OpsLab Books
User Guide /Custom domains

Put your book on your own web address

Normally your book lives at a link on this site. But you can make it show up on your own web address instead — like docs.yourcompany.com. This page explains how, in plain steps. No tech knowledge needed.

What you'll need

  • A book already created here.
  • A domain name you own (e.g. yourcompany.com), and the login for wherever you bought it (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, your web host, etc.). That place is called your DNS provider.

The idea in one sentence

You tell us the address you want, you add one small record at your DNS provider that points that address at us, and then your book appears there with a padlock (secure https://).

Step 1 — Tell us the address

  1. Open Custom domains (it's linked from your Dashboard).
  2. In the box, type the full address you want, for example: 
    docs.yourcompany.com
  3. Pick which book it should show.
  4. Click Add domain.

It will appear in the list below with a status. That's normal — it's waiting for the next step.

Tip

Use a subdomain like docs. or help. or guide. in front of your domain. Using your bare root domain (yourcompany.com with nothing in front) is trickier and not recommended.

Step 2 — Add the record at your DNS provider

This is the part people skip — but nothing works until you do it.

Log in to your DNS provider (where your domain lives) and add a CNAME record. A CNAME just means "this address is really an alias for that address."

Fill it in like this:

Field What to put
Type CNAME
Name / Host the bit in front of your domain, e.g. docs
Value / Target the target shown to you on the Custom domains page
Proxy / Cloud Off ("DNS only") if your DNS host is Cloudflare

Then save it.

Common mistakes

  • Don't paste your whole domain into the Name box. If your address is docs.yourcompany.com, the Name is usually just docs.
  • Don't add http:// or a trailing slash to the target.
  • If your DNS provider is Cloudflare, set the little cloud to grey (DNS only), not orange.

Step 3 — Wait a bit, then verify

DNS changes are not instant. They can take a few minutes — sometimes up to an hour — to spread across the internet. Grab a coffee.

Then come back to the Custom domains page and click Verify next to your domain. Click it again every few minutes. When it's done:

  • The status turns to active (or ready), and
  • a clickable https://… link appears.

Click that link — your book is now live on your own address, with a secure padlock and clean web addresses (no long /book/... paths). 🎉

If it's not working

Work down this list — it's almost always one of these:

  1. You haven't added the CNAME yet, or it has a typo. This is the #1 cause. Double-check Step 2.
  2. It's too soon. DNS can take up to an hour. Wait and click Verify again.
  3. The cloud is orange (Cloudflare users). Switch it to grey / DNS-only.
  4. Wrong target. Copy the target exactly as shown on the Custom domains page — don't type it from memory.

Still stuck after an hour? Send your administrator the exact address you added and a screenshot of your CNAME record — that's all they need to look into it.

Note for administrators

Automatic https uses Cloudflare for SaaS. If verifies never turn active (or visitors hit a Cloudflare error 1014), the zone is almost certainly missing its fallback origin. Set it once: PUT /zones/{ZONE_ID}/custom_hostnames/fallback_origin with {"origin": "books.opslabsystems.cloud"}, and make sure that origin hostname is proxied (orange) in the same zone. If Cloudflare isn't configured at all, domains still work in manual mode — point the CNAME at the server and your reverse proxy serves the book; status shows ready.