registry.ValidateDomain rejects experiencenet.com (the apex) for every claim, static routes included, so the edge cannot serve the apex at all. That blocks the #679 cutover.
Change: static routes (operator-declared in config.yaml) may claim the apex. Scale claims stay subdomain-only: the apex rule exists so a node cannot shadow the zone, and an operator editing the edge config is exactly the intended way to serve the apex.
Plan: Claim gains Operator; StaticClaims sets it; Build validates operator claims with the apex rule relaxed. Tests for both paths. Deploy to the edge, add static routes for experiencenet.com and www.experiencenet.com -> hydrawebsite backend.
Follow-up delivered 2 October 2026; historical apex ticket remains CLOSED. hydrascalerouter v0.12.0 now permits concrete external DNS names only in root-owned operator static routes, enabling hydrahardware.io and www.hydrahardware.io. Node claims remain limited to experiencenet subdomains; wildcard, IP and malformed-domain claims are rejected. Tests and vet passed; release CI succeeded and the binary is deployed on edge 141.227.136.199. All 30 existing routes were preserved; all 32 routes were reachable after adding the hardware names.
Commit: https://github.com/cederikdotcom/hydrascalerouter/commit/c169b1f
Release: https://github.com/cederikdotcom/hydrascalerouter/releases/tag/v0.12.0
Website handoff: https://github.com/cederikdotcom/hydrawebsite/blob/main/MEMORY.md
Runbook: https://github.com/cederikdotcom/hydrascalerouter/blob/main/docs/runbooks/hydrascalerouter.md