Start proving ownership of a domain

start_domain_verification

Begins the ownership check for a domain before it is attached to a site, returning one TXT record to add.

POST /v1/start_domain_verificationScopeconfig:writeMakes changes

It requires a paid plan, the Manage domains permission, room on the site for another custom domain, up to 10, and a domain that does not already belong to this site or another one. A domain another site is only waiting to verify does not block it.

Pass a bare hostname. A value with http:// or https://, a path, or fewer than 4 or more than 253 characters is refused with the same messages as the Custom Domain field. A leading www. is dropped, so www.example.com verifies example.com.

A site has one pending verification at a time, so starting a new one replaces any earlier one. The answer carries the record to add as verificationTxtName, which is _modulify-verification. followed by the domain, and verificationTxtValue. Once it is in place, verify_domain is the step that actually adds the domain, and cancel_domain_verification abandons the attempt. See A domain waiting on verification.

Request

Call it with a POST to https://api.modulify.ai/v1/start_domain_verification, sending the inputs below as a JSON object. The token needs the config:write scope.

It makes changes, so send an Idempotency-Key header whenever you might retry it. A retry with the same key gets the first answer back instead of running again.

curl -X POST https://api.modulify.ai/v1/start_domain_verification \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"projectId":"PROJECT_ID","domain":"DOMAIN"}'

Over MCP, the same method is the start_domain_verification tool.

Inputs

Input	Type	Required	Description
`projectId`	string	Yes	The site id.
`domain`	string	Yes	The bare hostname to prove ownership of, for example `example.com`.

Response

Every call answers with the JSON envelope of success, message, data, code and version. data holds the result described above, and on a method that returns a total, count carries it. The response headers carry the call's X-Request-Id and what is left of your per-minute budget in X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset. Errors explains every status code a call can answer with.