Step two is the part that used to mean a second dashboard. My domains sit on Cloudflare. So the record has to be added there. This is where the Cloudflare skill earns its place.
Claude talks to Cloudflare directly through an MCP connection, which is just a secure pipe to Cloudflare's API. I do not open the dashboard. I say what record I want, Claude shows me the exact thing it is about to create, I approve it, and it writes it:
- Type:
A - Name:
portfolio-demo - Value: Vercel's IP
- Proxy: off (this one matters, more below)
Step three, verify and wait a beat for the padlock:
vercel domains verify portfolio-demo.careerleap.app
The domain started resolving instantly. The https took about a minute while Vercel issued the certificate. Then it was live: https://portfolio-demo.careerleap.app, real domain, valid SSL, no dashboard opened.
The mistakes that cost me time
The same two things trip everyone up here. They tripped me up first.
1. Leave the Cloudflare proxy off. Cloudflare loves to route traffic through itself (the orange cloud). For a domain pointing at Vercel, that fight over who handles SSL turns into redirect loops and broken certificates. Grey cloud. DNS only. Let Vercel own the domain.
2. A dead site right after setup is normal. The minute after you verify, the address resolves but the page will not load. It looks broken. It is not. Vercel is still minting the SSL certificate, which takes a minute or two. Check again shortly and it turns green. Do not go re-editing DNS in a panic. I did, the first time.
Why make it a skill
I could keep these commands in a notes file. I used to.
But a notes file is something I have to find, read, and run myself. A skill is something my AI assistant already knows. I say "ship this and put it on this subdomain," and it runs the deploy, asks Vercel for the record, shows me the DNS change for a yes, writes it, and waits for the padlock. Start to finish, a few minutes, and I am reviewing decisions instead of remembering commands.
That is the real shift with agentic systems. The knowledge stops living in my head or a stale doc, and starts living in something that can act on it. The skill is not a script. It is the routine, written down once, so I never have to hold it in memory again.
Build the thing. Say "ship it." Go share the link.
What is the one chore in your workflow that you keep doing by hand when it could be a skill?
