Documentation/content/codeberg-pages/using-custom-domain.md

---
eleventyNavigation:
  key: UsingCustomDomains
  title: Using Custom Domains
  parent: CodebergPages
  order: 10
---

Instead of using the `codeberg.page` domain, you can also purchase your own domain from your domain registrar of your choice and configure it to serve content from Codeberg Pages.

{% admonition "warning" "Known pitfalls for failed certificate errors" %}

- If you have a [CAA record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_Certification_Authority_Authorization#Record) configured, you must [explicitly allow Let's Encrypt in your CAA record](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/caa/).

{% endadmonition %}

For custom domains, two things are required:

- a `.domains` file in the repository and branch where your files reside which you want to publish via Codeberg Pages. The file should contain a list of _all_ domains that shall be usable to access that repository, according to the following rules:

  - One domain per line, you can leave lines empty and comment out lines with `#`.
  - The first domain is the main domain, all other domains in the file will be redirected to the first one.
  - The rest of the list includes all relevant `*.codeberg.page` domains for the specific repository.

- a [DNS record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Address_resolution_mechanism) pointing to one of the following targets, depending on where your static files reside:

<br />

{% admonition "question" "Why do I need all of these DNS records?" %}

To understand how the Pages server serves content, you need to know that a user browsing your custom domain just sends "Hey, I want to see `yourdomain.com`" to the server. But the server might not know that it is responsible for `yourdomain.com` and it cannot just serve all domains in the world. So to find out if the server is responsible for `yourdomain.com` it will check the DNS entries of `yourdomain.com`. If it returns something with `codeberg.page` (according to the domain schemes mentioned below) then it knows which respository to check for the `.domains` file and your content.

{% endadmonition %}

## Setting the DNS record

There are several ways DNS records for your website can be setup in order to tell the Pages server your repository location. For all of the options it is important that the Pages server knows where to look for the `.domains` file and your content. Depending on from where you want to serve your files, there is a naming scheme for the domain:

<table class="table">
<thead>
<th>Domain Scheme</th>
<th>Pages URL</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>username.codeberg.page</code></td>
<td>https://username.codeberg.page <br /> which will serve <code>codeberg.org/username/pages</code></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>reponame.username.codeberg.page</code></td>
<td>https://username.codeberg.page/reponame <br /> which will serve <code>codeberg.org/username/reponame</code></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>branchname.reponame.username.codeberg.page</code></td>
<td>https://username.codeberg.page/reponame/@branchname/<br /> which will serve <code>codeberg.org/username/reponame/src/branch/branchname</code></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<table>

_We assume for the following description, that you want to serve your website with and without www in front. If you are on a subdomain already (like myproject.yourdomain.com), you can skip the `www.yourdomain.com` CNAME entry._

{% admonition "Warning" %}

When setting up DNS records with many registrars, any domain added to the `Domain` or `Host` option is automatically appended onto the domain the records are being made for.

For example, if your domain is `example.com`, entering `www` will mean the record refers to `www.example.com`.

Therefore, in this guide, you may need to replace references to just your domain name (e.g. `example.com`) with `@` and `anything.example.com` (i.e. any subdomain) with just `anything`.

{% endadmonition %}

**Option 1: CNAME record**

The easiest and recommended way is to just setup a CNAME record for your domain, pointing to the mentioned above locations. In the end, it should look like this:

<table class="table">
<thead>
<th>Domain</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Data</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>CNAME</td><td>reponame.username.codeberg.page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>www.yourdomain.com</td><td>CNAME</td><td>reponame.username.codeberg.page</td>
</tr>
</table>

<br />

{% admonition "Warning" %}

With a CNAME record everything on this domain is delegated to `codeberg.page`, which means you cannot setup your own email adress with this method.

If you need email or others services, you have to use one of the remaining options.

{% endadmonition %}

**Option 2: ALIAS record**

If you cannot use a CNAME record to configure the target you can use this method, which needs two entries instead of one.

- First you need to specify which server should be serving your website. Similar to CNAME you can use an `ALIAS record`. The [difference](https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=cname%20vs%20alias%20record) between an CNAME record is, that the DNS server directly responds with the ip address and not the `codeberg.page` domain. Therefore you need to add a second entry, so that the pages server knows what to serve under this domain.
- Second, you need to setup a `TXT record` which contains the information from the `CNAME entry` which is your repository location as mentioned above. For example `[[branch.]repo.]user.codeberg.page`.

In the end it should look like this:

<table class="table">
<thead>
<th>Domain</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Data</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>ALIAS</td><td>codeberg.page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>TXT</td><td>reponame.username.codeberg.page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>www.yourdomain.com</td><td>CNAME</td><td>yourdomain.com</td>
</tr>
</table>

**Option 3: A/AAAA record**

If your service provider does not support `ALIAS records` you can also use `A records` and `AAAA records` instead.

