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lang: en
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# Help center

Your help center is the public site of pages Cactus writes from your code, at a Cactus address on heycactus.ai or at your own subdomain. Until your team sets it to Public, visitors see "There's no help site here", and only people signed in to your product can open it.

> Verified against the product on 2026-11-15

## Who can open it

In [Help site](https://app.heycactus.ai/deploy/help-site), under **Who can open it**, select **Public** or **Team only**.

| Setting | Who can open it |
| --- | --- |
| **Public** | Anyone with the address, once its first pages are published |
| **Team only** | Only people signed in to your product. Visitors see "There's no help site here" |

> **Note:** A site set to Public with no page listed yet is shown as **Not public yet**.

## Change the address

1. In [Help site](https://app.heycactus.ai/deploy/help-site), under **Address**, type a **Name** and select **Save**.

> **Note:** Changing the name moves the address at once, and the old address stops answering.

Without your own domain, the address is `your-name.heycactus.ai`, and a name holds up to 40 characters.

## Connect your own domain

Your own domain is a subdomain such as `help.yourcompany.com`, and it points to Cactus with one CNAME record. Domains under heycactus.ai are refused, and so is a domain connected to another product; a product holds one domain at a time.

1. In the **Your own domain** panel of [Help site](https://app.heycactus.ai/deploy/help-site), type the subdomain and select **Connect**.
2. Add a CNAME record where you manage DNS: set the type to `CNAME`, the name to the part of the subdomain before your domain, and the target to `customers.heycactus.ai`.
3. Wait until the status reads "Live". It reads "Waiting for DNS", then "Issuing certificate", which takes a minute or two.

> **Note:** If you use Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only. Changes usually show within a few minutes.

Your domain is live once its name and its certificate both check out, and then it is the site's address. The Cactus address and older links send visitors to it, and the address panel shows the Cactus address as "Also answers at".

To remove it, press and hold **Hold to remove** in the same panel. Visitors are then sent back to the Cactus address.

## Privacy and terms links

In [Help site](https://app.heycactus.ai/deploy/help-site), set the **Privacy policy address** and the **Terms address**. Each one set shows as a link on every page of your help center, and an empty field shows no link.

## Featured pages

The catalogue opens with a row of featured pages, up to 8, in the order you set. Set them in [Settings](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/settings).

## Contact page

The contact page of your help site names two ways to reach your team. **Talk to a human** starts a [handoff](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/handoffs), and it appears only where your team has somewhere for one to land.

**Ask Cactus** opens the [ask box](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/ask-on-the-page) on the page.

## If your domain doesn't go live

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "Needs attention" beside your domain | A check has failed for more than 10 minutes | Select **Check again** |
| "Add a CNAME from _the domain_ to customers.heycactus.ai, then check again." | No record is there yet | Add the record as the steps above say |
| "_The domain_ points at _another name_. Point it at customers.heycactus.ai, then check again." | The record points somewhere else | Change the record to the target above |
| "_The domain_ answers with an address, not a CNAME." | DNS answers with an address | Replace that record with a CNAME to customers.heycactus.ai |
| "We can't find that domain in DNS. Check the spelling." | The name does not exist in DNS when you connect it | Check the spelling and connect again |
| "Cactus couldn't read the DNS for _the domain_ just now." | Cactus could not reach DNS | Check again in a minute |
| "This domain no longer points at us." | The record was changed or removed | Point it back at customers.heycactus.ai, or remove it here |