> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.apostra.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Which domain is which
> Your account's registered domain, your brand domain, and your publisher domains do different jobs — and only one of them is the inventory you sell
## Overview
Three different domains describe a seller, and they are routinely confused with each other because a small publisher has one domain doing all three jobs. The moment they differ — a rebrand, a holding company, a network selling someone else's sites — the distinction decides whether your storefront can go live.
| Domain | What it answers | Where it lives |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Registered domain** | Which account is this, and do we know you own it? | On your account, normally from the email you signed up with |
| **Brand domain** (previously called the operator domain) | Who is selling, commercially? | `businessProfile` → `operatorDomain`; identity resolved from its `brand.json` |
| **Publisher domain** | What inventory is being sold? | `businessProfile.publisherDomains`; authorization resolved from each domain's `adagents.json` |
Only the third is inventory. Your brand domain is **never** a product's coverage.
### A worked example
Raptive operates a network and sells CafeMedia's sites:
* **Registered domain** `raptive.com` — the account was created by someone with a `@raptive.com` email.
* **Brand domain** `raptive.com` — Raptive is who the buyer is dealing with.
* **Publisher domains** `cafemedia.com`, `wholesomeyum.com`, … — the sites whose inventory is for sale, each with its own `adagents.json`.
Here the registered and brand domains happen to match. That is the easy case and it verifies automatically. The rest of this page is about when they do not.
## Why the brand domain has to be verified
Your brand domain is your buyer-facing identity: it is where we read your logo and company description, and it is what a buyer sees they are transacting with. So we do not take it on assertion. **An unverified brand domain blocks go-live** — it appears as the `operator_domain` readiness check and stays a blocker until it resolves.
Verification has two shapes depending on whether the brand domain matches the domain your account is registered under.
### It matches your registered domain
Your registered domain must be **approved** — either a member of the account has a matching email address proving ownership, or Apostra attests it. Once approved, a brand domain equal to it verifies automatically.
If it stays pending here, the account domain has not been approved yet. That is the thing to chase, not the brand domain.
### It differs — a rebrand, an alias, or a holding company
This is the case that generates support tickets. A seller registers as `spanglishmovies.com` and sells as `latinxctv.com`; a company owns both `loopme.ai` and `loopme.com`. Both are legitimate, and neither verifies on assertion.
Two conditions must hold, in order:
1. **Your registered account domain is approved** (as above). Alias evidence is never a way around this — an unapproved account cannot verify any brand domain.
2. **Published evidence links the two domains to the same organization or ownership chain.** We look for either:
* **AAO brand hierarchy** — both domains resolve into a shared ownership chain in the registry, or
* **`brand.json`** — one domain's manifest names the other. An `authorized_operators` entry carrying the other domain counts, as does a manifest that otherwise links to it.
**A website redirect is not ownership proof.** Pointing `old.com` at `new.com`, or serving the same site from both, does not verify anything. The evidence has to be a published claim — registry hierarchy or a `brand.json` manifest — not server behavior.
If the evidence does not exist, publishing or correcting it is the fix, and it is yours to make: we read what you publish. If the evidence does exist and the check is still pending, it is waiting on Apostra review — either it was not accepted or it was not detected automatically.
## Changing your brand domain
Rebrands happen, and so do accounts registered under the wrong domain. Setting a **new** brand domain re-runs verification against it from scratch, so expect the readiness check to return to pending until the new domain resolves.
Two properties worth knowing:
* **Re-saving the same brand domain does not re-run anything.** A brand domain already verified — including one an Apostra admin attested manually — keeps its verification when you update other parts of your business profile. A profile update cannot silently un-verify you.
* **Evidence lookups fail closed.** If the registry or `brand.json` lookup times out, the result is "not verified", never "verified". A pending check after a change may simply mean the lookup has not completed against fresh evidence yet — re-save the domain to retry.
## When it stays pending
Work down this list; each step is a different owner.
1. **Is your account's registered domain approved?** Nothing else can succeed first. Needs a member email matching the domain, or Apostra attestation.
2. **Does your brand domain match the registered domain?** If yes and it is still pending, the blocker is step 1.
3. **If it differs, is the linking evidence published?** Check that the AAO registry resolves both domains into one ownership chain, or that one domain's `brand.json` names the other. Redirects do not count.
4. **Evidence published and still pending?** It is with Apostra for review. Your agent can file that for you — ask it to, rather than waiting.
## Related
Declaring the domains you sell, and why one is not authorized.
How `adagents.json`, `brand.json`, and manager domains resolve.
How publisher domains and properties become buyer-visible coverage.
Brand domain, publisher, property, and coverage defined.