> Show a published collection at your own address, like help.yourcompany.com. A workspace admin adds it in the Publish tab, you add one DNS record, and Fieldwerk does the rest. Pro. # Put a published collection on your own domain Your published help centre, blog or view can live at your own address, such as help.yourcompany.com, instead of its Fieldwerk address. A workspace admin types the address into the collection's **Publish** tab, you add the one DNS record Fieldwerk shows at your DNS provider, and Fieldwerk checks it, sets up the secure certificate and tells you when the site is live. That usually takes under an hour. Custom domains are on Pro. Publish the collection first: see [Publish a collection as a read-only page](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/x1lutymwir.md). ## Who can add a custom domain - **Workspace admins** who can manage the collection add, check and remove its domain. - **Collection managers who aren't workspace admins** request one. Under **Custom domain** they type the address, add an optional note and click **Request**. The address then shows **Requested** until an admin decides. Every workspace admin is told in the bell and by email, and can **Approve** or **Decline** it in **Workspace settings** > **Domains**, in **Recommended actions**, or in the collection's own **Publish** tab. Approving adds the domain at once and tells the person who asked; then someone adds the DNS record as below. - The workspace must be on Pro, which includes 20 custom domains per workspace. A domain counts while it's attached to a collection, and a bare domain counts once with its www. The plan is checked only when a domain is added, so a domain that's already live keeps working if the workspace leaves Pro. - **Allow custom domains** must be on, in **Workspace settings** > **Domains**. It's on unless an admin turns it off. Off stops new domains and requests; domains already set up keep working until someone removes them. ## Before you start - **Publish the collection.** Until it's live, the field is greyed out with "Publish first, then add your own address." - **Pick a subdomain you own**, such as help.yourcompany.com or docs.yourcompany.com, and make sure you, or whoever runs your domain, can add DNS records for it. - **A bare domain works too, with its www.** yourcompany.com needs an A record instead of a CNAME, and www.yourcompany.com comes with it: Fieldwerk adds www for you and sends its visitors on to yourcompany.com, once you add a CNAME record for www as well. - **Some addresses can't be used:** wildcards (\*.yourcompany.com), IP addresses, and addresses on fieldwerk.ai, fieldmemo.io, vercel.app or vercel.com. - **One domain per collection.** To change it, remove the old one first. ## Add your domain 1. Open the collection, click **Collection settings** and choose the **Publish** tab. 2. Click the site's address above the preview to open **Address and access**. 3. Under **Custom domain**, type your address, such as help.yourcompany.com, and click **Add**. 4. Fieldwerk shows the record to add as a card, headed with its type, such as **CNAME record**. The card has the record's **Name** and **Value**, each with its own copy button. For a subdomain it's one CNAME record. For a bare domain it's two: an A record for yourcompany.com, and a CNAME record named `www` for www.yourcompany.com. Copy each value exactly as shown. It's set for Fieldwerk, so don't use a value from another guide. 5. If a **TXT record** card is shown too, add both. It appears when the domain is used on another Vercel account, and proves the domain is yours. 6. Sign in to your DNS provider (where your domain's DNS is managed, often the company you bought it from) and add the record: - **Type**: CNAME, A or TXT, as shown. - **Name**: what Fieldwerk shows, such as `help`. Most providers add your domain to the end for you; some want the full name, such as `help.yourcompany.com`. - **Value** (some providers say Target or Points to): paste the value you copied. **Help for your DNS provider**, at the bottom of the panel, links to the steps for Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Cloud DNS / Squarespace Domains, Route 53, Microsoft 365 / Azure, 1st Domains and Crazy Domains. 7. On Cloudflare, set the record to **DNS only** (the grey cloud), not proxied. Otherwise the certificate can't be issued. If your domain's DNS is on Cloudflare, Fieldwerk spots it and shows an **Open Cloudflare DNS** button, which opens your domain's DNS records in Cloudflare, with this tip and the next one beneath it. 8. If your domain has CAA records, add one that allows letsencrypt.org. It's safe to close the pane now. Fieldwerk keeps checking and emails you when the domain is live. ## What happens next The domain moves through these states, shown as a label beside it in the **Publish** tab and in **Workspace settings** > **Domains**: - **Waiting for DNS**: Fieldwerk hasn't found the right record yet, and says why, such as "No CNAME record found". - **Setting up certificate**: DNS is right and the secure certificate is on its way. This usually takes a few minutes. - **Live**: the site answers at your address. The domain becomes a link to the site. For its first 15 minutes it also says "Just went live. If the old page still shows, refresh; some networks take a few minutes." - **Not working**: the domain was live and has failed two checks in a row. See [If it isn't working](#if-it-isnt-working). Under a waiting domain, Fieldwerk shows when it last checked. A waiting domain is checked every few minutes for its first day, then every hour. Click **Re-check** to check straight away. DNS changes usually show within an hour and can take up to 48 hours. Until the domain is live, anyone who visits your address sees a plain "This site is being set up" page. The site shows there a few minutes after it goes live. When the domain goes live, every workspace admin, and whoever requested it, gets a bell notification and an email: "help.yourcompany.com is live". A domain still waiting after 7 days is let go. In its last two days it shows in **Recommended actions**, and when it's let go admins are told "We stopped waiting for help.yourcompany.com". Add it again whenever you're ready. To stop waiting sooner, open the **⋯** menu beside the domain and choose **Remove domain**. ## Once it's live - **The whole site is at your address**: the home page, every article or post, section and category pages, each page's Markdown copy, `llms.txt`, `robots.txt` and the sitemap, plus `feed.xml` for a blog. Their links use your address. - **The Publish tab shows your domain** as the site's address above the preview, and its copy and open buttons use it. In **Address and access**, the Fieldwerk address is listed under **Also at**. The domain's **⋯** menu has **Copy address**. - **The Fieldwerk address redirects** to the same page on your domain, so links already shared keep working. - **www goes to your bare domain.