# Using a custom host

If you want to use a custom host for the API, you also have to provide a custom certificate that matches the related host name. To enable that, you have to configure the host name and the certificate in the application's package.json file, and you also have to copy the certificate and its private key to your application.

# Copying the certificate and the private key

First, create a server/keys directory. To keep things clear, create a dedicated sub-directory for each domain. Then, copy the certificate and the private key into this directory. Use the .pem file format and name the files certificate.pem and privateKey.pem respectively.

E.g., to use a custom certificate for the domain example.com, use the following directory structure:

<app>
  server
    flows
    keys
      example.com
        certificate.pem
        privateKey.pem
    readModel
    shared
    writeModel

# Registering the host name and the certificate

Next, open the application's package.json file, navigate to wolkenkit/environments/default/api/host and set the name and the certificate properties to the name of the host and to the path of the directory that contains the private key and the certificate itself. Use an absolute path and consider the application directory as root.

E.g., to use the host example.com with a matching certificate in the directory server/keys/example.com, use the following code:

"wolkenkit": {
  "environments": {
    "default": {
      "api": {
        "host": {
          "name": "example.com",
          "certificate": "/server/keys/example.com"
        }
      }
    }    
  }
}