Domain Connect

Every service that needs DNS records, from email providers to website builders to SaaS custom domains, asks users to copy values into a DNS editor they rarely use. Domain Connect replaces the copying. The service sends the user to their DNS provider with a request to apply a known set of records; the provider shows what will change; the user approves; the records are written.

• Templates. A service publishes the exact records it needs as a JSON template in the public registry on GitHub (Domain-Connect/Templates). Variables such as the target hostname or a verification token are filled in at apply time.
• Onboarding. Each DNS provider decides which registry templates it serves. A template the provider has not onboarded cannot be applied there, however valid it is.
• Discovery. The service looks up a TXT record at _domainconnect under the user's domain. If present, it names the provider's Domain Connect API, which the service then asks whether it supports the template.
• Apply. In the synchronous flow the service redirects the user to the provider's apply URL with the template and its parameters. Requests can be signed: the service signs the query string and publishes its public key in DNS, so the provider knows the parameters were not altered on the way.
• Consent. The provider authenticates the user, shows the records, and applies them on approval. An asynchronous, OAuth-based flow exists for services that need ongoing access.

Support is per provider and per template, which makes "does provider X support Domain Connect" the wrong question: the right one is whether it serves the specific template you need. DoDomain's templates were merged into the public registry in July 2026, and the State of Domain Connect page measures every night which providers' APIs serve them, and separately lists the providers where a real apply has been proven end to end on a zone DoDomain controls. The two are different claims and the page keeps them apart.

The DNS provider detector checks a specific domain: which host serves it, and whether one-click setup is available there through Domain Connect or a direct Cloudflare integration.

• Coverage is uneven. A provider can run a Domain Connect API and still decline a given template, so every product needs a manual fallback.
• Apply is not verification. The protocol ends when the provider says the records were applied. It does not tell the service that they are live at the authoritative nameservers, so a service still has to check, and keep checking.
• Templates are fixed. Changing the records means publishing a new template version and waiting for providers to pick it up. Providers cache the templates they serve, and one served another vendor's template five weeks out of date in 2026.

The Domain Connect field notes record what it took to ship signed one-click applies end to end, from the spec's silence on parameter order to chunked public keys.

• State of Domain Connect

  Nightly-measured data on which DNS providers serve one-click templates today.

• Domain Connect field notes (docs)

  What it took to ship signed one-click applies end to end, bug by bug.

• DNS provider detector

  Whether one-click setup is available for a particular domain.

• DoDomain vs Entri

  Two products that apply DNS for the user, compared.