Where this lives. Sign in and open /infrastructure in the app.
What it does
The Infrastructure page is where a new sending domain gets acquired. On screen it is labeled "Domain & Inbox Forge," and the same page is also reachable at /domain-inbox-forge, which simply redirects here, and from the Buy / check domains button on the Domains page.
The page has four tabs: Setup workflow, Domain search, DNS manager, and Mailbox profiles. Setup workflow is the core of this article: it runs an approval-gated automation, called a run, that checks a domain at your connected registrar, prices it, and registers it only after you approve the charge. Setup workflow offers two modes, switched with the Autopilot / Pilot toggle in the top right.
Autopilot starts a real run tracked step by step: check availability at your registrar, stop for your approval, register the domain, then a note step pointing you to DNS Activation. Pilot instead shows a five-item manual checklist (choose a domain strategy, check availability and purchase, prepare DNS, create mailboxes, start warmup) with no automated run behind it, for a self-guided setup.
Before you start
- Your workspace needs a registrar connected so the page can check live availability and pricing. Without one, the check step has nothing to query.
- Autopilot's purchase step goes through the same purchase pipeline used everywhere else in the product: nothing is charged until you approve, and the worker re-verifies the live price right before charging it.
- A run only acquires the domain itself. DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX) and mailboxes are set up afterward, from the domain's own Activation page, not by this run.
Set it up, step by step
- On the Infrastructure page, make sure the Setup workflow tab and Autopilot mode are selected (both are the default).
- Type the domain you want under Domain to check and purchase, for example
acme-outreach.com. - Leave Dry run — check and price for real, register nothing checked if you only want to see availability and price. Uncheck it when you are ready to actually register the domain.
- Click Check availability and price (dry run) or Start Autopilot run (live). The run appears on the right under "Run timeline" with a status pill, a risk badge, an estimated cost, and a rollback note.
- The plan lists each step as it executes: checking the registrar, the approval gate, registering the domain, and a final note about preparing DNS. Steps show as done, running, simulated (during a dry run), or failed.
- When the run reaches the purchase step, it pauses with the status needs approval and a banner reading "Autopilot is paused — this purchase needs your approval." Click Approve purchase to let the worker register the domain, or Reject to stop the run there.
- Expand Logs below the plan for a timestamped record of what the run did.
- If you prefer a manual path, click Pilot instead of Autopilot and work through the five numbered cards top to bottom. Nothing here runs automatically; each card just tells you what to do next and where.
- Once a domain is registered, open it from the Domains page and run Activation to plan and write its SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records, then create mailboxes.
What you should see
A dry run behaves exactly like a live check except that every step, including the approval gate, is simulated and nothing is written anywhere. A live run shows real progress: "done" steps turn green with a check mark, the cost panel shows a dollar amount such as "$12.98/yr" once pricing comes back, and the risk badge reads medium for a domain purchase. After you approve, the run either completes or logs a failure if the registrar rejects the purchase. If a run is blocked for another reason, the blocked reason appears as a banner above the plan.
Common problems
- Start Autopilot run is disabled: the domain field needs a value containing a dot, for example
example.com, before the button activates. - Run stays at "needs approval": nobody has clicked Approve purchase yet. Anyone with approval rights in the workspace can act on it.
- Price changes between check and charge: the worker re-verifies the live price right before charging, so a run can still fail or ask again if the registrar's price moved.
- "Could not start the workflow": shown when the run fails to create, typically because no registrar is connected for the workspace.
- Pilot mode shows no automated status: this is expected. Pilot is a checklist, not a tracked run, so there is nothing here that measures progress for you.
Related
Common questions
How many mailboxes do I need?
Your daily target divided by eight to ten. A thousand cold emails a day is about a hundred mailboxes across fifty domains. Follow-ups count inside that number, so a three-step sequence reaches roughly a third as many new people as the send count suggests.
What does one approval actually create?
The domains, the mailboxes on Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or a self-hosted fleet, the DNS records written and verified against public resolvers, and the warm-up schedule. Nothing that spends money or reaches the outside world happens before you approve it.
How long before a new build can send at full volume?
Three weeks. Domains, mailboxes and DNS are same-day work; warm-up is two to three weeks and cannot honestly be shortened.
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Last updated September 19, 2026. Written by the team that operates the platform.