Architecture deep-dive

How DomainDock works under the hood

From the moment you create a project to the instant your domain is live with HTTPS, here's every component in the pipeline and how they interact.

Provisioning Pipeline

Five stages, under 30 seconds total

Each stage is handled by a dedicated service with retry logic, status tracking, and failure isolation.

01
Project Creation

Domain reserved instantly

You register a project with a unique domain slug. Our platform verifies availability in real-time, reserves your slug the moment you claim it, and immediately kicks off the provisioning pipeline.

  • Real-time slug availability check
  • Your domain reserved instantly
  • Instant project dashboard entry
  • Provisioning starts automatically
02
DNS Provisioning

Global DNS record created in seconds

A DNS record is automatically created pointing your domain to our gateway. Cloudflare's Anycast network distributes this globally, with no 48-hour propagation waits and no DNS zone files to edit.

  • Automatic DNS record creation
  • Cloudflare Anycast delivery
  • Global propagation in under 60s
  • No manual DNS configuration
03
Reverse Proxy Setup

Traffic routing configured with zero downtime

Our edge gateway picks up the new routing rule in real-time, with no restarts and no interruptions to live traffic. Your domain is mapped to your target IP:port and all traffic is forwarded cleanly.

  • Zero-downtime config updates
  • Host-header based routing
  • Any IP:port target supported
  • Multi-tenant gateway cluster
04
TLS Certificate Issuance

HTTPS live in under 30 seconds

The gateway automatically requests and installs a TLS certificate for your domain. Your route is HTTPS-only from the very first request, with automatic renewal before expiry, forever.

  • Automatic certificate issuance
  • HTTPS enforced on all traffic
  • Auto-renewal before expiry
  • HSTS headers included
05
Health Monitoring

Continuous upstream availability checks

Background monitoring jobs continuously probe your target server. Response latency is tracked, and your dashboard status badge updates automatically when your server becomes reachable, degraded, or unreachable.

  • Automated HTTP health probes
  • Response latency tracking
  • Status: ACTIVE / DEGRADED / DOWN
  • Dashboard updates in real-time

Request Lifecycle

What happens on every request

Once provisioned, this is the path every HTTP request travels from browser to your server.

1

Client browser → DNS lookup for project.digitalweb.host

2

Cloudflare returns gateway IP via Anycast

3

Request arrives at Traefik on port 443

4

Traefik matches Host header against router rules

5

Traefik terminates TLS and strips SSL

6

Request proxied to target IP:port over LAN

7

Response returned through Traefik to browser

Platform Guarantees

Built for reliability from day one

Every part of the provisioning pipeline is designed to be fast, resilient, and transparent.

Under 30 seconds

From project creation to a live HTTPS domain. DNS, SSL, and routing all provisioned in a single automated pipeline.

Retry on failure

Every provisioning job uses exponential back-off retry. Transient failures in DNS or certificate issuance are retried automatically without you lifting a finger.

Always HTTPS

Every domain is HTTPS-only. Certificates are issued automatically and renewed before expiry. There is no manual renewal step, ever.

Zero config routing

No nginx config files, no reverse proxy setup, no port forwarding rules. Just an IP address and port. DomainDock handles the rest.

Live status dashboard

Every project shows its real-time status (Active, Degraded, or Down) based on continuous health monitoring. No guessing if your server is reachable.

Tenant isolation

Your projects are only visible to you. No user can ever read, modify, or delete another user's domains, routes, or configuration.

Ready to see it in action?

Create a free account and have your first domain live in under a minute.

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