Your site, your domain, your inbox — one checked screen at a timeTake a Site Live
Your site is built. This puts it on Netlify, points your Dynadot domain at it, gives you an email address on that domain, and makes the forms actually arrive somewhere. Claude can’t click for you, but it can look: one step, the exact words to type, a screenshot, a check. Then the next step.
Go-liveLAUNCH
CreatorLama Helou
RunsOnce per site
Stages3
You needNo technical background
Before: a job for someone technicalNow: you
10 min — putting it online~30 min — pointing the domain, then waiting~45 min — email, forms, and testing all of it
This isn’t about saving time. It’s about doing yourself what used to need a developer. Hosting, DNS records, email forwarding, form endpoints — screens a non-technical person would normally hand to someone else, or put off for months. About an hour and a half of your own clicks, with every screen checked, plus the wait for the domain to switch over.
Lama Helou · made this one · Senior HR Specialist, certified coach and process mapper, and a member of the 3rd Space AI Circle
Overview
What this does
Building a site with Claude is the fun part. Getting it live is four dashboards you have never seen, each with its own vocabulary: hosting (Netlify, free), the domain (Dynadot), email on the domain, and the forms (Formspree). None of it is hard. All of it is unfamiliar — and until now, unfamiliar meant asking someone technical to do it for you.
So this workflow doesn’t hand you a tutorial. It turns Claude into someone standing behind you. One step at a time. The exact text for each field — only the value, never the sentence around it. A screenshot after every screen, checked before the next step. If a screen is wrong, you hear about it now, not two days later.
It also tells you, every time something is pending, how long it usually takes and how to check it. That one habit is what separates slow from broken — which, on a domain, look exactly the same.
It runs on your own accounts and your own domain, and never touches anyone else’s. It is written for one finished, single-file site going onto Netlify, with a domain at Dynadot. If you are moving an existing domain that already has email on it, read Create a Website first — that one is about not losing the email you already have.
Before
Three things that kept going wrong
Not the site. The site was finished. It was everything between the file and the world.
01The site was done, and nobody could see it. A file that works on your laptop is not a website. The last step was the one with no instructions written for normal people.
02The instructions were written for developers. “Host @, value 75.2.60.5” means nothing if you have never seen a DNS screen — so the whole sentence went into the field, and nothing said it was wrong.
03The contact details pointed nowhere. An address on the domain that was never switched on. A form that still sent to a placeholder. The site looked live; nobody could reach you through it.
After
How it works, in three steps
One screen at a time, and nothing moves on until the screenshot has been checked. That rule is the whole method.
110 min
Put it onlinedrag, drop, look
Your site file goes into its own folder, renamed index.html, and gets dragged onto Netlify. A minute later it has a real address you can open on your phone.
One folder, one file called index.html. Netlify looks for exactly that name.
Open the netlify.app address before anything else. If the site is wrong here, it will be wrong on your domain too.
Write down the project name. The domain step needs it, word for word.
Only you have thisThe finished file, and the login. Everything after this step is settings, not building.
2~30 min
Point your domain, keep your emailthe risky one
Two records at the domain registrar: one for the bare domain, one for www. Then you check them — you don’t just wait for them.
Keep the DNS where the domain lives. When the host offers to take over your name servers, say no: that click quietly switches off the registrar’s email forwarding.
Type only the value in each field. The CNAME goes in the subdomain section, never on the root domain.
Look the records up at dnschecker.org straight away. Wrong value: go back and fix it. Right value, not everywhere yet: now you wait.
This is where it brokeA typo and a slow record look the same from the outside. See below — it is the most useful thing on this page.
3~45 min
Wire email and forms, then test all of iton the real domain
An address on your domain that forwards to the inbox you already use. One form per audience, each with its own endpoint. Then a test of every piece, together.
Forwarding does nothing until you click the verification email. Check spam.
Change the form endpoints in the file, then redeploy — a change that isn’t uploaded isn’t live.
