Putting dogl.info
in your hands
A step-by-step walkthrough for moving your site to your own free hosting — with Claude Code doing the technical work and you in control the whole way.
Six moves, start to finish
You can do this across a few short sessions. Nothing public changes until the very end — and your email keeps working throughout.
Confirm IONOS
Make sure you control your domain & email logins.
Set up tools
Claude Code + GitHub (you may already have it).
Publish
Turn on GitHub Pages to put your site online.
Connect
Point dogl.info over, leaving email untouched.
Verify & cancel Wix
Confirm it all works, then stop the fee.
You own it
Edit anytime with Claude Code.
Where should your site live?
Your website is just a folder of files, and a few free services can host it. Here’s our pick — chosen mainly because it keeps your email the safest.
GitHub Pages
- You likely already have a GitHub account — halfway there.
- Your files live in a GitHub “repository” that doubles as an automatic backup & history.
- To update: Claude Code saves the change to GitHub → live in ~a minute.
- Email stays put. You keep your domain settings at IONOS and only add the website’s address records — the email (MX) is never moved.
Cloudflare Pages
- Also free and excellent for static sites.
- A touch smoother for the web address — but cleanest only when Cloudflare also runs your DNS.
- That means moving your email records too — more risk, a new account.
- More machinery (edge features) than a static lab site needs.
Our recommendation
GitHub Pages, with your domain settings kept at IONOS. Fewer new accounts, your repository backs the site up for free, and — most importantly — your email never moves. The rest of this guide follows that path. (Prefer Cloudflare? It works too — just tell Claude Code and it’ll set that up instead.)
Who does what
You never have to write code. The trick is knowing which steps are yours (decisions and clicks) and which to hand to Claude Code.
- Create accounts & sign in
- Approve what Claude Code proposes
- Click buttons in dashboards
- Say what the site should say
- Builds & changes the website
- Saves & publishes it to GitHub
- Prepares the exact settings
- Explains anything, anytime
- Built your new site to start from
- A second set of eyes, on request
- Backup if anything feels stuck
Your toolkit
Your computer
Mac or Windows. That’s the only hardware.
Your IONOS login
Where your domain and email live. We confirm this first.
Claude Code desktop
Your technical co-pilot. Needs a Claude account (Pro plan).
A GitHub account
Free — and you may already have one. Your site’s home & backup.
The site files
A free download — you’ll grab them right from this guide in Step 3.
A little time
A few unhurried sessions — no need to do it all at once.
What it costs
Hosting on GitHub Pages: $0. Domain renewal at IONOS: ~$20–40/yr. A Claude plan (so you can edit it yourself going forward) is the one optional subscription.
What is Claude Code?
Think of it as a knowledgeable assistant that lives in a folder on your computer. You talk to it in plain English — no coding — and it can build, change, and publish your website for you.
You just talk
“Add Maria to the team page.” It figures out the how.
It asks first
Before doing anything real, it shows you the plan and waits for your OK.
Nothing’s permanent
Changes can be reviewed and undone. You can always say “stop” or “explain.”
The mindset
You don’t need to know how anything works. Your job is to say what you want and approve each step. If a request ever looks confusing, ask it: “explain that in plain English first.”
Install Claude Code desktop
- Go to claude.ai/code and download the desktop app for your computer (Mac or Windows).
- Open the downloaded file and follow the prompts to install it, like any other app.
- Open Claude Code and sign in with a Claude account. If you don’t have one, create it — you’ll want a Pro plan so it can do real work.
- That’s it — you now have your co-pilot. We’ll point it at your website files in a later step.
Stuck on install?
This is the kind of thing Peter can screen-share for five minutes. Once it’s open and signed in, the rest gets a lot friendlier.
How to talk to it
- Open your website folder in Claude Code (you’ll download this in Step 3).
- Type what you want in plain English in the message box, and press enter.
- It replies with a plan and asks permission before changing or publishing anything — you click Allow (or ask a question first).
Confirm your IONOS access
Your web address and email both live at IONOS. Everything else depends on you being able to get in. Confirm these three things and write down what you find:
- You can log in to IONOS — you have the username and password.
- You can see that dogl.info is your domain in that account.
- Your @dogl.info email works — send yourself a test, and note how it reaches you (a mailbox you log into, or a forward to your work email).
Don’t move past this step until it’s solid
If you can’t get into IONOS, that’s the first thing to fix (a password reset, or finding who set it up). The domain and email are the only truly irreplaceable pieces.
Download your website files
Your finished site is a folder of files. Grab your own copy right here — that’s what makes it truly yours.
⬇ Download the website (.zip)- Click the button above — a .zip file saves to your Downloads.