** For a bare domain, www.yourcompany.com sends visitors on to the same page on yourcompany.com. If its CNAME record isn't there yet, the **Publish** tab shows it under your live domain, with **Re-check**. - **Password and expiry still apply.** A visitor who entered the password on the Fieldwerk address enters it again on your domain. - **Nobody signs in on your domain.** Everyone, members included, sees what any visitor sees. - **A missing page** shows the site's own "Page not found" page, with your workspace's picture and a way back to the home page. - **Your own analytics** run on your domain only, never on the Fieldwerk address. On Pro, go to **Analytics** in the **Publish** tab, add a **PostHog project key** (with its region), a **Google Analytics measurement ID** or a **Mixpanel project token**, then make the change live. The label beside **Analytics** says whether they run: **On**; **Waiting for domain** while your domain is being set up; **Off** when there's no domain yet (with **Set up a domain**) or the site isn't published; or **Pro** if your plan doesn't include them. - **Fieldwerk keeps checking** a live domain every few hours. If it stops working, every admin is told in the bell and by email, it goes to the top of **Recommended actions**, and the site stays open at its Fieldwerk address while you fix it. ## Change or remove the domain - **Remove it**: in **Address and access**, or in **Workspace settings** > **Domains**, open the **⋯** menu beside the domain, choose **Remove domain**, then click **Remove** to confirm. It's detached at once: the site goes back to its Fieldwerk address, and your domain shows "This address isn't in use". A bare domain's www is removed with it. - **Then delete the record** at your DNS provider (for a bare domain, the www record too). Until you do, Fieldwerk keeps the name reserved for your workspace, so nobody else can point it at their own site. Once the record has stopped pointing at Fieldwerk for three daily checks in a row, the name is let go. Until then **Workspace settings** > **Domains** lists it under **Not in use**, and after 30 days **Recommended actions** reminds you the record is still there. - **Use it again in the same workspace**: add it to any collection. There's no wait. - **Move it to another workspace**: remove it here and delete the record. Once the name has been let go, add it in the other workspace. To skip the wait, contact Fieldwerk support. - **Switch to a different domain**: remove the old one, then add the new one. - **Unpublish the collection**: the domain stays attached, so nobody else can take the name, and your address shows "This site isn't published". Publish again and it's back. If a site stays unpublished or not working for 30 days, admins are reminded ("help.yourcompany.com isn't showing anything"), and again at 90 days. ## Have your AI assistant do it An assistant connected to Fieldwerk (see [Connect Claude to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/pz1hhc2mwy.md) or [Connect ChatGPT to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/exh83fg13f.md)) can do the same, and walk you through the DNS step: - `publish_collection` with `custom_domain` adds the address (workspace admins), or removes it with an empty string. Its `analytics` field sets the site's own analytics. The result lists the record to add. - `check_collection_domain` checks now and returns the status (`pending`, `verifying`, `active` or `misconfigured`), the reason and the records. `get_collection_sharing` reports the same under `custom_domain`. - `request_collection_domain` asks the workspace admins, for a collection manager who isn't one. - `list_workspace_domains` lists the workspace's domains and requests, answers a request with `decide`, and turns **Allow custom domains** on or off with `allowed`. `list_admin_actions` shows **Recommended actions**. ```prompt In Fieldwerk, put my published help collection on help.yourcompany.com and tell me exactly which DNS record to add. ``` ## If it isn't working - **"No CNAME record found"** (or "No A record found" for a bare domain): the record isn't there yet, or it's under the wrong name. If your provider adds the domain for you and you typed the full name, the record ends up at `help.yourcompany.com.yourcompany.com`. On Cloudflare, a proxied record (orange cloud) can look missing too: set it to **DNS only**. - **"CNAME points somewhere else"**: an older record for the same name is in the way, or the value isn't the one Fieldwerk showed. Delete any other CNAME, A or AAAA records for that name and paste the value again. - **"Another Vercel account uses this domain, add the TXT record"**: the domain is, or was, connected to another Vercel account. Add the TXT record Fieldwerk shows, as well as the CNAME. - **"This domain is already in use on Fieldwerk"**: another workspace has it, or it's waiting to be let go. If it's yours, contact Fieldwerk support. - **Stuck on the certificate for more than an hour**: on Cloudflare, check the record is **DNS only**. If your domain has CAA records, add one allowing letsencrypt.org. - **"This site is being set up" at your address**: the domain isn't live yet, or has stopped working. Check its state in the **Publish** tab. If it has just gone live, refresh in a few minutes. - **"This site isn't set up" at your address**: the address isn't added to any collection on Fieldwerk. Check it's spelled the same as in the **Publish** tab. - **Not working after it was live**: the reason is shown beside the domain. Usually the record was changed or deleted, or a proxy was turned on. Fix the record and click **Re-check**.