Domain Management Guide
Replace four tabs (registrar, Cloudflare, uptime monitor, threat scanner) with one table that already knows your inventory and stays in sync.
What Operators Actually Use This For
Day-to-day domain work used to mean bouncing between the registrar (expiry, contact info), Cloudflare (zone status, DNS), an uptime tool (is it serving?), and a threat scanner (is it flagged?). 301.st surfaces all four on one row per domain. Filter, search, inspect, act in bulk — without changing context.
Each domain carries a role inside its site: primary (where traffic lands — one per site), source (points at the primary with a redirect), or backup (stands by to replace the primary if it gets blocked). The role drives which dropdowns the domain appears in — redirects and TDS rules — so a wrong pairing is caught when you assign it, not when you deploy. You do not set roles by hand in bulk: the backend assigns them from what you do with a domain, and the single deliberate choice — which domain a site points at — is made either from that domain’s row menu or from a site’s domain manager. Both run the same promote-then-demote pair, so the previous primary steps down in the same action.
What the Table Does
- Filters: project, status, health, provider, role (source/primary/backup), expiry window (30/60/90 days), and "has site / no site" — combinable in one search row.
- Inspector drawer per domain: Details (status, SSL, routing), DNS (nameservers, NS verification, parent/subdomain relationship), Security (VirusTotal threat history, traffic anomalies, phishing flags).
- Bulk actions on the selected rows: block, unblock, delete, and — for domains that belong to no site yet — point them at a target. Confirm-once dialogs prevent fat-finger accidents.
- Subdomain handling first-class: create a subdomain under any parent zone in two clicks; the parent_id and DNS records resolve automatically.
Habits Worth Keeping
- Sync after every Cloudflare-side change you make outside 301.st. The Sync button is intentionally manual — we never silently overwrite your zone state.
- Use the expiry filter (30/60/90 days) as a weekly check. Renewal failures still happen at the registrar — 301.st surfaces the warning, not the renewal itself.
- If a domain shows a health warning, open the DNS tab first. Most "broken" domains are actually nameserver-mismatched after a registrar change, not Cloudflare issues.
First-Time Setup
- Connect Cloudflare in Integrations (and any registrars where you want expiry visibility).
- Open Domains. Synced zones appear within seconds — no manual import needed.
- Filter to the slice you care about (Active + your project, or Expired + Source, etc.) and save the working set in your head.
- Open the inspector on a sample row to confirm SSL, DNS, and security data look right for your stack.
- Assign domains to projects in bulk — that is the seam where the rest of the panel becomes navigable.
How Domains Connect to the Rest
- Projects: group domains by client, brand, or vertical. One domain → one project (or none).
- Sites: a domain becomes a site’s primary domain — where its traffic lands — and gains a role lock that prevents conflicting assignments elsewhere.
- Redirects: source domains are the origins; the destination is the bound site’s primary domain. The pairing is enforced — you cannot point a redirect at a domain that is not a primary.
- TDS & postbacks: rules are scoped to sites, which inherit their primary domain, and the Cloudflare Worker that runs them is attached to that host. Postback sources are account-wide: they carry no site of their own.
FAQ
How does this compare to just using the Cloudflare dashboard?
Cloudflare shows you one zone at a time. 301.st shows all your zones in one table, adds registrar expiry data Cloudflare does not have, layers in VirusTotal threat and traffic-anomaly signals, and supports bulk blocking, deletion and target assignment that would otherwise be one-by-one work.
Do all domains have to come from Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is the source that gets read/write access. Namecheap and NameSilo accounts can also be connected for expiry and registrar visibility on domains hosted elsewhere — but redirects and TDS only deploy through Cloudflare.
Should I organize domains into projects before creating redirects?
Strongly recommended past 20 domains. Filtering by project keeps the redirect table readable and is the natural seam if you ever need to scope an action to one client or brand.