Test on the domain, not the netlify.app address: every form, the padlock on both addresses, an email from someone else’s account.
Only you have thisYour inbox. The verification click and the test email both have to happen there, and nobody else can do them.
Tools
What you need
Nothing here has to be bought. The hosting and the forms both have free plans that cover a site this size.
ClaudeNetlify (hosting)Dynadot (domain)Formspree (forms)dnschecker.orgNotion (optional, for submissions)
The hard part
The wait that hides the typo
The one that gets everyone
A wrong record and a slow record look exactly the same.
Every guide to domains says the same reassuring thing: changes can take up to 48 hours. So you change the records, the site doesn’t appear, and you wait. But if the record is wrong, waiting does nothing. You find out two days later, and then you start the two days again.
The wrong part is rarely exotic. The instruction said “host @, value 75.2.60.5” and the whole phrase went into the field. Or the www record went into the section for the bare domain, where it can’t work. Or an old parking-page record was still there, next to the new one. Nothing errors. The screen saves happily.
Waiting is only the answer when you already know the record is right.
Check, don’t wait. Look the domain up at dnschecker.org the minute you save. If the value is wrong anywhere, it is a typo, and the clock hasn’t started.
Type only the value. Never the label, never the instruction. 75.2.60.5, not host @, value 75.2.60.5.
Root gets an A record, www gets a CNAME. A CNAME can’t sit on the bare domain, however the screen lets you type it.
Ask the host what it expects. Netlify shows the exact records if you click the pending notice. If its address differs from the guide’s, use Netlify’s.
Screenshot every screen before you leave it. A second pair of eyes on the DNS page catches in seconds what a two-day wait catches eventually.
Don’t let the host take over your domain
Netlify will offer to manage your DNS. It sounds tidier. It also moves the domain away from the registrar that was forwarding your email — and the forwarding just stops.
Keep the DNS where the domain lives. Add records; don’t move house.
Forwarding needs one more click
You set up the address, save, and assume it works. It doesn’t until you click a verification email — which tends to land in spam.
Then test it from someone else’s account. Emailing yourself proves nothing.
Free forms don’t take files
A form that says “attach your CV” on a plan that doesn’t accept attachments fails at the worst moment: in front of the person you wanted to hear from.
Check the current pricing page before you promise uploads. Never a price from memory.
Three more things worth knowing
Test on the real address
The netlify.app address can be perfect while the domain is broken. Each piece can pass on its own while the combination fails.
Forms, padlock and email — all three, on the domain, together.
A change isn’t live until it’s uploaded
New form endpoints in the file on your laptop do nothing for the site. The forms keep posting to the placeholder.
Change the file, drag the folder again, then test.
Don’t automate the spreadsheet yet
Paying for a tool that copies five submissions a week into a table is a cost looking for a problem.
Copy them by hand until it becomes a chore. Then automate.
Your turn
Copy this and use it today
Two documents. The first one sets Claude up as your guide. The second one sits next to the screens.
Step 1
Copy the template
Pick a tab below and press Copy. That’s the whole document, on your clipboard.
Step 2
Paste it into Claude, with your site
Open a new chat, attach your finished site file, paste the template and say: “Walk me through this one screen at a time, and check every screenshot before the next step.”
Step 3
Send a screenshot after every screen
Don’t batch them. The check is the point: one wrong field caught now saves two days of waiting for something that was never going to work.
Step 4
Run the final test, all of it
Every form, both padlocks, one email from someone else’s account — on the real domain. Then tick the checklist and keep it for next time.
Want to keep it for next time? Paste the template into Claude and say “turn this into a skill”, then switch it on under Settings › Capabilities › Skills. Or download the finished one: static-site-go-live.skill.
site-go-live-template.md
# Site Go-Live — template
Paste this into a new Claude chat with your finished site file attached, and say:
*"Walk me through this one screen at a time. After every screen I'll send you a screenshot —
check it before you give me the next step."*
Claude asks the setup questions once, then guides you. You never get more than one step at
a time, and nothing moves on until your screenshot has been checked.
