You can rename an app at any time with the heroku apps:rename command. For example, to rename an app named “oldname” to “newname”, change into the app’s git checkout and run:

$ heroku apps:rename newname
Renaming oldname to newname... done
http://newname.herokuapp.com/ | git@herokuapp.com:newname.git
Git remote heroku updated

Renaming an app will cause it to immediately become available at the new subdomain (newname.herokuapp.com) and unavailable at the old name (oldname.herokuapp.com).

If you have custom domains configured that use these subdomains, for example a CNAME record set up that references oldname.herokuapp.com, then it will also need to be updated.

Renaming without a checkout

You can rename an app while outside a git checkout by passing an explicit –app argument:

$ heroku apps:rename newname --app oldname
http://newname.herokuapp.com/ | git@herokuapp.com:newname.git

Note that you will need to manually update any existing git remotes that point to the old name.

Updating Git remotes

If you are using the CLI to rename an app from inside the Git checkout directory, your remote will be updated automatically. If you rename from the website or have other checkouts, such as those belonging to other developers, these will need to be updated manually:

$ git remote rm heroku
$ heroku git:remote -a newname

Replace “newname” with the new name of the app, as specified in the rename command.