What is chssl?
chssl is a small, free agent that you install on your own server. Once it runs, your SSL certificate reissues and reinstalls itself automatically, with no work from you and no downtime.
Why is it needed?
The certificate authorities now limit how long a single certificate file can stay valid (currently about 199 days), but you pay for a full year or more. So a paid one-year certificate has to be reissued mid-term and re-installed on your server. Otherwise HTTPS breaks the moment the current file expires.
By hand, every reissue means generating a new key and CSR, submitting the reissue, waiting for validation, downloading the new files, copying them onto the server and reloading the web server. chssl does all of that for you.
Why would you want it?
- No expired-certificate outages. The new file is in place before the old one lapses.
- No manual work. No CSRs, no downloads, no copying files, no reloads.
- Set and forget. You turn it on once per certificate.
- Free. It is a bonus with your certificate, not a paid add-on.
How does it work?
- In your control panel, switch on Free auto-renewal for the certificate.
- Click Get install command and run the one-line command on your server. One key covers all of your auto-renewal certificates.
- The agent checks in with our API, finds that certificate on your server (nginx, Apache, httpd or inside Docker) by matching the domains it covers, and reads how long it is still valid.
- When a reissue is available, the agent downloads the new certificate, verifies it against the private key, installs it in place, reloads the web server and rolls back automatically if anything looks wrong.
Is it secure?
Yes. Your private key never leaves your server: the agent creates the key and CSR locally and uploads only the CSR. The key we issue to the agent is a revocable access token, not your TLS private key, and you can revoke every key with one click in the panel at any time.
Prefer to do it yourself?
Leave auto-renewal off and reissue the certificate yourself in one click from the same page whenever a new file becomes available.