> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.bolt.new/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Publish your project to a live website
> Publish your project to a free `bolt.host` address.
Bolt offers built-in hosting, so you can publish your Bolt project for free at a web address ending in `bolt.host`. You don't need to set up a separate account with a third-party hosting service: just open the **Publish** menu to get started.
When you publish, you choose whether your site is visible to everyone on the web (public) or only to your team and other people you invite (private). Private sites are useful for sharing in-progress work with specific collaborators or with your organization before it's ready for public launch.
If you belong to a team, other members of your team can view your site by default, even if it's private. Team admins can also [set site visibility to private only or public only](/account-and-subscription/teams/project-controls#set-published-site-visibility) for all team projects. If your team has a global visibility setting, you'll see it in the **Publish** menu.
If you're on a paid plan and you'd rather use your own web address, you can [attach a custom domain](/cloud/domains/connect) you own (like `yoursite.com`) or [buy a domain through Bolt](/cloud/domains/purchase).
Bolt also checks for security vulnerabilities each time you publish, so you can catch issues before they go live.
Always use the **Publish** or **Update** button in the `Publish` menu to publish your site, since these options don't use tokens. Prompting Bolt to publish your project decreases your token balance.
## Publish your project as a publicly available site
Only the project owner or collaborators with [Co-owner permissions](/building/using-bolt/sharing/#access-by-role) can publish the project, update its visibility, and manage access. Collaborators and teammates can view the published site but can't perform these actions themselves.
When your site is public, anyone on the web can view it and search engines can find and list it in search results. In the `Publish` menu, the default visibility is public. If you only want invited users to see your site, [publish it as private](#publish-your-project-as-a-private-site-with-restricted-access) instead.
To publish your project as a public site:
1. In the top-right corner of your screen, click **Publish**.
2. In the `Publish your project` menu, click **Publish** again.
3. Wait about a minute for Bolt to deploy your site.
4. Click the link that appears in the chat window to open your site in a new browser tab.
5. (Optional) Attach a [custom domain](/cloud/domains) if you're on a paid plan.
## Publish your project as a private site with restricted access
When your site is private, only your team and invited users can see it. It's not generally accessible on the web, and search engines can't find or list it in search results. Publishing a project as a private site lets you share it with collaborators while continuing to develop it for public launch.
Sites with a custom domain can only be published publicly. To publish privately, first [disconnect the domain](/cloud/domains/connect#disconnect-a-domain).
To publish your project as a private site:
1. In the top-right corner of your screen, click **Publish**.
2. In the `Publish your project` menu, change the visibility from **Public** to **Private**.
3. (Optional) Click **Manage access** to [add collaborators or domain access](#manage-access-for-collaborators-and-trusted-domains) to your site. If you're not ready to add viewers yet, you can update your site later to manage who can see it.
4. Wait about a minute for Bolt to deploy your site.
5. Click the link that appears in the chat window to open your site in a new browser tab.
### Manage access for collaborators and trusted domains
You can invite individual collaborators using an email address or add a trusted domain so that any user whose email address belongs to a certain domain (for example, `exampleco.com`) can view your site. Adding a trusted domain reduces the effort when sharing openly within your company or organization.
If you're on a team, you don't have to invite your teammates individually. They have access to view your site by default.
To manage access to your private site:
1. In the upper-right corner of your screen, in the `Publish` menu, make sure the site visibility is set to `Private`.
2. Click **Manage access**.
Enter the email address of each user you want to add, then click **Invite**.
1. To the right of `Trusted domains`, click **Manage**.
2. Enter any domain whose viewers should automatically get viewing access. For example, if you enter `exampleco.com`, any user whose address ends in `@exampleco.com` can see your site.
3. Click **Save domains**.
Do one of the following:
* To publish your project for the first time, click **Publish**.
* To update access to a previously published site, click **Update**.
You can see that you've added a trusted domain or invited individual viewers. You can also see that viewers who haven't yet accepted your invitation show a `Pending` status, as shown in the screenshot below:
### Resend an invitation or remove a viewer
To resend an invitation or remove a viewer from your private site:
1. In the upper-right corner of your screen, click **Publish**.
2. Click **Manage access**.
3. Next to the viewer you want to manage, click the three dots (**...**).
4. Do one of the following:
* To resend an invitation to a pending viewer, click **Resend invite**.
* To remove a viewer's access, click **Remove**.
## Review security
During publishing, Bolt automatically checks for security vulnerabilities. If Bolt finds any issues it alerts you and provides a `Review security` link, which takes you to the [Security Audit](/cloud/database/security) section in your Project Settings. From there, you can click the **Ask Bolt to fix** button to resolve issues automatically.
If Bolt doesn't detect any vulnerabilities, or if you've already fixed them, the `Publish` menu shows the message `No security issues`.
## Change your `bolt.host` URL
The first time you publish your site, Bolt automatically creates a random `bolt.host` URL name for you.
After publishing, you can change your `bolt.host` domain name by following these steps:
1. In the `Publish` menu, to the right of your domain URL, click the **Edit domain** (pencil icon).
2. Enter your new domain URL.
3. If you want to immediately republish your site using the new domain URL, select **Republish after updating**.
4. Click **Save**.
## Publish changes to your live site
After you publish, changes you make to your Bolt project aren't automatically applied to your published site. This lets you continue working on your project and control when to make updates live.
To publish changes, in the `Publish` menu, click **Update**.
## Unpublish your Bolt-hosted site
If you need to take your site offline, and you published it with Bolt hosting, follow the steps in this section to unpublish your project safely.
Before you begin, check whether your project is using a custom domain. If so, you have to [disconnect the custom domain](/cloud/domains/connect#disconnect-a-domain) before you unpublish your site. After the site is unpublished, you can reconnect the domain at any time if you decide to publish again.
1. In the **Publish** menu, click **Unpublish**.
2. Click **Unpublish** again to confirm.