---
## 1. Your site
Where is the file, and is it a single HTML page?
> Example: one file, `my-site.html`, built with Claude. It will be renamed `index.html`.
## 2. Your domain
The domain exactly as you bought it, and where you bought it.
> Example: `example.com`, registered at Dynadot.
This guide is written for **Netlify** (hosting) and **Dynadot** (domain). If your domain is
somewhere else, the method is the same but the screens are not — send a screenshot of your
DNS page before you change anything.
## 3. Email on your domain
Do you want an address like `team@yourdomain.com`? Which personal inbox should it forward to?
> Rule: keep the DNS where your domain lives. When the host offers to "take over your name
> servers", say no — that is the click that quietly stops your domain email.
## 4. Your forms
Which forms does the site have, and who is each one for? One form per audience.
> Example: one for candidates, one for companies.
Does any form need to accept files (CVs, documents)? Free form plans often don't — check the
current pricing page before you plan around it.
## 5. Where submissions go
Is an email per submission enough, or do you want them collected in a table (for example a
Notion database)? Start by copying them across by hand. Automate only when the copying
becomes a chore.
## 6. Language
Which language do you want the guidance in?
---
## How the guidance works
- **One step, one screen, one screenshot.** Claude tells you exactly what to type in which
field — only the value, never the instruction around it.
- **Every screenshot is checked** before the next step: what's right, what's wrong.
- **Waiting is never a guess.** For anything pending (DNS, the padlock, a verification
email), Claude tells you how long it usually takes and how to check — so you can tell
"slow" from "wrong".
## The final test
On the real domain, not the test address:
1. Send a test entry through every form. Did each one arrive?
2. Is there a padlock on `https://yourdomain.com` and `https://www.yourdomain.com`?
3. Email your new address from someone else's account. Did it arrive?
All three, together. Each one can pass on its own while the combination is broken.
# Go-live checklist
Keep this open next to the screens. Fill in the blanks as you go — it is also what you'll
need the next time something changes.
---
## Names you'll need
| What | Yours |
|---|---|
| Domain | |
| Netlify test address | `________.netlify.app` |
| Email alias | `____@yourdomain.com` |
| Forwards to | |
| Form endpoints | `https://formspree.io/f/________` (one per form) |
## DNS at Dynadot — what goes in each field
Type **only the value**. Not "host @", not "value =", not the sentence around it.
| Section | Field | Type exactly |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Record | Type | `A` |
| Domain Record | Value | `75.2.60.5` (or the address Netlify shows you, if different) |
| Subdomain Records | Subdomain | `www` |
| Subdomain Records | Type | `CNAME` |
| Subdomain Records | Destination | `yourproject.netlify.app` |
- [ ] DNS type left on **Dynadot DNS** (not Netlify's name servers)
- [ ] Old A / CNAME records (parking page) removed
- [ ] The CNAME is in **Subdomain Records**, not in Domain Record
## Slow, or wrong?
Check at dnschecker.org:
| Look up | Type | Should show |
|---|---|---|
| `yourdomain.com` | A | `75.2.60.5` |
| `www.yourdomain.com` | CNAME | `yourproject.netlify.app` |
- **Wrong value anywhere** → it's a typo. Waiting won't fix it. Go back to the DNS screen.
- **Right value, not everywhere yet** → it's propagation. Minutes, up to 48 hours.
## Done means all of these
- [ ] Netlify says "DNS verification was successful"
- [ ] Padlock on `https://yourdomain.com`
- [ ] Padlock on `https://www.yourdomain.com`
- [ ] Forwarding verification email clicked (check spam)
- [ ] Test email from another account arrived
- [ ] Every form tested on the live domain, every entry arrived
Built byLama HelouSenior HR Specialist, certified coach and process mapper, and a member of the 3rd Space AI Circle.
More cards in 3rd Space AI Workflows — each one a real workflow from a real member, with the template attached.
