Doc-sync to Hudu — live domain health inside your documentation
Doc-sync connects Domain Watchdog to your Hudu instance. Reading is included on every plan: import your clients' domains straight from Hudu's Websites, grouped by company, and keep them in sync daily. Writing back is a Core MSP and Enterprise feature: after each nightly sync, every synced domain gets a “Domain Health” asset in Hudu carrying its live health grade, domain expiry, SSL expiry, last-checked date, and a link to the client's report — and the expiry dates feed Hudu's own Expirations alerts.
Connecting is a paste-and-test affair: you create a read-focused API key in your Hudu admin, paste it with your instance address into Settings → Documentation sync, and hit Test connection. The key is stored encrypted in AWS Secrets Manager — never in the Domain Watchdog database — and is only used to read your companies and websites and, on Core MSP+, to keep Domain Health assets up to date.
Set up doc-sync
- In Hudu, open Admin → API Keys and create a key WITHOUT password access and WITHOUT destructive actions (key permissions are set at creation and can't be changed later).
- In Domain Watchdog, open Settings → Documentation sync, paste the key and your Hudu instance address (like yourcompany.huducloud.com), and choose Test connection.
- Save the credentials. From here the daily sync keeps your Hudu-sourced domains current automatically.
The daily sync is careful by design. New websites in Hudu become monitored domains (filed under a client group matching their Hudu company); a website that disappears from Hudu — or is renamed to something that isn't a domain name — is NEVER deleted here. Instead it's flagged “no longer synced from Hudu — still monitored”, with a count on the panel, and you decide whether to remove it. If a sync ever sees more than half of a connection's synced domains vanish at once, it stops and reports an error instead of flagging them all — a safety measure against a broken listing.
Write-back (Core MSP and Enterprise) turns your documentation into a living asset. Domain Watchdog creates one “Domain Health” asset layout in your Hudu and, after each nightly sync, upserts an asset per synced domain: Health Grade, Domain Expiry, SSL Expiry, Last Checked, and a Report Link your technicians can open right from the client's Hudu page. Domain Expiry and SSL Expiry are real Hudu expiration fields, so they show up in Hudu's own Expirations dashboard and alerts — no extra setup.
Don't rename or add fields on the “Domain Health” layout in Hudu. Hudu files values by field name, so a renamed field would silently receive nothing (or the wrong thing). Domain Watchdog guards against this: before every write cycle it checks the layout still matches exactly, and if it doesn't, it pauses write-back for that connection rather than write into the wrong fields. Restore the layout's original fields (or delete the layout — a fresh one is recreated automatically) and write-back resumes on the next sync.
Tier honesty: connecting Hudu and importing domains works on every plan — it's how you get set up fast. Writing health data back into Hudu is Core MSP and Enterprise only; on Starter the panel shows the write-back feature locked, and the daily sync simply skips the write step. Write-back also requires a Hudu 2.x instance (older self-hosted versions lack the needed API).
Newly imported domains show their grades after the next nightly scan — an import doesn't scan on the spot. The Report Link written into each asset is a revocable hosted-report link for that client's group: it rotates automatically before it expires, and you can revoke it anytime from Dashboard → Client groups (the “Hudu documentation link” control on the group). Revoking kills the old URL immediately — anyone opening it from Hudu sees a dead link until the next nightly sync writes a fresh one into the client's assets.
Frequently asked questions
What does doc-sync read from my Hudu, and what does it write?
It reads your companies and websites (to import and sync domains, grouped by client). On Core MSP+ it writes one “Domain Health” asset per synced domain — health grade, domain expiry, SSL expiry, last checked, and a report link. It never reads passwords (create the API key without password access) and never deletes anything in Hudu.
Can a Hudu sync delete my monitored domains?
No. If a website disappears from Hudu, the domain stays fully monitored here and is only flagged “no longer synced from Hudu” with a count on the Documentation sync panel. You remove domains — the sync never does. A sync that would flag more than half a connection's domains at once stops as a safety measure instead.
Why did write-back pause with a layout error?
Someone changed the “Domain Health” asset layout in Hudu (renamed, retyped, added, or removed a field). Because Hudu files values by field name, Domain Watchdog refuses to write into a changed layout rather than risk the wrong fields. Restore the original fields — or delete the layout so a fresh one is recreated — and the next nightly sync resumes automatically.
Do the expiry dates really feed Hudu's Expirations alerts?
Yes — Domain Expiry and SSL Expiry are created as genuine Hudu expiration date fields, so Hudu's own Expirations dashboard and notifications pick them up like any other tracked expiration.
Which plans include write-back?
Importing and daily read-sync are on every plan. Write-back into Hudu is Core MSP and Enterprise. Your Hudu also needs to be version 2.x or newer — older instances are skipped (read-sync still works).