Domains & Publishing

URL structure

Your help center always has a default URL pattern:

https://app.haloagents.ai/hc/{your-slug}

Where {your-slug} is the help center’s slug (configurable in Settings). This URL works immediately, before any DNS configuration. Use it for previewing while you finish setup. For non-default languages, paths include the language prefix:

/hc/{slug}/es/getting-started/
/hc/{slug}/fr/integrations/

Going live

Help centers have an is_live flag. When off, the help center is in preview mode:

Search engines see noindex, nofollow (regardless of other settings)
Anonymous visitors can browse but it’s clearly preview

Set is_live to on in Settings when you’re ready for the public. You can also gate indexing separately with disable_search_indexing — useful when your help center is live but you don’t want search engines to crawl yet.

Custom domains

To serve your help center at help.yourcompany.com instead of /hc/{slug}:

Add the domain

Go to Help Center > Settings > Custom Domain. Click Add Domain and enter help.yourcompany.com.

Configure DNS

Halo shows a CNAME target. Add a CNAME record at your DNS provider:

Name: help (or whatever subdomain)
Type: CNAME
Value: the target Halo provides

Provider-specific hints in the dashboard: Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap.

Verify

Click Verify DNS. Once propagation completes (typically 5–30 minutes; up to 48 hours), the status turns to Verified.

SSL provisions automatically

Halo provisions an SSL certificate. The ssl_status flips to active once issued (usually within minutes after DNS verification).

After this, help.yourcompany.com serves your help center directly. Internally, requests are rewritten to /hc/{slug}/... paths.

Search indexing & robots

Halo sets per-page robots metadata based on:

Help center	Article	Result
Live, indexing on	Public + published	`index, follow`
Live, indexing off	(any)	`noindex, nofollow`
Not live	(any)	`noindex, nofollow`
Live, indexing on	Authenticated/draft	`noindex, nofollow`

Sitemaps are auto-generated at /hc/{slug}/sitemap.xml (or /sitemap.xml on a custom domain).

Authenticated articles (SSO/JWT)

For articles with visibility: authenticated or visibility: company_specific, configure auth in Settings:

Setting	Purpose
`auth_provider`	Which auth scheme — currently JWT-based
`jwt_secret`	Shared secret for verifying JWTs (encrypted at rest)
`login_url`	Where to redirect unauthenticated users

When set up, your app generates a JWT for the logged-in user (with claims like company_id), passes it to the help center via a hc_token cookie, and the help center allows access to authorized articles. Without auth configured, restricted articles show a “Sign in required” empty state. For company-specific articles, also set allowed_company_ids on the article — the JWT’s company_id claim must match.

Settings reference

The full settings list at Help Center > Settings:

Field	Purpose
`name`, `slug`	Display name and URL slug
`is_live`	Public visibility master switch
`disable_search_indexing`	Override `robots` to `noindex`
`default_language`, `supported_languages`	i18n setup
`default_seo_title_template`	E.g. `"	"`
`default_seo_description`	Site-wide default
`default_og_image_url`	Default OG image
`ga_measurement_id`, `gtm_id`	Google Analytics / Tag Manager
`custom_head_code`, `custom_body_code`	Custom HTML in head/body
`auth_provider`, `jwt_secret`, `login_url`	Auth for restricted articles
`default_article_visibility`	Default visibility for new articles
`notification_settings`	AI new article, gap detection, migration complete, etc.

Where to go next

Design

Theme your help center for production.

Migrating

Import existing content before going live.

Analytics

Track pageviews and search queries after launch.

​URL structure

​Going live

​Custom domains

​Search indexing & robots

​Authenticated articles (SSO/JWT)

​Settings reference

​Where to go next