🎩 rdapper

RDAP‑first domain registration lookups with WHOIS fallback. Produces a single, normalized record shape regardless of source.

• RDAP discovery via IANA bootstrap (https://data.iana.org/rdap/dns.json)
• WHOIS TCP 43 client with TLD discovery, registrar referral follow, and curated exceptions
• Normalized output: registrar, contacts, nameservers, statuses, dates, DNSSEC, source metadata
• TypeScript types included; ESM‑only; no external HTTP client (uses global fetch)

Requirements: Node >= 18.17 (global fetch). WHOIS uses TCP port 43.

Install

npm install rdapper

Quick Start

import { lookupDomain } from "rdapper";

const { ok, record, error } = await lookupDomain("example.com");

if (!ok) throw new Error(error);
console.log(record); // normalized DomainRecord

Also available:

import { isRegistered, isAvailable } from "rdapper";

await isRegistered("example.com"); // => true
await isAvailable("likely-unregistered-thing-320485230458.com"); // => false

API

• lookupDomain(domain, options?) => Promise<LookupResult>
  • Tries RDAP first if supported by the domain’s TLD; if unavailable or fails, falls back to WHOIS (unless toggled off).
  • Result is { ok: boolean, record?: DomainRecord, error?: string }.
• isRegistered(domain, options?) => Promise<boolean>
• isAvailable(domain, options?) => Promise<boolean>

Options

• timeoutMs?: number – Total timeout budget per network operation (default 15000).
• rdapOnly?: boolean – Only attempt RDAP; do not fall back to WHOIS.
• whoisOnly?: boolean – Skip RDAP and query WHOIS directly.
• followWhoisReferral?: boolean – Follow registrar referral from the TLD WHOIS (default true).
• customBootstrapUrl?: string – Override RDAP bootstrap URL.
• whoisHints?: Record<string, string> – Override/add authoritative WHOIS per TLD (keys are lowercase TLDs, values may include or omit whois://).
• includeRaw?: boolean – Include rawRdap/rawWhois in the returned record (default false).
• signal?: AbortSignal – Optional cancellation signal.

DomainRecord schema

The exact presence of fields depends on registry/registrar data and whether RDAP or WHOIS was used.

interface DomainRecord {
  domain: string;             // normalized name (unicode when available)
  tld: string;                // terminal TLD label (e.g., "com")
  isRegistered: boolean;      // availability heuristic (WHOIS) or true (RDAP)
  isIDN?: boolean;            // uses punycode labels (xn--)
  unicodeName?: string;       // RDAP unicodeName when provided
  punycodeName?: string;      // RDAP ldhName when provided
  registry?: string;          // registry operator (rarely available)
  registrar?: {
    name?: string;
    ianaId?: string;
    url?: string;
    email?: string;
    phone?: string;
  };
  reseller?: string;
  statuses?: Array<{
    status: string;
    description?: string;
    raw?: string;
  }>;
  creationDate?: string;      // ISO 8601 (UTC)
  updatedDate?: string;       // ISO 8601 (UTC)
  expirationDate?: string;    // ISO 8601 (UTC)
  deletionDate?: string;      // ISO 8601 (UTC)
  transferLock?: boolean;     // derived from EPP statuses
  dnssec?: {
    enabled: boolean;
    dsRecords?: Array<{
      keyTag?: number;
      algorithm?: number;
      digestType?: number;
      digest?: string;
    }>;
  };
  nameservers?: Array<{
    host: string;
    ipv4?: string[];
    ipv6?: string[];
  }>;
  contacts?: Array<{
    type: "registrant" | "admin" | "tech" | "billing" | "abuse" | "registrar" | "reseller" | "unknown";
    name?: string;
    organization?: string;
    email?: string | string[];
    phone?: string | string[];
    fax?: string | string[];
    street?: string[];
    city?: string;
    state?: string;
    postalCode?: string;
    country?: string;
    countryCode?: string;
  }>;
  whoisServer?: string;       // authoritative WHOIS queried (if any)
  rdapServers?: string[];     // RDAP base URLs tried
  rawRdap?: unknown;          // raw RDAP JSON (only when options.includeRaw)
  rawWhois?: string;          // raw WHOIS text (only when options.includeRaw)
  source: "rdap" | "whois";   // which path produced data
  fetchedAt: string;          // ISO 8601 timestamp
  warnings?: string[];
}

Example output

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "tld": "com",
  "isRegistered": true,
  "registrar": { "name": "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority", "ianaId": "376" },
  "statuses": [{ "status": "clientTransferProhibited" }],
  "nameservers": [{ "host": "a.iana-servers.net" }, { "host": "b.iana-servers.net" }],
  "dnssec": { "enabled": true },
  "source": "rdap",
  "fetchedAt": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

How it works

• RDAP
  • Discovers base URLs for the TLD via IANA’s RDAP bootstrap JSON.
  • Tries each base until one responds successfully; parses standard RDAP domain JSON.
  • Normalizes registrar (from entities), contacts (vCard), nameservers (ipAddresses), events (created/changed/expiration), statuses, and DNSSEC (secureDNS).
• WHOIS
  • Discovers the authoritative TLD WHOIS via whois.iana.org (TCP 43), with curated exceptions for tricky zones and public SLDs.
  • Queries the TLD WHOIS; if a registrar referral is present and followWhoisReferral !== false, follows one hop to the registrar WHOIS.
  • Normalizes common key/value variants across gTLD/ccTLD formats (dates, statuses, nameservers, contacts). Availability is inferred from common phrases (best‑effort heuristic).

Timeouts are enforced per request using a simple race against timeoutMs (default 15s). All network I/O is performed with global fetch (RDAP) and a raw TCP socket (WHOIS).

Development

• Build: npm run build
• Test: npm test
  • By default, tests are offline/deterministic.
  • Smoke tests that hit the network are gated by SMOKE=1, e.g. SMOKE=1 npm test.
• Lint/format: npm run lint (Biome)

Project layout:

• src/rdap/ – RDAP bootstrap, client, and normalization
• src/whois/ – WHOIS TCP client, discovery/referral, normalization, exceptions
• src/lib/ – utilities for dates, text parsing, domain processing, async
• src/types.ts – public types; src/index.ts re‑exports API and types
• cli.mjs – local CLI helper for quick testing

Caveats

• WHOIS text formats vary significantly across registries/registrars; normalization is best‑effort.
• Availability detection relies on common WHOIS phrases and is not authoritative.
• Some TLDs provide no RDAP service; rdapOnly: true will fail for them.
• Registries may throttle or block WHOIS; respect rate limits and usage policies.
• Field presence depends on source and privacy policies (e.g., redaction/withholding).

License

MIT