One TXT record. Then press Verify.

DNS is the strongest proof, and it is the one that keeps working on a quiet site. It is also the one that needs registrar access most business owners do not have to hand. Three other methods prove ownership equally well and none of them touch DNS — see which method you actually need. If you can already paste the widget snippet onto your site, that is the faster road.

Still want DNS? Read the next section before you touch anything. It is where almost every failed attempt comes from.

The Value must be copied exactly, in full, including the v=aichat;t= part. It looks like v=aichat;t=YOUR_TOKEN. If your host wraps the value in quotation marks after saving, that is normal and we handle it.

The three fields are always the same, whatever the screen calls them:

• Type — always TXT. Not CNAME, not A.
• Name, Host, Hostname or Record name — type _aichat-verify only. If the field is described as "fully qualified", then and only then paste the whole _aichat-verify.mystore.com.
• Value, Content, Data, Answer or Text — the copied value, exactly.

Your DNS may not live at your registrar. Where you bought the domain and where its DNS is served are often two different companies. If the domain's nameservers point at a host, a CDN or your web developer's account, records added at the registrar are ignored. Look for the words custom nameservers,third-party DNS or a list of ns1.… addresses that are not your registrar's. Add the record wherever those nameservers point. If you do not know, that is a reasonable question to ask whoever built the site — or switch to a method that needs no DNS at all.

• Normal: 1–5 minutes. Many hosts publish in seconds.
• A first attempt that fails is not a bad sign. If you press Verify now within a few seconds of saving, expect "DNS record not yet visible. Propagation can take 1–5 minutes (sometimes longer for slow resolvers)." Wait a minute and press it again.
• We look up the record live each time you press the button, and briefly cache the answer for about half a minute. So retrying every ten seconds tells you nothing new; retrying after a minute does.
• Editing an existing record is slower than adding a new one. The old value can be cached for as long as its TTL. If you fixed a typo on a record with a one-hour TTL, allow up to that hour.
• Stop waiting after about 30 minutes. Beyond that it is almost never propagation — it is the record. Re-read the Name field first.

Verifying from the onboarding screen rather than the Domains screen? The DNS panel there hides behind"Prefer to verify by DNS instead?" and has its own Check DNS now button. After a failed check it can show "What we saw at the resolver" — the TXT values actually published at that name. That list is the fastest way to spot a doubled-up name (nothing listed) or a truncated paste (a value that is close but not identical).

We re-check the proof about every 7 days. Delete the TXT record and the re-check starts missing. Your dashboard shows an amber note on the domain after the first miss —"recent re-check miss". After three consecutive misses the domain issuspended: the widget stops serving on it, and we email the account address to say so, naming the method that stopped working.

Recovering is the same button. Put the record back, open the domain, and click Re-verify. A single successful check clears the suspension immediately.

• Read the Name field back. In your host's record list it should show either _aichat-verify or _aichat-verify.mystore.com. If it shows your domain twice, that is the fault — edit it down to _aichat-verify.
• Re-copy the value with the copy button. A hand-typed value drops a character surprisingly often. If we find a value at the right name but it does not match, the dashboard says "Found a value but it didn't match" — that is a paste problem, not a DNS problem.
• Check you edited the right domain. Verification runs against the exact hostname listed on the domain row, shown under the Verify button. A record on mystore.in does nothing for mystore.com.
• Check whether the row was ever saved. Reload the host's DNS page. If the record is gone, it was never committed — Namecheap's per-row tick and GoDaddy's Save are both easy to miss.
• Adding a subdomain? The record always goes at the root of the domain, not under the subdomain. For shop.mystore.com the name is still _aichat-verify at mystore.com. Your dashboard shows the exact name to use — trust it over this page.
• Give up on DNS and use another method. Nothing is lost. Pick Widget already running, Meta tag in homepage or File on website in the same panel. All four are treated identically, and the widget starts working the moment any one of them passes.
• Still stuck? Email support@orcalinq.com with the domain, the name and value exactly as they appear in your DNS host's list, and the error line the dashboard showed. That is enough to tell a typo from a delegation problem without any further back and forth. Never send your widget key or any password.