# Domain registration

URL: /products/platform/domain-registration · Id: `capability:domain-registration`

> Domain registration registers and renews each Startup’s Domains in a registrar account of its own, with its owner of record as registrant.

Domain registration registers and renews each [Startup](/business/nouns/startup)’s [Domains](/business/nouns/domain) in a registrar account of its own, with its owner of record as registrant. A Domain that carried mail or a sign-in never lapses.

## Contract
| Clause | Terms |
| --- | --- |
| Starts | [`Domain.search`](/business/nouns/domain/search) when a [Brand](/business/nouns/brand) needs its name, then [`Domain.register`](/business/nouns/domain/register) for the winner. A premium name shows its three-year cost first. |
| Registrant | `Domain.registrant` is the owner of record: the Studio-held entity while held, or the holder of a self-serve Startup's Stripe account. |
| Self-serve | [`Domain.register`](/business/nouns/domain/register) refuses on a provisional Startup. The chosen name stays a `candidate` until [`Startup.claim`](/business/nouns/startup/claim), then registers to the owner of record. |
| Registrar | `Domain.registrarAccount` holds every Domain of one Startup, with its own credential; no sibling shares it, so one breach reaches one Startup. |
| Locks | Registrant details stay private and transfers stay locked. A Live canonical Domain also takes `Domain.registryLock`, which only the owner of record's named contact lifts ([Governance](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor/governance)). |
| Renews | [`Domain.renew`](/business/nouns/domain/renew) runs at the start of the window: 90 days ahead for a canonical Domain, which stays two years ahead, and 60 days for others. |
| Keep or drop | Defensive and held names renew after a review, a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) on traffic, mail, links and the mark the name protects. |
| Never lapses | [`Domain.release`](/business/nouns/domain/release) refuses a Domain whose `Domain.carriedIdentity` is true, and renewal runs in every state, [Dormant](/business/lifecycle/states/dormant) included. |
| Lapses | A failed renewal tries the second payment method, then moves the Domain to `lapsed` and opens an [Incident](/business/nouns/incident) that restores it inside the grace period. |
| Moves | [`Domain.transfer`](/business/nouns/domain/transfer) takes `kind`: `in` from another registrar, `registrant` at graduation, `push` to a buyer at the same registrar, or `out`. |
| Lock dates | Each move refuses before `Domain.transferableAt`, read from the registrar. A sale cannot close while any Domain it lists has a later date. |
| Claimed names | A claimed name never conveys. At a sale it becomes a `redirect` to the buyer's Domain for twelve months through `Domain.to`, then retires. |
| Codes | A transfer code is a [Secret](/business/nouns/secret), read only inside the transfer [Action](/business/nouns/action) and never written into a [Message](/business/nouns/message). |
| Books | [`Domain.register`](/business/nouns/domain/register) posts the fee as prepaid and any premium as an intangible asset; [`Domain.release`](/business/nouns/domain/release) writes off what remains. |
| Defensive names | [Idea](/business/nouns/idea) and Building hold the canonical Domain only. Live adds `.com` and each [Market](/business/nouns/market)'s extension, and later states add misspellings that draw traffic. |

## Verbs
| Verb | Object | Event |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Domain.register](/business/nouns/domain/register) | [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) | [`Domain.registered`](/business/events/Domain.registered) |
| [Domain.transfer](/business/nouns/domain/transfer) | [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) | [`Domain.transferred`](/business/events/Domain.transferred) |
| [Domain.search](/business/nouns/domain/search) | [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) | [`Domain.searched`](/business/events/Domain.searched) |
| [Domain.renew](/business/nouns/domain/renew) | [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) | [`Domain.renewed`](/business/events/Domain.renewed) |
| [Domain.release](/business/nouns/domain/release) | [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) | [`Domain.released`](/business/events/Domain.released) |

## Interfaces
- [API](/code/api/reference)
- [SDK](/code/sdk/reference)
- [CLI](/code/cli/reference)
- [MCP](/code/mcp/reference)

## Example
A recipe-scaling app registers its canonical Domain at Idea and adds the `.com` at Live. Two years later, at its sale, its registrar account moves whole to the buyer, and neither name lapses in between.