS servers see the new record; the old one is cached for up to 40 minutes", so you know how long to wait. If public DNS can't be read at that moment, it says so; it never reports a record as missing when it couldn't look.

Setting it up at your provider. The domain's page and your AI (domain_connect_link) give you your DNS provider's own guide and the exact steps, in its own menu words. A one-click link, where you sign in at your provider, see every record and approve there, is offered only where Gemmein has switched one-click setup on; open it yourself, straight away. The bare domain and subdomains such as shop.yourapp.com are set up by hand. Gemmein never holds a login or a key for your DNS, and never changes your DNS itself.

Each check and each link is on your Logs. The limits:

It only ever looks at a domain already added to this app. A domain that belongs to another app, or was never added, is refused and nothing is looked up.

Where buyers land after paying

Once your domain shows the site, a buyer returns there after paying. Before that, they return to <slug>.gemmein.dev.

Removing a domain

Choose Remove on the domain's page; it asks first. Or ask your AI, and approve it in your browser with the code Gemmein emails and your authenticator code if you set one up. The domain stops showing your site first, then its email (if it sends your app's email) goes with it. Nothing is deleted at your DNS provider; remove the records there when you're ready.

What happens if…

The dashboard's guide to the page: Domains. Sending your app's email from the same domain: Sending domain and senders.

Start

Your site comes first: Your site. New to Gemmein? Connect your AI, or start building.