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hackwithmagic
hackwithmagic

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I Built a 1-Click DNS Provisioning Platform for Developer Subdomains

#javascript #webdev #devops #backend

Go-Live.me
GitHub Repository

I Built a 1-Click DNS Provisioning Platform for Developer Subdomains

Getting a custom domain for a project sounds simple until you actually have to configure it.

You deploy to Vercel, Render, Railway, GitHub Pages, or a VPS, and then you have to configure DNS, copy records, wait for propagation, configure the domain, and verify everything.

I wanted to remove that entire process.

So I built Go-Live.me.

The idea is simple:

Pick a subdomain → connect your deployment → Go-Live handles the DNS configuration.

For example:

myproject.go-live.me
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The Problem

A typical deployment can look like this:

Deploy application
      ↓
Get deployment URL
      ↓
Configure DNS
      ↓
Wait for propagation
      ↓
Configure domain
      ↓
Verify
      ↓
Live
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For someone familiar with DNS, this isn't particularly difficult.

For someone deploying their first project, it can be confusing.

I wanted the process to become:

Choose name
     ↓
Connect deployment
     ↓
Click "Assign & Route Domain"
     ↓
Live
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How Go-Live Works

Go-Live provides subdomains under:

*.go-live.me
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A developer authenticates with GitHub and chooses an available subdomain.

For example:

sai.go-live.me
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The platform maintains a subdomain registry so that names cannot be claimed by multiple users.

Once the subdomain is claimed, the developer can connect their deployment.

1-Click Vercel Integration

Vercel is currently the main integration.

Instead of manually copying DNS records, Go-Live connects to the developer's Vercel account and retrieves their projects.

The flow is:

GitHub Authentication
        ↓
Connect Vercel
        ↓
Fetch Projects
        ↓
Select Project
        ↓
Assign & Route Domain
        ↓
Configure
        ↓
Verify
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The developer doesn't need to manually enter a CNAME record.

The main UX goal was:

DNS should be infrastructure, not a task the user has to think about.

Progressive Verification

Creating a DNS record doesn't necessarily mean the domain is immediately usable.

Go-Live performs progressive verification instead of immediately displaying a success message.

The current verification sequence is:

1s
 ↓
2s
 ↓
3s
 ↓
5s
 ↓
7s
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The system checks whether the domain resolves and whether the expected endpoint is reachable before marking the deployment as active.

Custom Deployments

Vercel isn't the only target.

Go-Live can also work with custom DNS destinations such as:

Render
Railway
Fly.io
GitHub Pages
Cloudflare Tunnels
DigitalOcean
Hetzner
AWS EC2
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Depending on the deployment, users can provide a CNAME target or IPv4 address.

Conceptually:

project.go-live.me
        │
        ├── CNAME → hosting.example.com
        │
        └── A → 203.0.113.10
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The goal is to keep the interface simple while keeping the underlying infrastructure flexible.

Why I Built It

The motivation was simple.

Getting a project online often involves small infrastructure tasks that have nothing to do with actually building the project.

DNS is one of them.

I wanted to explore:

  • DNS automation
  • Cloudflare APIs
  • Deployment platform integrations
  • Authentication
  • Domain verification
  • Distributed DNS

It also became a practical way for me to learn how these systems work together.

What's Next?

The current release is v1.0.0.

Things I'm exploring for future versions include:

  • Deployment webhooks
  • More hosting integrations
  • ACME/TXT record support
  • Better deployment status monitoring
  • Subdomain analytics
  • Additional DNS tooling

The project is open source, and the implementation is available on GitHub.

View the GitHub repository

You can try the service here:

Try Go-Live.me

If you're interested in DNS automation, developer infrastructure, or building your own domain/subdomain service, I'd be interested to hear how you'd approach the architecture differently.

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