# Build-knowledge — FAQ: the questions people actually ask

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...


> Short answers, with a link to the long one. Where the honest answer is "you can't yet", it says
> that instead of describing a feature that does not exist.

## Getting started

**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 edge, which is why
a new site is live within seconds of publishing rather than after a deploy.

**Do I need Leumas Studio to host a site?**
No. Studio is where you *build and manage* sites, and it runs on the platform at
`studio.leumas.tech` in your browser. The desktop app is for running your **own** Leumas instance —
your own database, your own machine. Both can host.

**How do I make an account?**
On `leumas.tech`, Continue with Google. On your own copy of Studio, the first-run wizard. See
[accounts](accounts.md) — which door is open depends on which Leumas you are looking at, and that
catches people out.

**Why won't leumas.tech let me sign up with a password?**
Password signup is closed on the public platform on purpose; members use Google. Existing password
accounts still sign in normally — only signup is closed. On your own install the password form is
the live door.

## Hosting on Leumas

**Is hosting free?**
**Building is free. Publishing is the line.** Every account can create a website and preview it. The
free floor allows **one** site and **zero** published ones, so putting a site in front of the public
is what a plan buys. Starter is $6/month for 3 sites with 1 published; the larger plans raise both.

**How many websites can I have?**
Two different numbers, and mixing them up is the usual confusion: how many you may **own**, and how
many may be **live at once**. Free is 1 and 0. Starter is 3 and 1. You can ask your own install
what your limits are — Studio shows them, and the hosting API reports `limit`, `used` and
`remaining` so a refusal can be predicted instead of hit.

[warning] **"Unlimited" is a plan name, not a promise.** Its caps are real numbers — 250 sites, 100
published, 200 GB. The source says as much: whoever first hits 100 published sites will be right to
complain.

**What happens to my site if I stop paying?**
It stops serving and shows a suspension page. The entitlement is re-checked on **every request** and
fails closed, so this happens on the next page load rather than at some renewal boundary. Your site
and its content are not deleted.

**Can I change my subdomain later?**
No. **A subdomain is permanent** — create a new site to change it. Studio says so on the domains tab
before you commit.

**Why does it say my subdomain is unavailable?**
One message covers five reasons: it is on the reserved list, it is already taken by another site, it
collides with a platform config, it is structurally invalid, or it becomes empty once normalised. The
refusal deliberately does not say which — it will not confirm whether a specific name is taken.

Reserved names include `www`, `api`, `app`, `admin`, `studio`, `assets`, `cdn`, `mail`, `login`,
`auth`, `db`, `mcp`, `library`, `index`, `social`, `downloads`, `hidden` and `ops`. Some are reserved
for a subtle reason: `downloads` is routed away before the worker ever sees it, so a site claiming
it would be publishable, listed, and permanently unreachable.

**Can I use my own domain?**
Yes, and there are two ways. For one hostname, add it to the site and publish a single `TXT` record
at `_leumas-verify.<your-host>`. For a whole domain, prove it **once** as a zone and then bind as
many names under it as you like without touching DNS again. Up to 25 domains per site, 10 zones per
account, 200 sites per domain.

**I proved my domain but nothing loads.**
Proving ownership and sending traffic are two separate steps, and the checklist in Studio is explicit
about it: a proved domain with no traffic pointed at it still serves nothing. Point the hostname
here with a CNAME or A record — **and the wildcard too**, which is the line most people miss.

**A name under my verified domain returns 404.**
Bindings are exact. An unbound hostname under a proved domain does not fall back to the apex, because
a fallback is how a typo becomes someone else's traffic. Bind the name.

## Bringing something you already have

**Can I upload a site I already built?**
Yes — upload the built folder to the site's Files tab, then point the site at it. That is
deliberately two actions rather than one: uploading is not publishing.

**Can I put Leumas in front of an app I am already running?**
Yes, that is a proxy site. Some of the more powerful shapes — serving a folder from the server's own
disk, or running a program — are operator-only and will refuse for an ordinary member, because they
reach the host beyond that site's own data.

**Can I take my site somewhere else later?**
The content is yours and the site is one record. There is no export button today; that is a gap.

## Running Leumas yourself

**What does Leumas Studio run on?**
**Windows x64 only.** There is no Mac or Linux build — the installer configures no target for them.
Studio itself is free. If you are on Mac or Linux, LeumasNode is the thing to look at.

**Where does my data live if I run Studio?**
On your machine, in your user profile — a local database, migrated on first launch. The Studio API
binds to loopback, so nothing on your network reaches it unless you deliberately put something in
front of it.

**Does Studio stop working if Leumas goes down?**
No. The licence is verified **offline** on your machine against a signed token, with a grace period.
An unreachable platform does not brick an install.

**Can I host sites on my own domain, from my own install?**
Yes, but not from the Studio desktop process itself — that is loopback-only and is the authoring
side. Serving is a separate worker you run, pointed at the same store, with a wildcard DNS record
and something terminating TLS in front of it. A scaffold command writes the configuration, and a
ready-made reverse-proxy config ships with it.

**Do I need to configure a route per site on my own server?**
No, and this is the point of the design: **the edge needs no per-site routes, ever.** Each worker
resolves the incoming hostname to a site itself. Add a wildcard once and never touch the edge again.

## Accounts and teams

**How do I add someone to my instance?**
On your own install, they sign up with email and password. On the platform, they sign in with Google.

**How do I make someone else an administrator?**
You cannot, today. Roles are assigned at signup and at first-run, and no endpoint grants one. The
admin API can manage users, membership and tokens, but not roles. This is a real gap rather than a
setting that is hard to find.

**I am an administrator — why do I not see the paywall?**
Administrators bypass hosting limits on their own instance by design.

## Related

- [accounts](accounts.md) — the four ways an account is created, and which door your install opens.
- [imperium hosting](imperium-hosting.md) — the full hosting reference.


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Source: shared/services/knowledge/build-knowledge/faq.md
Canonical: https://docs.leumas.tech/p/how-to/faq