domain-availability

name

domain-availability

description

Check whether domain names are available to register across many TLDs, using DNS delegation + RDAP (whois's replacement) with a system-whois fallback — no MCP, no dependencies. Use when the user asks if a domain is available, wants to check a domain name, brainstorm or find available domains, or check a name across TLDs (e.g. "is acme.com free?", "find me a domain for X", "check acme across TLDs").

Domain Availability

Check domain registration status across TLDs with a bundled, dependency-free script. Run it, read the buckets, recommend from AVAILABLE.

Run

From this skill's directory:

python3 scripts/check_domains.py <name-or-domain> [options]

• acme — check the name across the popular TLD set (.com/.io/.ai/.dev/…)
• acme.com — check that exact domain, plus the popular set
• --all — fan out across ~90 TLDs (popular + country + new)
• --tlds com,io,ai,dev — check exactly these
• --json — machine-readable output (buckets + per-domain signals)
• --timeout 8 · --concurrency 10 — tuning

How it decides (signal hierarchy)

1. DNS NS-delegation (dig NS) — registered domains are delegated, so NS records in the parent zone ⇒ taken. Ground truth, no rate limits.
2. RDAP (https://rdap.org/domain/<d>) — whois's ICANN-mandated JSON successor. HTTP 200 ⇒ registered, 404 ⇒ available. Authoritative where the registry supports it.
3. whois — fallback only when RDAP is inconclusive (429 / timeout / TLD without RDAP), guarded against IANA non-answers.

Status per domain:

• available — not delegated AND (RDAP 404 or whois "no match")
• taken — NS delegated OR RDAP 200 OR whois shows registration data
• unknown — everything inconclusive; the [ns:…, rdap:…] tag shows why

Why not just whois: WHOIS is being retired under ICANN's RDAP transition, and macOS whois doesn't reliably follow registry referrals for new gTLDs — it misreads the IANA delegation record. Leading with DNS + RDAP is what actually works across gTLDs and ccTLDs.

Recommending

• Lead with .com — still the default users expect — then relevant new TLDs (.ai for AI, .dev/.io for tooling, .shop for commerce).
• Treat unknown as "not confirmed", never as available.
• This is a strong heuristic, not registrar-grade truth. End by telling the user to confirm at a registrar before buying.

Notes

• Zero dependencies: Python 3 stdlib + system dig/whois (present on macOS; dig may need dnsutils/bind-utils on Linux — without it the tool falls back to RDAP + whois).
• Standalone equivalent of the mcp-domain-availability MCP; needs no server.