- Double-click the .zip to unzip it — you’ll get a website folder.
- In Claude Code, choose Open folder and select it — then ask for a quick tour.
Put your site on GitHub
GitHub becomes your site’s home and its automatic backup. Claude Code does the technical part — you just sign in and approve.
- Sign in at github.com (or create a free account — you may already have one).
- Ask Claude Code to put your website folder into a new GitHub repository.
- Make the repository public — it’s just website files, and this is what makes hosting free.
Why this is the backup
Every change is saved with history, so nothing can be lost if your laptop dies — and any edit can be rolled back.
Publish with GitHub Pages
“Pages” is GitHub’s free button that turns your repository into a live website — at a temporary address first, so you can check it privately.
- In your repository, open Settings → Pages and turn it on (Claude Code walks you through it).
- GitHub builds your site and gives you a free link like yourname.github.io/dogl.
- Open that link — your site is live there for review. The real dogl.info is still untouched.
Review on the preview link
This is your chance to get it exactly right before anything public changes. The real dogl.info is still untouched.
- Open the github.io preview link on your computer and your phone.
- Read through every page — team, research, the catalog, contact.
- Anything to change? Tell Claude Code; it edits and re-publishes in seconds.
Make the contact form work
Your site has a contact form, but it needs a small free helper to deliver messages to your inbox. Since it sends mail to you, this one’s yours to set up — and it’s quick.
- Decide where messages should land — your everyday work email is perfectly fine (or your @dogl.info address, if it forwards there).
- Go to web3forms.com, enter that email, and it sends you a free access key — no account needed. Click its verification email.
- Give the key to Claude Code and ask it to connect the form, then send yourself a test message.
Why a helper?
A simple website can’t send email on its own. Web3Forms catches each submission and emails it to you — free, and nothing to maintain.
Connect dogl.info — carefully
This points your web address at the new site — and you can do it yourself. Claude Code prepares the exact settings and checks your work afterward. Nothing here deletes anything.
The golden rule: only add, never remove
Your email runs on a record called MX (it points to mx01.ionos.com). You keep all your domain settings at IONOS and simply add the website’s address records next to it. Leave anything labeled MX or email exactly as it is.
- Ask Claude Code to prepare the exact records — it knows GitHub’s addresses and your site, and hands you a copy-paste list.
- In IONOS, switch the domain from Wix’s nameservers to IONOS’s own — that reveals your DNS records panel.
- Add those records (a few A records for dogl.info, a CNAME for www). Leave every MX/email record untouched.
- Set the custom domain to dogl.info in GitHub (Enforce HTTPS on), then ask Claude Code to verify the site loads and your email is intact.
Verify before you celebrate
Two checks, both must pass. Until they do, do not cancel Wix — there’s no rush and nothing is lost by waiting.
The website works
Visit dogl.info and www.dogl.info in a browser — your new site loads, with the padlock (https).
The email works
Send a message to your @dogl.info address from another account, and confirm it arrives. Send one out, too.
If something’s off
Don’t panic and don’t cancel anything. Tell Peter and Claude Code what you see — settings like these are fully reversible.
Cancel Wix — and stop the fee
Only once both checks above have passed. This is the step that ends the yearly bill.
- Log in to the Wix account (or have the designer do it) and cancel the subscription.
- End any separate design/Polystat billing tied to the old site.
- Keep a copy of any final invoice for your records.
Tip: cancel near the renewal date
If the Wix plan is paid up for a while, you can leave it until closer to its renewal — just don’t let it auto-renew. The new site is already doing the work.
Editing your site, anytime
This is the payoff. To change anything, open the folder in Claude Code, say what you want, and approve. It edits and saves to GitHub — usually live within a minute.
This is the “enhanced” promise, realized
The same way you edit text, you can ask for new tools — charts, searchable tables, data explorers. Once it’s yours, the site can grow with your research.
A few habits worth keeping
Logins in one place
Keep IONOS, GitHub and Claude in a password manager. Future-you will be grateful.
Auto-renew the domain
Turn on auto-renew for dogl.info at IONOS so the address can never lapse.
Never touch ‘MX’
When editing settings, leave anything labeled MX or email alone unless Claude Code confirms it’s safe.
GitHub is your master copy
Your repository holds the site and its full history. Don’t delete it.
Big change? Preview first
For anything major, check the github.io preview before it goes to dogl.info.
When in doubt, ask
Tell Claude Code “explain first,” or loop in Peter. No question is too small.
Your checklist
Take it one
step at a time
Go in order, approve as you go, and lean on Claude Code and Peter whenever you want. There’s no step here you can’t pause, undo, or ask about.
Same dogl.info. Fully yours — and ready to grow.