- First you need to specify which server should be serving your website. You can do this by setting an `A record` for IPv4 and an `AAAA record` for IPv6 which contains the ip address of the Codeberg Pages server. The servers' ip addresses are:
  - `A record` which contains the IPv4 value `217.197.91.145`
  - `AAAA record` which contains the IPv6 value `2001:67c:1401:20f0::1`
- Second, you need to setup a `TXT record` which contains the information from the `CNAME entry` which is your repository location as mentioned above. For example `[[branch.]repo.]user.codeberg.page`.

In the end, it should look like this:

<table class="table">
<thead>
<th>Domain</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Data</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>A</td><td>217.197.91.145</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>AAAA</td><td>2001:67c:1401:20f0::1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>yourdomain.com</td><td>TXT</td><td>reponame.username.codeberg.page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>www.yourdomain.com</td><td>CNAME</td><td>yourdomain.com</td>
</tr>
</table>

## Examples

The following sub-sections include a few examples of the different alternatives, assuming the following:

- we can add/modify DNS records in domain `example.com`.
- Our Codeberg username is `frida`, and we want to publish pages for:
  - `frida/pages`, with a _Personal_ static site inside branch `pages`;
  - `frida/colormix`, with a _Project_ site (again, inside branch `pages`).

All considerations regarding a _Personal_ site also apply to an _Organization_ site, so these two cases will be addressed together.

### Personal (or Organization) site, third level domain

In this case, we want our _Personal_ pages available at the URL `https://myself.example.com`.

The `.domains` file contains the following:

```
myself.example.com
frida.codeberg.page
pages.frida.codeberg.page
pages.pages.frida.codeberg.page
```

For the DNS configuration:

- if CNAME can be used, one single DNS record will suffice:

  - name `myself.example.com`, type `CNAME`, data `frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, if ALIAS can be used, two DNS records will be needed:

  - name `myself.example.com`, type `ALIAS`, data `codeberg.page`
  - name `myself.example.com`, type `TXT`, data `frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, A/AAAA records must be used, together with one TXT record:
  - name `myself.example.com`, type `A`, data `217.197.91.145`
  - name `myself.example.com`, type `AAAA`, data `2001:67c:1401:20f0::1`
  - name `myself.example.com`, type `TXT`, data `frida.codeberg.page`

### Personal/Organization site, apex domain

In this case, we want our _Personal_/_Organization_ pages available at the URL `https://example.com`.

The `.domains` file contains the following:

```
example.com
frida.codeberg.page
pages.frida.codeberg.page
pages.pages.frida.codeberg.page
```

For the DNS configuration, the CNAME SHOULD NOT be used, so:

- if ALIAS can be used, two DNS records will be needed:

  - name `example.com`, type `ALIAS`, data `codeberg.page`
  - name `example.com`, type `TXT`, data `frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, A/AAAA records must be used, together with one TXT record:
  - name `example.com`, type `A`, data `217.197.91.145`
  - name `example.com`, type `AAAA`, data `2001:67c:1401:20f0::1`
  - name `example.com`, type `TXT`, data `frida.codeberg.page`

### Project site, third-level domain

In this case, we want our _Project_ pages available at the URL `https://colormix-app.example.com`.

The `.domains` file contains the following:

```
colormix-app.example.com
colormix.frida.codeberg.page
pages.colormix.frida.codeberg.page
```

For the DNS configuration:

- if CNAME can be used, one single DNS record will suffice:

  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `CNAME`, data `colormix.frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, if ALIAS can be used, two DNS records will be needed:

  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `ALIAS`, data `codeberg.page`
  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `TXT`, data `colormix.frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, A/AAAA records must be used, together with one TXT record:
  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `A`, data `217.197.91.145`
  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `AAAA`, data `2001:67c:1401:20f0::1`
  - name `colormix-app.example.com`, type `TXT`, data `colormix.frida.codeberg.page`

### Project site, apex domain

In this case, we want our _Project_ pages available at the URL `https://example.com`.

{% admonition "info" "Note" %}

This would be incompatible with using the apex `example.com` for other purposes, e.g. for the _Personal_/_Organization_ example discussed before.

{% endadmonition %}

The `.domains` file contains the following:

```
example.com
colormix.frida.codeberg.page
pages.colormix.frida.codeberg.page
```

For the DNS configuration, CNAME SHOULD NOT be used:

- if ALIAS can be used, two DNS records will be needed:

  - name `example.com`, type `ALIAS`, data `codeberg.page`
  - name `example.com`, type `TXT`, data `colormix.frida.codeberg.page`

- otherwise, A/AAAA records must be used, together with one TXT record:
  - name `example.com`, type `A`, data `217.197.91.145`
  - name `example.com`, type `AAAA`, data `2001:67c:1401:20f0::1`
  - name `example.com`, type `TXT`, data `colormix.frida.codeberg.page`