Publish and share

Custom domains

An app always lives at https://<name>.crow-nest.com. You can also put it on your own address, like booking.mybakery.com.

#Use a domain you own

1. Ask your AI to put the app on your address (the custom_domain tool), or open the app in the dashboard and go to Domains.
2. Add the DNS records it gives you at your domain's DNS provider. Usually that's one record:

If your domain is already on another Cloudflare account, you'll also get a TXT record to prove you own it.

1. Crow Nest checks every few minutes and issues a certificate. The domain goes from waiting for DNS, to waiting for the certificate, to live. A domain still waiting after 7 days is marked failed with the reason.

Rules for the hostname:

• It must be a subdomain with a name in front (booking.mybakery.com), not a bare domain (mybakery.com). To use a bare domain, buy it through Crow Nest (below).
• It can't be under crow-nest.com, and names that imitate well-known brands are refused.

Everything works the same on a custom domain: access checks, sign-in (which still happens on crow-nest.com and comes back), data and server code. Pages get a canonical link pointing at your domain.

#Put your website on Crow Nest

Your company's or your own website can live on Crow Nest at your domain. Ask your AI to publish it and put it on your domain; it follows these steps.

1. The site is published like any app, as public. To let search engines and AI assistants find it, also turn on aiDiscoverable (public apps are hidden from them by default).
2. If you don't have the domain yet, buy it through Crow Nest (below). The site is served on the bare domain (mybakery.com) with www redirecting to it, and there are no records to add.
3. If you already own the domain, connect www.mybakery.com (the bare domain can't be connected) and add the CNAME record for www shown above. Then, at your registrar or DNS provider, set up forwarding (often called "domain forwarding" or "URL redirect") from mybakery.com to https://www.mybakery.com.
4. Change only the www record and the forwarding. Leave your MX and TXT records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) alone: they carry your email.

If a site already lives at www, visitors move to the new one as soon as the record changes. A contact or booking form needs no backend: it saves to the app's database (see Data).

#Company domains

For companies and organizations, IT can set up one domain for every app, like expenses.apps.acme.com, so the people who build apps never touch DNS. Each app's address is its name on the company domain.

1. A company admin (or an organization's owner or manager) opens Company domain in the dashboard, or asks their AI (the company_domain tool), and enters a subdomain with at least three parts, like apps.acme.com.
2. They add two DNS records once, each with a copy button:

1. Crow Nest checks every few minutes, or when you press Check, and marks the domain live. If it's still waiting after 7 days it's marked failed and says which record is missing.

If you bought the domain through Crow Nest, it's live at once and there are no records to add.

Then every app in the company gets its address. With the default setting, every app gets one automatically, new apps on their first publish. With each app's owner turns theirs on, an app gets one when its owner (or an admin) switches it on, on the app's page.

• The app keeps its crow-nest.com address; both work, and pages on the company address have a canonical link to it.
• Access checks, sign-in, data and server code work the same as on any custom domain.
• If your own DNS is on Cloudflare, Cloudflare may ask for one extra TXT record per app. They're all listed together under Company domain, with copy buttons.
• A company domain can have up to 500 app addresses.
• An app loses its address when it's deleted, moved out of the company, or switched off. Removing the company domain removes every address on it.

Your AI sees an app's company address in the replies from publish, list_tools and share.

#Buy a domain through Crow Nest

Personal accounts can buy domains, and so can the owner and managers of an organization. Organization members ask one of them. Companies Crow Nest set up use their company domain, or email support@crow-nest.com to buy one through us.

1. Ask your AI to find a domain (the find_domain tool). It shows up to six options with the first-year and renewal prices.
2. Pick one. You're asked for the owner's contact details and to confirm the price; your card on file is charged. Your AI can never confirm a purchase for you.
3. Crow Nest registers it, creates its DNS, issues a certificate and, if you chose an app, serves the app on the bare domain with www redirecting to it. This sets itself up and usually takes a few minutes, sometimes a couple of hours.

Domains cost the registrar's price plus $1 a year and renew automatically each year with your card. To stop a renewal, press Cancel renewal on the domain in the dashboard's Domains page, or ask your AI; the domain keeps working until it expires, and Turn renewal back on undoes it. You're emailed 30 days before a renewal; if a renewal fails you get a link to fix the card, and it's retried daily. domain_status (or the dashboard) shows where a domain is: registering, DNS, certificate, live, and when it renews.

You can search up to 10 times a minute. If you search faster, you're told how many seconds to wait. When the registrar is busy, a result can say "check at purchase": the name looks free and the price is the usual one, but it is confirmed when you buy, and you're asked again if the price differs. If nothing can be shown, you're asked to try again in a minute.

A domain you bought stays yours, even if you delete your Crow Nest account.