# Bring Your Handshake TLD to HeadlessDomains

Hello TLD owner,

If you own a Handshake TLD and want to make second-level names available without building and operating an entire registrar alone, HeadlessDomains would be glad to explore a launch with you.

HeadlessDomains Partners provides a reviewed path for TLD owners who want one or more of these models:

- distribution through the HeadlessDomains marketplace;
- a hosted partner-branded white-label registrar;
- API access for an owner-operated registrar or integration.

Every TLD begins private. Applying does not transfer ownership, accept commercial terms, change nameservers, or make the namespace publicly sellable.

**Commercial acceptance comes before custody.** Do not transfer a TLD, change its
delegation for HeadlessDomains, or authorize a registry binding until the
namespace-specific versioned offer has been reviewed and accepted in the Partner
portal.

## How onboarding works

1. **Apply with one TLD** — Sign in with GFAVIP so the application and its review status stay attached to your account. Tell us who operates the TLD, how you control it, whether it has existing second-level names, and whether you want HeadlessDomains marketplace distribution, a white-label registrar, or API access.
2. **Confirm identity and control** — We review the authorized owner and a non-secret proof of Handshake control. Never send a private key, seed phrase, wallet password, API secret, or raw signed-message secret.
3. **Protect existing holders** — Before new sales, we reconcile existing registrations, reserved and premium names, claims, and DNS. If there are no prior obligations, we record an explicit zero-inventory attestation.
4. **Agree namespace-specific terms** — We put registration and renewal prices, both parties' shares, deductions, refunds, premium names, merchant of record, payouts, privacy, parent-TLD renewal funding, support, custody authority, termination, and migration in a versioned offer. The TLD owner must accept it before any custody transfer is requested or approved. Application notes are not a contract.
5. **Choose and authorize the operating model** — Only after commercial acceptance do we authorize owner custody with delegated registry operations, HeadlessDomains custody, or another explicitly agreed model. No TLD transfer, delegation, or registry binding should occur before that gate passes.
6. **Connect and test privately** — We verify the registry parent zone, authoritative availability, reserved-name protection, failed-state behavior, idempotency, and one controlled test flow before any public launch.
7. **Approve launch in stages** — Marketplace listing, registrar permission, credentials, interoperability, payment, and public traffic are separate approval gates. A TLD is never made sellable merely because an application exists.

## What remains yours

- Ownership of the TLD unless a different custody arrangement is explicitly accepted in writing.
- Approval over the custody/operating model and authority granted to HeadlessDomains.
- Review of namespace-specific prices and commercial terms before acceptance.
- A mandatory commercial-acceptance gate before any custody transfer, delegation, or registry binding.
- A defined exit, data-export, holder-continuity, and TLD-return process.

## What to prepare

- TLD name and project/operator identity.
- A safe way to prove current Handshake control.
- Renewal status and a plan for continued TLD renewal funding.
- Existing SLD, reserved-name, premium-name, claim, and DNS inventory—or an explicit statement that none exists.
- Preferred launch path: HeadlessDomains marketplace, hosted white-label, or API integration.
- Proposed registration and renewal pricing.
- Support, reporting, payout, privacy, and migration requirements.

## Security and privacy

We will never ask you to send a private key, seed phrase, wallet password, registrar password, or raw production API credential. Control proofs should use a safe verification method and non-secret evidence reference.

We also do not provide unrestricted access to customer databases. Reporting and support data are limited to what is necessary for the agreed service, customer support, legal obligations, and payouts.

## Existing or failed registry systems

If your TLD was previously operated through another registry—even one that is offline—we first recover and reconcile all available holder, reservation, claim, payment, and DNS evidence. Existing names remain protected until their status is understood. An empty new database is not proof that no prior obligations exist.

## Next step

Sign in with GFAVIP and submit one TLD through the application form:

https://partners.headlessdomains.com/partners/apply

Please include how you control the TLD, whether any SLDs already exist, your preferred operating model, and what you would like HeadlessDomains to handle. We will review the application with you before any registry, commercial, or public-launch change.

— HeadlessDomains Partners