Custom domains, rebuilds, and taking a site down

Domains

A phantom starts on a Letterstory subdomain. To give it a real domain:

Buy one through the platform. "Price ledgerroom.com; if it's under $30, buy it and attach it." → check_domain then buy_domain. CLI: letterstory phantom domain check ledgerroom.com, then letterstory phantom domain buy <phantom-id> ledgerroom.com --yes. Buying spends real money (the price must be under $30) and needs the phantom:domain capability; the agent will confirm the price with you first. An organization can hold two custom domains across its sites by default, whether bought or connected; ask us if you need more.

Connect one you already own. connect_domain attaches it and tells you the DNS records to set at your registrar. In the app: the site's row → Connect your domain. SSL is provisioned automatically once DNS resolves.

You can change or disconnect a domain later. Post URLs are https://<host>/posts/<slug>, and the site's hosts are what performance tracking matches citations against, so connect the domain before you start counting.

Rebuilds

The live site is built from the collection's published posts. After you publish, the site needs a rebuild to show the change. Publishing from the app rebuilds every live site on the collection for you, and so do the pipelines (run_collection, the cadence, Auto-Pen with publish-on-finish). Publishing over the API or CLI (publish_article, letterstory posts publish) does not: follow it with rebuild_phantom / letterstory phantom rebuild <phantom-id>, or press Refresh content on the site's row.

Diagnostics

A site marked Needs attention has something to look at: DNS not resolving, a build that failed, no published posts. Open it in the app, or call get_phantom_diagnostics; it names the problem in plain words, comparing what is actually baked on the live site against what the collection has published.

Taking a site down

delete_phantom (CLI: letterstory phantom delete <phantom-id> --yes; app: the trash icon on the site's row) removes:

• the hosted site and its build,
• any attached domains (released, not deleted from your registrar),
• the site's content API key.

It keeps:

• the collection and every post in it,
• the topic map, planner settings, and Auto-Pen settings,
• the strategy, competitors, and canvases written to your organization during configuration.

Tearing a site down also frees one of your phantom credits, so the next create_phantom succeeds. So deleting a site is reversible in spirit: create a new site on the same collection and it comes back with all its content. If you want a clean slate after a test, delete the collection as well (delete_collection), and review your organization's Context page for anything the test configuration inferred.