Managing DNS records from the panel

The “DNS” page (app.blackbox.md/dns, sidebar → “Infrastructure” → “DNS”) shows the DNS records of the domains in your connected Cloudflare or GoDaddy account and lets you add, change and delete them. BLACKBOX does not host the DNS zones: every change is sent directly to your provider.

Available to: the blackbox.md account owner, in the app.blackbox.md panel, after connecting Cloudflare or GoDaddy: Connecting Cloudflare or GoDaddy on the DNS page.

How to choose a zone

1. Open “DNS”. The panel automatically selects the first active connection in the “Connections” block and loads its zones.
2. If you have connected both Cloudflare and GoDaddy, click the row of the connection you want.
3. In the “Zone” block, choose the domain from the list. The first zone is selected automatically, and its records appear below, in the “Records” block.
4. If you have added a domain at the provider in the meantime, click “Refresh”. The zone list reloads and the first zone is selected again.

The panel reads the zones and records directly from the provider every time, so you also see changes made in your Cloudflare or GoDaddy account.

The panel shows at most 500 Cloudflare zones or 1,000 GoDaddy domains, and at most 2,000 records per zone (Cloudflare) or 5,000 (GoDaddy).

The “Records” table

At the end of each row there is a pencil (“Edit”) and a trash can (“Delete”).

How to add a record

1. Click “Add record”. An edit row appears at the top of the table.
2. Choose the type from the first list: A, AAAA, CNAME, TXT, MX, NS, SRV or CAA. The default is A.
3. In the field with the hint “e.g. www or @”, enter the name:
   • @ for the domain root (example.com);
   • only the part in front of the domain, for example www: the panel adds the zone name itself (www.example.com);
   • the full name, ending with the zone's domain, is accepted too.
4. In the next field, enter the value. The hint changes with the type: “Record value”; for MX “mail.example.com”, for SRV “10 5 5060 sip.example.com”, for CAA “0 issue letsencrypt.org”.
5. Choose the TTL, in seconds:
   • Cloudflare: “Auto”, 60, 300, 600, 1800, 3600, 86400 (default “Auto”);
   • GoDaddy: 600, 1800, 3600, 86400 (default 3600).
6. For MX and SRV, a number field for the priority appears. For MX it is required (0–65535). For SRV you can leave it empty: the priority is then the first number in the value. If the field is filled in (when you edit a record, it already is), the number in the field is what counts.
7. On Cloudflare, the “Proxied” checkbox appears for A, AAAA and CNAME. Check it only if you want web traffic to go through Cloudflare.
8. Click “Save”. The record appears at the end of the table, with no other confirmation message. “Cancel” closes the row without saving.

While an edit row is open, “Add record” and the pencils are inactive. Save or cancel first.

Value format

• The name is 1–253 characters long, and the value 1–2,048. The name field cannot be left empty: for the root, enter @.
• Host names in the value (CNAME, NS, MX, SRV target) may contain only Latin letters, digits, hyphens and dots. The _ character is not accepted: add a CNAME with _ in its value (for example, for some DKIM keys) directly in your DNS provider account.
• For SRV, the name has the form _service._protocol, for example _sip._tcp. On GoDaddy, any other name is rejected with the message “SRV record name must be '_service._proto.host'”.

If the format is wrong, the page usually shows only “Failed to save the record.”, with no reason. Compare the value with the table above.

How to change a record

1. Click the pencil (“Edit”) on the record's row. The row becomes editable and shows the current values.
2. Change the value, the TTL, the priority or the “Proxied” checkbox.
3. Click “Save”.

On GoDaddy, the type and the name are locked when you edit a record. To change them, delete the record and add it again.

Records of types other than the eight in the list (for example HTTPS), created directly at the provider, appear in the table but cannot be changed from the panel. Change them in your provider account.

Warning Below the table of a GoDaddy zone you see the text “Editing a GoDaddy record replaces all records with the same name and type, so a change made elsewhere at the same time may be overwritten.” Do not change the same records at the same time in the panel and in your GoDaddy account.

How to delete a record

1. Click the trash can (“Delete”) on the record's row.
2. The browser asks you to confirm: “Delete the {type} record {name}?”, for example “Delete the A record www.example.com?”. Click OK.
3. The row disappears from the table. If the deletion fails, an error message appears in place of the table, for example “Failed to delete.”

Important The record is deleted immediately at the provider, and the panel keeps no history of values. Write down the value before you delete the record, so you can add it again.

Common examples

Pointing the domain to the server

You can find the server's IP address in “My Servers”, in the “IP” row of the card.

Instead of the second A record, you can use CNAME www → DOMAIN. The full steps: How to point your domain to the server.

Email: MX and SPF

Use exactly the values you received from your email provider. A name can have only one SPF record (a TXT record that starts with v=spf1): if one already exists, change it instead of adding a second one.

Domain verification

External services often ask for a TXT record as proof that the domain is yours: type TXT, name @ (or the one the service tells you), and as content the code you received, for example google-site-verification=CODE.

CAA for Let's Encrypt

When the domain has CAA issue records, only the authorities listed in them can issue certificates for it. If you also use a commercial certificate, add one issue record for each authority: SSL certificates: free (Let's Encrypt) and commercial.

When changes become visible

The change reaches the provider immediately, but DNS servers that have cached the old value keep using it until its TTL expires (3600 = up to one hour). The records take effect only if the domain uses the name servers (NS) of the connected provider. To check (Linux, macOS):

dig +short A DOMAIN
dig +short NS DOMAIN

On Windows:

nslookup DOMAIN
nslookup -type=NS DOMAIN

Tip Before a planned move, for example to a new server, lower the TTL to 300 (Cloudflare) or to 600 (GoDaddy, the lowest value in the list). Do it at least one old TTL interval before the move: for example, one day before if the TTL was 86400. After the move you can raise it again.

Limits and error messages

Frequently asked questions

Can I manage DNS records through the AI assistant (MCP)? No. The MCP tools do not include DNS: use the “DNS” page or your provider account. What the assistant can do: List of MCP tools.

I changed the record, but the site still opens from the old server. Why? The old value stays cached until its TTL expires. Use dig to check that the public value is the new one and that the domain uses the name servers of the connected provider.

I can't add a CNAME for www. What should I do? A name that has a CNAME cannot have any other records. First delete the A or AAAA records with the same name, then add the CNAME.

What does the “Proxied” checkbox do? Web traffic goes through the Cloudflare network, and the name points to Cloudflare's addresses instead of your server's IP. Connections that are not web traffic, for example SSH, do not work through this name: connect to the server's IP address instead.