Help
Connect your own domain
Written for someone who has never touched a DNS record
There are two separate things you can put on your own domain, and they are independent — do one, the other, or both:
- Your email — so your Axis secretary answers from sage@summitfence.com instead of sage@summitfence.codesavant.tech.
- Your website — so your Code Savant page answers at www.summitfence.com.
The example domain below is summitfence.com. Put your own in its place everywhere you see it.
Read this first if you already have email on this domain
The MX record below tells the entire internet to deliver all email for your domain to Code Savant. If you currently use Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or a mailbox from whoever sold you the domain, this takes that mail away from them and your old inbox stops receiving anything.
- No email on the domain yet? Go ahead — nothing to lose.
- Moving your email to Axis entirely? Go ahead, but tell us first so we can help you bring existing mail across.
- Want to keep your current email? Use a subdomain instead — enter hello.summitfence.com rather than summitfence.com. Your address becomes sage@hello.summitfence.com and your existing mail is untouched.
Not sure? Ask us at support@codesavant.tech before you change anything.
Step 1 · Add the domain in your dashboard
Sign in at portal.codesavant.tech, open Settings → Mail setup, find the Use your own domain panel, type your domain and click Add my domain. (The panel appears once your Axis mailbox exists — if the page still offers Set up my email, click that first.)
You'll be shown four records. The third is a long key generated for your domain only — copy it from your own screen, never from this page or from anyone else's.
| Type | Name / Host | Value | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| MX | @ | mail.codesavant.tech (priority 10) | Where your incoming mail is delivered. This is the one that moves your email to us. |
| TXT | @ | v=spf1 mx a:mail.codesavant.tech ~all | Tells other mail servers we're allowed to send as you. Without it your mail lands in spam. |
| TXT | mail._domainkey | the long key from your screen | The signature on every message you send, so Gmail can prove it really came from you. |
| TXT | _dmarc | v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:postmaster@codesavant.tech | What other servers should do if a message fails those checks. none just monitors — the safe setting to start on. |
Step 2 · Add them at your registrar — Cloudflare
Your registrar is whoever charges you for the domain each year.
- Sign in at dash.cloudflare.com, click your domain, then DNS → Records in the left sidebar.
- First, turn off Email Routing. Left sidebar → Email → Email Routing → Settings. If it's enabled, click Disable Email Routing — it has its own MX records that fight ours and your mail will bounce. Then delete any MX record ending in mx.cloudflare.net.
- Delete any other MX records, if you're moving your email to us.
- Add record → Type MX, Name @, Mail server mail.codesavant.tech, Priority 10, TTL Auto → Save.
- Add record → Type TXT, Name @, Content: the SPF line above → Save.
- Add record → Type TXT, Name mail._domainkey, Content: the long key, pasted exactly — no quotation marks, no line breaks → Save.
- Add record → Type TXT, Name _dmarc, Content: the DMARC line above → Save.
Two Cloudflare traps.
Cloudflare adds your domain to the Name field for you. Type just mail._domainkey — typing the full mail._domainkey.summitfence.com gives you mail._domainkey.summitfence.com.summitfence.com and verification fails for no visible reason.
If a TXT record starting v=spf1 already exists, edit it — never add a second. Two SPF records make both invalid and all your mail goes to spam. Merge ours into the existing one, e.g. v=spf1 mx a:mail.codesavant.tech include:_spf.google.com ~all.
Step 2 · Add them at your registrar — GoDaddy
- Sign in at godaddy.com → your name (top right) → My Products → find your domain → DNS (or Manage DNS).
- First, delete GoDaddy's own MX records. Nearly every GoDaddy domain ships with mailstore1.secureserver.net (priority 10) and smtp.secureserver.net (priority 0). Leave them and your mail keeps going to GoDaddy, or splits unpredictably between the two.
- Add New Record → Type MX, Name @, Value mail.codesavant.tech, Priority 10, TTL 1 Hour → Save.
- Add New Record → Type TXT, Name @, Value: the SPF line → Save. If one starting v=spf1 exists, edit that one instead.
- Add New Record → Type TXT, Name mail._domainkey, Value: the long key. The box is small and the key is long — that's normal, it scrolls.
- Add New Record → Type TXT, Name _dmarc, Value: the DMARC line → Save.
Step 3 · Verify, then switch on
Back in your dashboard: Settings → Mail setup → your domain panel → Check DNS. If it says verified, click Use for my email.
Your secretary's address changes immediately, and your old address keeps working forever as an alias — so anyone who already had it can still reach you and nothing bounces.
Waiting is normal. DNS changes are announced, not pushed; an hour is unremarkable and GoDaddy is occasionally slower. Clicking Verify again costs nothing and starts nothing over.
| If Verify says | It's almost always this |
|---|---|
| MX ✗ | The old MX records are still there, or the new one hasn't published yet. Wait 15 minutes and click Verify again. |
| DKIM ✗ | The Name field got doubled up, or the key was pasted with a line break in it. |
| Both ✗ after an hour | The records may have gone in at a different company than the one your domain actually points at — check who your nameservers are, or send us a screenshot. |
Your website on your own domain
Separate from email, and a single record. In your dashboard go to the Website tab, type www.summitfence.com in the domain box and save. Then at your registrar add a CNAME record with Name www pointing to codesavant.tech.
- Cloudflare: after adding it, click the orange cloud so it turns grey — it must read DNS only. Left orange, we can't issue the security certificate and visitors get a warning.
- GoDaddy: there's almost certainly already a CNAME called www pointing at @. Edit that one rather than adding a second. Also check Domain Settings → Forwarding and delete any forwarding rule — it overrides the CNAME.
Then email support@codesavant.tech and we'll issue the certificate — a step on our side that takes a few minutes. Until it's done your site keeps working at your free address exactly as before.
Checking it yourself
If you'd like to see the records with your own eyes before clicking Verify, go to mxtoolbox.com and enter your domain — the MX lookup should list mail.codesavant.tech.
We never need your passwords. Not your registrar's, not your email's, not ours. If a message claiming to be us asks for one, it isn't us. A screenshot of your DNS records page is all we ever need to help.
Stuck? Email support@codesavant.tech with your domain name and a screenshot of your DNS records page.