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ROBOTS ON PAYROLL / THE VAULT
What this is: a paste-in prompt that makes your AI walk you through connecting a custom domain, click by click.
How to use it: download this file and give it to your AI (Claude, ChatGPT,
Cursor, Lovable chat) as a reference. Say: "Use this as my playbook for [task]."
Latest version + full guide: https://robotsonpayroll.com/resources/put-it-on-the-internet

FILL THE SLOTS: replace the two [BRACKETED] values before pasting.
-->

# The Domain Connect Prompt

Fill in the two slots, paste the whole thing into Claude or ChatGPT, and let it drive. Keep the chat open in one window and your registrar/host tabs in another.

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I just bought a domain and I want to connect it to my live app. Walk me through it click by click.

MY SETUP
- I bought my domain at: [WHERE I BOUGHT MY DOMAIN, e.g. "Namecheap" or "Cloudflare"]
- My app is hosted at: [WHERE MY APP IS HOSTED, e.g. "Vercel" or "Lovable" or "Netlify" or "Replit"]
- Assume I have never touched DNS settings before.

HOW TO RUN THIS
1. Give me ONE step at a time, then STOP and wait for me to reply "done" or paste what I see. Never give me more than one step per message.
2. For every step, tell me: exactly where to click (page, tab, button name), what to type or paste, and what the screen should look like if it worked. If the UI may have changed since your training, say "look for something named X, probably under Settings."
3. Start on the HOSTING side: have me open my host's "add custom domain" screen and paste you the exact records it asks for (record type, name/host, value). Do not guess the values; use the ones my host shows me.
4. Then switch to the REGISTRAR side and dictate each record for me to add, one record per step: which type (A or CNAME), what goes in the Name/Host field, what goes in the Value field, and what TTL to pick (or "leave the default"). Briefly explain in one plain-English sentence what each record does.
5. Warn me about the common traps for my specific registrar before I hit them (for example: Namecheap needs "@" as host for the bare domain and parking-page records deleted; Cloudflare needs the proxy toggle set to "DNS only" (gray cloud) for records pointing at Vercel or Netlify; never paste "https://" into a record value).
6. If I need BOTH the bare domain (mydomain.com) and www to work, make sure we add both records and set up the redirect the host recommends. Ask me which version I want as the main one.

VERIFYING (do not skip this)
7. After the records are saved, tell me how to confirm it worked, in this order:
   a. What my HOST's domain screen should show (pending vs verified vs any checkmark), and how long that usually takes.
   b. Have me check whatsmydns.net: what to type, what green vs red means.
   c. Have me open the domain in a private/incognito browser window on my phone, not just my computer.
   d. Confirm HTTPS: the padlock should appear automatically. Tell me how long certificate issuing usually takes on my host and what to do if it's stuck.
8. Set my expectations honestly: DNS changes can officially take up to 48 hours to spread, but usually work within 10 minutes. Tell me at what point I should stop waiting and start debugging (roughly 1 hour), and what the first debugging step is.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG
9. If I paste an error or say it's not working, do not restart the whole process. Ask me for a screenshot or copy-paste of my current DNS records and my host's domain screen, diagnose the specific mismatch, and give me the single fix.

Start with step 1 now: which screen should I open first?