Custom domains

By default your status page is served at a Longbridge address. A Custom domain lets you serve the same page under a hostname you own — status.example.com instead of the Longbridge one — with a valid certificate that Longbridge issues and renews for you.

The whole obligation is one CNAME record. You attach a hostname in the Console, create the record it gives you, and the domain verifies and goes live on its own.

Early access. Custom domains are rolling out on status pages first. If you don’t see the option, it isn’t enabled for your Org yet.

What you need

• A subdomain you control, such as status.example.com or status.acme.io. Apex domains (example.com with nothing in front) aren’t supported yet — see Subdomains only.
• Access to the DNS for that domain, so you can add one CNAME record.
• Permission to change the status page (the status.page.write permission on the Org).

You keep the domain — Longbridge never asks you to transfer it or change your nameservers. You point one subdomain at us with a CNAME, and that’s the extent of the control you hand over.

Attach the hostname

1. In the Console, open Status and find the page you want to brand.
2. Open its Custom domains panel.
3. Under Attach a hostname, enter the subdomain — for example status.example.com — and select Attach.

The hostname is now attached as a Claim: verified by nothing yet, serving nothing, and holding the name against other Orgs only briefly. The panel shows the CNAME record to create next.

Important: The hostname can’t be changed once attached. Verification and certificate history are kept per hostname, so a rebrand is a detach-and-attach-new, not an edit. Attach the name you mean to keep.

Create the CNAME record

The Custom domains panel shows one record with three fields. Copy each with the button beside it and add it at whatever DNS provider hosts your domain:

Field	What it is	Example
Type	The record type — always CNAME.	CNAME
Name	The hostname you attached.	status.example.com
Value	Your unique verification target under the Longbridge edge zone.	d-a1b2c3d4.edge.lngbrdg.com

The Value is unique to this attachment. It proves you control the hostname, it defends against domain takeover — a later re-claim of an abandoned hostname gets a fresh target it can’t place in your zone — and it’s the seam Longbridge uses to move your domain between shards or edges later without you touching DNS again. Nothing in the record is secret; DNS records are public by nature.

Important: Two things trip people up more than anything else.

Your provider probably appends the domain for you. Most control panels already know the domain and add it to whatever you type in the name field. If the record’s name is status.example.com and your provider shows .example.com beside the input, enter only status — otherwise you’ll end up with a doubled status.example.com.example.com. When in doubt, add the record and read it back: the full name should match the Console exactly.

Don’t proxy or flatten the CNAME. If your provider offers a proxy, CDN, or “flatten CNAME” toggle (Cloudflare’s orange cloud is the common one), leave it off. The record must resolve to the verification target directly, and a proxy that synthesizes A records hides the CNAME that verification reads.

Subdomains only

At this stage a Custom domain must be a subdomain — status.example.com, not the apex example.com.

An apex domain can’t hold a CNAME. Providers that appear to allow one (ALIAS, ANAME, or CNAME flattening) answer with synthesized A records instead, which the CNAME-based verification can’t see. Rather than a resolve-and-compare workaround that would be fragile, apex support waits for its own milestone. Until then, put your status page on a subdomain, which is the common choice regardless.

CAA records

A Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) record is optional — most domains don’t have one. If yours does, it restricts which certificate authorities may issue for the domain, and it must allow the one Longbridge issues through, or issuance fails and the domain never activates.

Longbridge issues certificates through Let’s Encrypt. If you keep a CAA record, make sure it authorizes letsencrypt.org:

example.com.  CAA  0 issue "letsencrypt.org"

If you have no CAA record at all, there’s nothing to change — any authority may issue, and Let’s Encrypt will.

Tip: A CAA record set on the apex covers its subdomains, so a record on example.com already governs status.example.com. You don’t need a separate one for the subdomain.

Verification and activation

You don’t have to tell Longbridge when the record is in place. A background check re-reads your DNS about once a minute; when the CNAME resolves to the verification target, the domain moves on by itself. Select Re-check on the domain to run a check immediately instead of waiting.

A Custom domain moves through three states:

State	Meaning	What to do
Claim	Attached, waiting for DNS. The CNAME hasn’t resolved to the verification target yet.	Create the CNAME record, then wait or Re-check.
Active	Verified, certificate issued, serving the page over HTTPS.	Nothing — it’s live.
Failing	Was active, but re-checks or renewal have stopped succeeding. Still serving.	Confirm the CNAME still points at the verification target. See When a domain is failing.

Activation blocks on the certificate, not only the DNS. Once the CNAME resolves, Longbridge orders a certificate from Let’s Encrypt and installs it before the domain goes Active, so activation can take a few minutes after the record first appears. That’s expected — the state flips to Active the moment TLS provably works.

Important: A Claim that’s never verified is given up after 7 days, and the hostname is freed for anyone who can verify it next. The Console shows the exact date. Create the CNAME record well before then; once it resolves, the clock no longer applies.

The canonical hostname

Every resource has exactly one canonical hostname — the address it’s addressed by. It’s the Longbridge address by default, and becomes your Custom domain once that domain is active. Links the platform composes for the page — subscriber emails, share links — use the canonical hostname, and every other hostname the page answers on (including the Longbridge address) permanently redirects to it.

The first Custom domain you activate becomes canonical automatically. To change it, select Make canonical on an active domain. Only a serving domain can take the slot, so the control appears on active domains only.

Serving more than one domain

A single status page can carry several Custom domains — for a rename that runs both names for a while, or a page reachable under two brands. Attach each one the same way. Exactly one is the canonical hostname at any moment; the rest serve the page and redirect to the canonical one.

When a domain is failing

A domain goes Failing when its ongoing checks stop succeeding — the CNAME was changed or removed, or the certificate is overdue for renewal. A Failing domain keeps serving while its certificate is still valid: a DNS mistake shouldn’t take your status page down.

• Your Org is notified when a domain starts failing.
• The domain keeps serving through a grace window of 14 days.
• 3 days before the deadline, Longbridge sends one pre-detach warning with the date the hostname will be released.
• If the checks are still failing at the deadline, the domain is detached — the row is deleted, and the page falls back to its Longbridge address (which is reserved forever, so the page is never without a working hostname).

To recover, put the CNAME back to the verification target shown in the Console and select Re-check. Once checks succeed, the domain returns to Active and the warning clears.

Detaching a domain

To stop serving a page under a hostname, select the detach (trash) control on the domain and confirm. Detaching frees the hostname immediately — it’s no longer reserved for your Org — and the page’s links fall back to the canonical hostname, or to the Longbridge address if the detached domain was the last one.

Danger: Detaching is immediate and cannot be undone. The hostname is released for anyone who can verify it next, and attaching it again later means a new CNAME record with a new verification target. Back up nothing — there’s no state to keep — but be sure before you confirm.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Stuck as a Claim for more than a few minutes	The CNAME name is doubled (the provider appended the domain), the record is proxied or flattened, or it points at the wrong value. Read the record back and compare all three fields to the Console.
CNAME resolves, but the domain won’t activate	A CAA record on the domain doesn’t authorize letsencrypt.org, or DNS is still propagating. Newly published records can take up to an hour.
The Console rejects the hostname on attach	It’s an apex domain, a wildcard, or has a scheme or path. Enter a bare subdomain, such as status.example.com.
A domain went Failing on its own	An ongoing check stopped succeeding — usually the CNAME was changed or removed. Confirm it still points at the verification target and Re-check. The page keeps serving in the meantime.

If the record looks correct and still won’t verify after an hour, get in touch — we can see what our checks resolve from our side.

Next

• Account & billing — how Add-ons like Custom domains are metered per Org.