Guides
AI built your website. Make sure you own it.
AI made building a website easier. It shouldn’t make you less in control of yours. These guides take you from “I made a site with AI” to owning the domain, the code, the hosting and the accounts, with the ability to take it all somewhere else if you ever need to.
They’re written for the owner of the site, not a developer. If you built it with Lovable, Replit, Bolt, v0, Claude, Cursor or another AI tool and aren’t sure what you actually have, start with the overview, then come back here for the practical steps.
In reading order
Each guide stands alone. Read in order, they walk through the ownership questions one at a time: the address, the files, the service that runs them, and how to move any of it.
- 01
Where is my website hosted?
A step-by-step diagnostic for finding out who hosts your website, where its code is, whether there’s a GitHub repository, and who controls each account, starting with nothing but your domain name.
About a 14 minute read
- 02
How to register a domain you actually own
How to register a domain so that you, not a developer, agency or website builder, control it: whose account it should be, the settings to turn on the same day, how to give a developer access without giving away the domain, and what to save.
About a 10 minute read
- 03
GitHub for website owners who aren’t developers
GitHub explained for people who own a website but don’t write code: what a repository is, why your site’s files should be in one under your account, and what to check so you could take them elsewhere.
About a 9 minute read
- 04
GitHub is not your web host
GitHub stores the code for your website. A host such as Cloudflare, Vercel or Netlify serves it to visitors. DNS connects your domain to the host. Why these are separate, and who should control each one.
About a 7 minute read
- 05
How to put your website’s code in GitHub
How to get the actual source code of your website into a GitHub repository you control, whether it’s already on GitHub under someone else’s account, only on a developer’s computer, or inside an AI or site-building platform. With a verification checklist.
About a 11 minute read
- 06
Environment variables and secrets for website owners
Why a site whose code you own can still fail to run anywhere else: the settings and secrets the host holds outside the code. What they are, where they live, how to inventory them, which are safe to see and which must be rotated, and how to recreate them on another host.
About a 9 minute read
- 07
Where your website’s data lives
Owning the repository is not the same as owning the website. The database, uploaded files, user accounts, form submissions, CMS content and analytics each live in a service with its own owner. How to find every one, work out whose account it’s in, check whether the data can be exported, and record what would have to move.
About a 9 minute read
- 08
How to change DNS without breaking your website or email
A cautious procedure for changing DNS records or nameservers: capture what exists first, work out which records support the website and which support email and other services, change the least you can, and verify everything afterwards.
About a 11 minute read
- 09
How to move your website to a new host without downtime
The sequence for moving a website between hosts while it stays online: inventory the current setup, build and verify on the new host’s own address first, reproduce the configuration, lower TTLs, change only the website records, watch HTTPS, keep email working, and keep a way back.
About a 10 minute read
- 10
How to transfer a domain to an account you control
A safe procedure for moving a domain into a registrar account you control: work out whether you need a transfer at all, preserve the current DNS, unlock, get the authorization code, approve, and verify that the website and email still work.
About a 10 minute read
- 11
How to give a developer or coding agent access without sharing your passwords
The order of preference for letting someone work on your site: their own account with the smallest role that does the job, then a scoped token, and a shared password only when nothing else exists. Covers the domain and DNS, GitHub, hosting, databases and services, and AI coding tools, and what to revoke when the work ends.
About a 9 minute read
- 12
How to take your website with you when you leave an AI builder
Leaving an AI website builder means more than downloading the code. An inventory of everything a site depends on, from the domain to the database to the secrets, and a structured checklist for moving it all.
About a 10 minute read
- 13
Is your AI-built website actually portable?
A concrete portability test for a website built with an AI tool: nine questions about the code, the accounts, the hosting, the domain, the data, the credentials and the deployment path, with a way to score where you stand and what to fix first.
About a 7 minute read
Deploying and connecting
The practical jobs that come up once the code is in a repository you control: putting the site on a host, and pointing a domain at it without disturbing email or anything else the domain does.
How to deploy a GitHub website to Vercel
Deploy a website from a GitHub repository you control to Vercel: import the repository, let Vercel detect the framework, set the root directory and environment variables, test on the vercel.app address, then add your domain with the exact records Vercel asks for.
About a 8 minute read
How to deploy a GitHub website to Netlify
Deploy a website from a GitHub repository you control to Netlify: import the repository, confirm the detected build settings and base directory, add environment variables, test on the netlify.app address, then add your domain with the records Netlify asks for and keep your DNS where it is.
About a 7 minute read
How to deploy a GitHub website to Cloudflare
Deploy a website from a GitHub repository you control to Cloudflare: choose between Workers and Pages, connect the repository, set the build settings, add variables and secrets, test on the provider address, then add your domain, which for the bare domain means its DNS must be at Cloudflare.
About a 7 minute read
How to connect a custom domain to your website without breaking email
Connect a domain to a new host by changing only the website records: apex and www, A, AAAA and CNAME, provider verification records, when nameservers must change and when they mustn’t, why MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC stay untouched, Cloudflare proxying, conflicting provider instructions, and how to verify the site and email afterwards.
About a 10 minute read
When something’s broken
Symptom first, then the fastest check that tells you which of the usual causes you’ve got. For the moments a domain or a deployment stops behaving.
Why is my website not showing after I changed DNS?
A diagnostic for a site that isn’t appearing after a DNS change: how to tell caching from a configuration that will never work, then checks for a wrong record, the wrong DNS provider, nameservers pointing elsewhere, apex and www mismatches, leftover records, stale AAAA records, proxying, pending verification and pending certificates.
About a 9 minute read
Why does www work but my domain without www doesn’t?
example.com and www.example.com are two different DNS names, each needing its own record, its own entry at the host and its own place on the certificate. How to find which of those is missing, the apex versus www rules, redirects versus DNS, and how Vercel, Netlify and Cloudflare handle both names.
