Verify Your Domain for AI Agents
Why AI agents need a verified domain, and how to prove it with a DNS record, a file or a tag on your home page.
Before AI agents can find your business, you prove that the website is yours. This page explains why, and walks through the three ways to prove it. You do it on the AI agents on your site tile, in Dashboard → Integrations, under Verify your domain. The feature itself is described in AI Agents on Your Site.
Why verification exists
An AI agent that asks for a business by its website address needs to reach the real business. Without a proof of ownership, another person could add a website under your address in NovixAgent AI, switch on access for AI agents, and have customers' assistants talk to an impostor that borrows your name.
Verification closes that gap. You publish a short value we gave you, in a place only the owner of the domain controls. We read it, and only then does your business become findable. We read it again each week, so a domain that changes hands stops being served on the old owner's behalf.
What you need
- The owner role on the website in NovixAgent AI. Only the owner verifies a domain.
- A public website address saved for the website. An address that is empty, or that is not a public domain name, is not verified; correct the website's address first.
- Control of at least one of three places: the DNS settings of your domain, a place on your website where you can publish a plain text file, or the head of your home page.
Choose a method
The screen offers three tabs. Pick the one your setup allows; each proves the same thing.
| Method | Pick it when |
|---|---|
| DNS record | You manage your DNS yourself or through a provider you can log in to. |
| File on your site | You can publish a plain text file at a fixed address on your own server or hosting. |
| Tag on your home page | Your website builder offers neither of the above but lets you add custom or header code. |
DNS record
- Open the DNS settings for your domain, where you manage it.
- Add a TXT record with the Name and Value the screen shows. The name starts with
_novixagent-site-verification. Some providers add your domain to the end of the name themselves; others want the full name, which the screen shows as Full name. - Use the shortest TTL your provider offers, so the change shows quickly.
- Save the record, then press Check now. A DNS change can take up to 48 hours to spread.
File on your site
- Create a plain text file whose only content is the File content the screen shows.
- Publish it at the Address of the file: your website address, then
/.well-known/novixagent-site-verification, over HTTPS. - Open that address in your browser to make sure it shows the text, then press Check now.
The file is read over HTTPS. If your website redirects between the bare domain and its www. version, we follow that one redirect; a redirect to somewhere else, or a page that asks for a sign-in, counts as not found.
Tag on your home page
- Copy the Tag the screen shows.
- Paste it inside the
<head>section of your home page. Website builders usually call this custom code or header code in the site settings. - Publish the change, then press Check now.
If visitors can post content on your home page, use the DNS record instead: a tag added by a visitor would prove only that a visitor can post.
Check now
Check now looks for your proof straight away and shows when the last check ran. The answer is one of these:
| Answer | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| Verified | Done. Leave the record, file or tag in place; it is checked again each week. |
| We did not find it yet | We found no proof at the place we looked. A DNS record can take time to spread; a file or a tag shows as soon as it is published. Check again in a few minutes. This answer is also given when your website refuses our check, so a site that is not reachable looks the same as a proof that is not published yet. |
| We found something, but it is not the value shown | Something is published there, with another value. Replace it with the value on the screen. Each website has its own value. |
| Another account already holds the domain | See When another account holds the domain. |
| The check could not run because of a problem on our side | Try again in a few minutes. |
| Our checks do not visit this address | The address is on a list our checks keep away from, so it is not verified here. Write to support@novixagent.ai if you think this is a mistake. |
| The address saved for this website is unusable | The saved address is empty or is not a public domain name. Correct the website's address, then return. |
Checks are limited for each website, to protect your domain's server and ours. When you press Check now too often, the screen tells you how long to wait.
The bare domain and the www address
The bare domain and its www. version count as one business: acme.com and www.acme.com are not verified for different websites. Publish the proof under the address saved for your website, as the screen shows it.
After you are verified
- We check again each week. When the proof is missing at several weekly checks in a row, the verification lapses and AI agents are turned away. The screen counts the weeks and says how many the lapse takes.
- Our own outage does not count against you. A check run is discarded when our side was not reachable, so only a proof that is truly missing on your side can lapse.
- A lapse shows on the tile. The tile reads Domain verification lapsed, and the switch Let AI agents reach this site says why it is not working. Publish the proof again and press Check now.
- A change of address ends it. When the address saved for the website changes, or the website is deleted, the verification ends. The new address needs its own.
When another account holds the domain
One domain belongs to one business. If another NovixAgent AI account has already verified your domain, Check now answers that another account holds it: that account's proof is still in place on your domain, so yours is not enough yet.
- If the other account is yours, for example an earlier website with the same domain or an old trial, delete that website or remove its proof from your domain.
- If you think a different person verified your domain, you control the domain, so remove from it the records, files or tags of ours that you did not add yourself. Keep your own proof in place and press Check now again. When we find your proof and the other account's proof is gone, your website is verified and the other account's verification ends in the same check.
- If you see the same answer after that, write to support@novixagent.ai.
If it isn't working
- A proxy, firewall or CDN is in front of your website. It may block our check or answer with a sign-in or challenge page. Let the file address through, or use the DNS record instead.
- The file has more than the value. Keep only the value in the file, with no extra text. A trailing line break is fine.
- The tag is not in the head. A tag in the page body is not read. Put it inside
<head>, and only on the home page. - The record has the wrong name. Some providers add your domain themselves, which doubles it when you paste the full name. Use the short name first, and the Full name if your provider asks for it.
- The website's address was recently changed. Verify the new address; the old proof no longer applies.
Plan and limits
Verification is part of switching on AI agents on your site; it has no separate allowance. How the checks are limited is in AI Agent Access: Limits and Plans.