ChanTan Studio DocsHow to Publish Your App in ChanTan Studio
Put your app online at a real web address in 1–4 minutes. Pick your free chantan.one address, publish, and learn how to push later edits live with Update.
While you are building, your app lives only in your private preview. Publishing copies it onto the public internet at a real web address, so anyone can open it in a browser — no login, no ChanTan account.
Good to know before you start:
- Publishing takes about 1–4 minutes. You can close the window — it keeps going in the background.
- The address itself is free forever, and HTTPS (the padlock) is set up for you automatically. Keeping the site online is what costs a small monthly credit charge, and only after the first month.
- Hosting is free for the first month for each published app. After that a small monthly credit charge applies — see ChanTan Cloud hosting billing for the amount and the current status of that charge.
- The preview link is not the way to share your site. It's a temporary private preview that goes to sleep. The published address is the real, permanent one.
1. Press "Publish"
The "Publish" button is the last item in your project header (tooltip: "Publish your app to the web"). On a phone it's the round rocket icon at the end of the header row.
If it's greyed out, the AI is still working — the tooltip says "Hang tight — you can publish once generating finishes". Wait for it to finish.
2. Choose "Free address"
A window opens: "Where will people visit your site?" with three cards.
| Card | Badge | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| "Free address" | "FREE · FASTEST" | my-app.chantan.one |
| "I have a domain" | — | Use a domain you already own |
| "Buy a domain" | "FROM $1/YEAR" | Get yoursite.com — everything set up for you |
⚠️ "FROM $1/YEAR" is a badge, not a price. It's the cheapest extension anyone has ever seen, not what your name will cost. The price on the search result is the real one, and renewals cost more than the first year — see domain renewals and pricing.
Press "Free address". These are not either/or: your free address is always created first and keeps working forever, and a domain of your own is added on top of it later.
3. Pick your address name
Tapping "Free address" doesn't publish yet — it opens "Pick your free address", pre-filled with your project name.
⚠️ "Choose carefully — your web address can't be changed later." One address per project, permanently. If you later want a different address, connect a domain of your own — that's the supported way.
The rules for the name:
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 3–30 characters |
| Allowed | lowercase letters, numbers and dashes |
| Must start and end with | a letter or a number — no dash at either end |
| Capitals, spaces, accents | cleaned automatically as you type |
| Blocked | around 45 reserved words such as www, app, admin, api, mail, support, blog, dashboard, login |
The box checks as you type. A green check with "Available!" means you're good.
If it shows a red cross, the message tells you exactly why:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Use at least 3 characters." | Make the name longer |
| "It can't start or end with a dash." | Move the dash into the middle |
| "That name is reserved." | Pick another word |
| "Use 3-30 letters, numbers and dashes." | Remove anything that isn't a letter, number or dash |
| "That address is taken." | Somebody claimed it — add a word or a dash |
| "Couldn't check that address right now — keep typing or try again." | The check itself failed. It answers "not available" on purpose so a name is never handed out twice |
4. Press "Publish my app"
You'll see "Publishing your app…" with the honest note: "This usually takes 1–4 minutes. You can close this — we'll keep going in the background."
Five steps run in order:
- "Preparing your files"
- "Waking the builder"
- "Sending your latest changes"
- "Building & uploading your app"
- "Going live"
A timer runs underneath, and after 3 minutes it adds "Still working — bigger apps take a little longer." Closing the window cancels nothing.
5. Open your live site
When it finishes you get "🎉 Your app is live!" — with confetti, your full address in a copy box, and a big "Visit your site" button.
✅ Done! Your app is live at https://your-name.chantan.one. Anyone with the link can open it in a browser — visitors do not need a ChanTan account, and the padlock (HTTPS) is already there.
Remember the most important sentence on that screen:
"Future edits stay private until you press Update."
Pushing your later edits live
Chat messages, click-to-edit changes, new pages, new photos — all of it stays private until you publish again.
- Press the header button, now reading "Update" with an amber dot.
- The "Your published app" window shows your live address (with "Copy" and "Visit") and a status line — a green dot and "Live · published {ago}", or an amber dot and "You have changes that aren't live yet."
- Press "Update site".
If the button is greyed out, nothing has changed since your last publish — the tooltip reads "Your live site is up to date". Any difference counts, including replacing a single photo.
Updating never takes your site down. The new version is uploaded completely and switched over in one instant at the end. If the build fails earlier, your old site keeps serving — the error screen promises exactly that: "Your current live site is untouched." Visitors see the new version as soon as they reload.
A collapsible "Previous versions" list shows your last few deployments with their time and status.
⚠️ That list is history only — there is no "restore this version" button. To change what is live, edit your app (or use Undo in the chat) and publish again.
Taking your site offline
Publish window → "More options" → "Take my site offline" (red) → confirm.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I keep my address? | Yes — it stays reserved to this project permanently |
| What do visitors see? | A plain page: "Nothing here yet — There is no app published at this address." Search engines are told not to list it |
| Can I put it back? | Yes — press Publish again; it rebuilds at the same address |
| Are my project files deleted? | No. Only the public copy is removed — your project, chat, files and data are untouched |
| Is it instant? | No — republishing runs the full build again, so 1–4 minutes |
| What about my custom domain? | It stays attached, but has nothing to serve until you publish again |
Taking a site offline also stops its hosting charge — the app stops counting as hosted from that moment.
If publishing fails
Every publish error shows the reassurance "Your current live site is untouched.", a "Try again" button, and a "Technical details" section you can expand. If the publish itself succeeded but the live site looks wrong, that's a different problem — see published site problems.
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "This project has no files to publish yet — build something first." | Ask the AI in the chat to build your app first |
| "Could not start the builder…" / "The builder took too long to start. Try again." | A temporary problem with the build machine — retry |
| "Could not sync your latest files… Try again." / "The build could not start… Try again." | Temporary — retry |
| "The app failed to build. Check the technical details and fix the error, or try again." | A real error in your app. Open "Technical details", then describe it in the chat and ask the AI to fix it |
| "Publishing took too long and was stopped. Try again." | The build hit its time limit — retry |
| "Publishing was interrupted. Try again." | The publish died and was reset for you — retry |
| "The build produced no publishable files." / "The build produced no index.html." | Your app didn't build into a website — ask the AI to check it |
| "This app is too large to publish (200 MB limit)." | Remove or compress large photos and videos |
| "This file contains <secret>. Secret keys must never ship in a published app…" | Ask the AI to move that key to the server side and use the public key in the browser |
| "Publishing failed — open Publish to retry" | The window was closed. Reopen Publish and retry |
Honest limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Files in one published app | 2,000 |
| One file | 25 MB |
| Whole app | 200 MB |
A private key can never be published. If one is found, the publish is refused with an explanation. This protection cannot be turned off — it is protecting you, because a published app is readable by anyone.
Your free address is yours from the moment you claim it. Before anything is live, visiting it shows a plain page: "Nothing here yet — There is no app published at this address."