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  "title": "Build-knowledge — FAQ: the questions people actually ask",
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  "summary": "What is Imperium? The part of Leumas that puts websites on the internet. A site is one record; a worker matches the incoming hostname to it and serves it. There is no per-site configuration at the...",
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  "body": "# Build-knowledge — FAQ: the questions people actually ask\n\n> Short answers, with a link to the long one. Where the honest answer is \"you can't yet\", it says\n> that instead of describing a feature that does not exist.\n\n## Getting started\n\n**What is Imperium?**\nThe part of Leumas that puts websites on the internet. A site is one record; a worker matches the\nincoming hostname to it and serves it. There is no per-site configuration at the edge, which is why\na new site is live within seconds of publishing rather than after a deploy.\n\n**Do I need Leumas Studio to host a site?**\nNo. Studio is where you *build and manage* sites, and it runs on the platform at\n`studio.leumas.tech` in your browser. The desktop app is for running your **own** Leumas instance —\nyour own database, your own machine. Both can host.\n\n**How do I make an account?**\nOn `leumas.tech`, Continue with Google. On your own copy of Studio, the first-run wizard. See\n[accounts](accounts.md) — which door is open depends on which Leumas you are looking at, and that\ncatches people out.\n\n**Why won't leumas.tech let me sign up with a password?**\nPassword signup is closed on the public platform on purpose; members use Google. Existing password\naccounts still sign in normally — only signup is closed. On your own install the password form is\nthe live door.\n\n## Hosting on Leumas\n\n**Is hosting free?**\n**Building is free. Publishing is the line.** Every account can create a website and preview it. The\nfree floor allows **one** site and **zero** published ones, so putting a site in front of the public\nis what a plan buys. Starter is $6/month for 3 sites with 1 published; the larger plans raise both.\n\n**How many websites can I have?**\nTwo different numbers, and mixing them up is the usual confusion: how many you may **own**, and how\nmany may be **live at once**. Free is 1 and 0. Starter is 3 and 1. You can ask your own install\nwhat your limits are — Studio shows them, and the hosting API reports `limit`, `used` and\n`remaining` so a refusal can be predicted instead of hit.\n\n[warning] **\"Unlimited\" is a plan name, not a promise.** Its caps are real numbers — 250 sites, 100\npublished, 200 GB. The source says as much: whoever first hits 100 published sites will be right to\ncomplain.\n\n**What happens to my site if I stop paying?**\nIt stops serving and shows a suspension page. The entitlement is re-checked on **every request** and\nfails closed, so this happens on the next page load rather than at some renewal boundary. Your site\nand its content are not deleted.\n\n**Can I change my subdomain later?**\nNo. **A subdomain is permanent** — create a new site to change it. Studio says so on the domains tab\nbefore you commit.\n\n**Why does it say my subdomain is unavailable?**\nOne message covers five reasons: it is on the reserved list, it is already taken by another site, it\ncollides with a platform config, it is structurally invalid, or it becomes empty once normalised. The\nrefusal deliberately does not say which — it will not confirm whether a specific name is taken.\n\nReserved names include `www`, `api`, `app`, `admin`, `studio`, `assets`, `cdn`, `mail`, `login`,\n`auth`, `db`, `mcp`, `library`, `index`, `social`, `downloads`, `hidden` and `ops`. Some are reserved\nfor a subtle reason: `downloads` is routed away before the worker ever sees it, so a site claiming\nit would be publishable, listed, and permanently unreachable.\n\n**Can I use my own domain?**\nYes, and there are two ways. For one hostname, add it to the site and publish a single `TXT` record\nat `_leumas-verify.<your-host>`. For a whole domain, prove it **once** as a zone and then bind as\nmany names under it as you like without touching DNS again. Up to 25 domains per site, 10 zones per\naccount, 200 sites per domain.\n\n**I proved my domain but nothing loads.**\nProving ownership and sending traffic are two separate steps, and the checklist in Studio is explicit\nabout it: a proved domain with no traffic pointed at it still serves nothing. Point the hostname\nhere with a CNAME or A record — **and the wildcard too**, which is the line most people miss.\n\n**A name under my verified domain returns 404.**\nBindings are exact. An unbound hostname under a proved domain does not fall back to the apex, because\na fallback is how a typo becomes someone else's traffic. Bind the name.\n\n## Bringing something you already have\n\n**Can I upload a site I already built?**\nYes — upload the built folder to the site's Files tab, then point the site at it. That is\ndeliberately two actions rather than one: uploading is not publishing.\n\n**Can I put Leumas in front of an app I am already running?**\nYes, that is a proxy site. Some of the more powerful shapes — serving a folder from the server's own\ndisk, or running a program — are operator-only and will refuse for an ordinary member, because they\nreach the host beyond that site's own data.\n\n**Can I take my site somewhere else later?**\nThe content is yours and the site is one record. There is no export button today; that is a gap.\n\n## Running Leumas yourself\n\n**What does Leumas Studio run on?**\n**Windows x64 only.** There is no Mac or Linux build — the installer configures no target for them.\nStudio itself is free. If you are on Mac or Linux, LeumasNode is the thing to look at.\n\n**Where does my data live if I run Studio?**\nOn your machine, in your user profile — a local database, migrated on first launch. The Studio API\nbinds to loopback, so nothing on your network reaches it unless you deliberately put something in\nfront of it.\n\n**Does Studio stop working if Leumas goes down?**\nNo. The licence is verified **offline** on your machine against a signed token, with a grace period.\nAn unreachable platform does not brick an install.\n\n**Can I host sites on my own domain, from my own install?**\nYes, but not from the Studio desktop process itself — that is loopback-only and is the authoring\nside. Serving is a separate worker you run, pointed at the same store, with a wildcard DNS record\nand something terminating TLS in front of it. A scaffold command writes the configuration, and a\nready-made reverse-proxy config ships with it.\n\n**Do I need to configure a route per site on my own server?**\nNo, and this is the point of the design: **the edge needs no per-site routes, ever.** Each worker\nresolves the incoming hostname to a site itself. Add a wildcard once and never touch the edge again.\n\n## Accounts and teams\n\n**How do I add someone to my instance?**\nOn your own install, they sign up with email and password. On the platform, they sign in with Google.\n\n**How do I make someone else an administrator?**\nYou cannot, today. Roles are assigned at signup and at first-run, and no endpoint grants one. The\nadmin API can manage users, membership and tokens, but not roles. This is a real gap rather than a\nsetting that is hard to find.\n\n**I am an administrator — why do I not see the paywall?**\nAdministrators bypass hosting limits on their own instance by design.\n\n## Related\n\n- [accounts](accounts.md) — the four ways an account is created, and which door your install opens.\n- [imperium hosting](imperium-hosting.md) — the full hosting reference.\n",
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