About a 7 minute read
Why isn’t my website updating after I deployed new code?
A trace from edit to browser for a change that isn’t showing on the live site: was it committed, pushed, on the right branch, picked up by the host, built successfully, made production, served through the CDN, and shown by your browser? Includes the case where the domain points at a different host than the one you deployed to.
About a 9 minute read
Why isn’t HTTPS working on my website?
A diagnostic for certificate errors and “not secure” warnings: read the browser’s error, then check whether DNS points at the host yet, whether the certificate is still being issued, whether both apex and www are attached, whether a CAA record is blocking issuance, whether Cloudflare’s proxy or SSL mode is the cause, whether old records or an expired certificate are being served, and when mixed content is the real explanation.
About a 9 minute read
Removing platform dependencies
Owning the code doesn’t always mean the whole site is portable. These guides go deeper on the specific things that can keep a site tied to its builder afterwards: a builder-run backend, builder-managed sign-in, a domain bought inside the builder, and the subscription itself. Each says what the platform currently documents, and where it doesn’t.
How to move a Lovable Cloud site toward your own Supabase
What Lovable currently lets you export from a Lovable Cloud backend, what it doesn’t, and what a realistic move to a Supabase project you control looks like: a new project, the schema from your repository, the data from an export, and users, files, functions and secrets recreated. With a move-versus-recreate table and a before-you-change-anything checklist.
About a 10 minute read
How to move a Bolt Database into your own Supabase account
What Bolt’s Claim action does to a Bolt Database, what account the database is in before and after, what Bolt’s documentation says moves and what it doesn’t specify, how billing changes, whether Bolt keeps working afterwards, and why exporting tables as CSV is not the same thing. With before-and-after checklists.
About a 7 minute read
How to replace Replit Auth with authentication you control
What Replit Auth depends on, what user data exists and what can be exported, what Replit’s documented migration to Clerk does and doesn’t give you, what it takes to run sign-in from an account you own, and the safe sequence for a site with real users. The hard part is the users, not the login screen.
About a 11 minute read
How to move a domain you bought through an AI website builder
A domain bought inside Lovable, Bolt or Replit is registered somewhere on your behalf. How to find out where, whether you have registrar credentials at all, and how each builder currently lets you move the domain into an account you control: transfer out, account push, or a support request. With what to document first and what happens to DNS, email and the site.
About a 10 minute read
What happens to your website if you stop paying your AI website builder?
For Lovable, Bolt, Replit and v0, only what each platform’s current documentation says happens to the code, GitHub sync, the live deployment, a custom domain, the backend and paid features when you downgrade, cancel, delete the account or stop paying, with the gaps marked as unverified. Plus a pre-cancellation checklist.
About a 14 minute read
AI builder ownership
For each builder, two guides checked against its current documentation: what you own and what still depends on the platform, and the procedure for taking the site with you. Start with the portability test if you want the platform-neutral version first.
Lovable
Do you actually own your Lovable site?
What you own when you build with Lovable, and what still depends on Lovable: the code and GitHub sync, hosting, domains bought through Lovable, Lovable Cloud versus your own Supabase, secrets, and what the documentation says happens when you stop paying. With an ownership checklist.
About a 8 minute read
How to move a Lovable website to GitHub and your own hosting
What Lovable lets you take with you today: GitHub sync, code download, Lovable Cloud versus your own Supabase, custom domains, and the migration sequence from export to your own host.
About a 10 minute read
Bolt
Do you actually own your Bolt site?
What you own when you build with Bolt, and what still depends on Bolt: the code and its GitHub sync, Bolt Hosting, domains bought through Bolt, Bolt Database versus your own Supabase, secrets, and what the documentation says happens when you stop paying. With an ownership checklist.
About a 8 minute read
How to move a Bolt website to GitHub and your own hosting
What Bolt lets you take with you today: GitHub sync, ZIP download, Bolt Hosting and Bolt Database versus your own Supabase, custom domains, and the migration sequence from export to your own host.
About a 9 minute read
Replit
Do you actually own your Replit site?
What you own when you build on Replit, and what still depends on Replit: the code and how to push it to GitHub, Replit’s publishing and deployments, its databases, Replit Auth, App Storage, secrets, domains bought through Replit, and what the documentation says happens when you stop paying. With an ownership checklist.
About a 8 minute read
How to move a Replit website to GitHub and your own hosting
What Replit lets you take with you today: pushing to GitHub, downloading the project, the Replit database, auth and storage services and how portable each is, deployments and custom domains, and the migration sequence.
About a 9 minute read
v0
Do you actually own your v0 site?
What you own when you build with v0, and what still depends on v0 or Vercel: the generated code and its GitHub connection, the Vercel project v0 deploys to, custom domains, environment variables, Marketplace integrations, and how to confirm another developer or agent could take over. With an ownership checklist.
About a 7 minute read
How to move a v0 website to GitHub and your own hosting
What v0 lets you take with you today: GitHub sync, code download, the Vercel project v0 deploys to, integrations provisioned through Vercel, and what “leaving v0” means when the hosting is already yours.
About a 8 minute read
The short version
Owning a website means controlling four separate things: the domain, the source code, the hosting, and the accounts the site depends on. Each has its own login and its own owner, and each can be checked in an afternoon without reading any code.
Once you do own it, you shouldn’t need to prompt an AI every time you want to change a sentence. That’s the problem Refino exists to solve, and it only works on a site you own in the ways these guides describe.
Get started
Your first site is free.
Sign in with GitHub, connect the site you built with AI, and change its words yourself. Free covers one site, with no card and no end date. Pro covers up to five.
Questions first? Email hello@refino.dev. We read every message and reply ourselves.