DomainKits CLI: Domain Data in Your Terminal

Install dk

dk is a single binary with no dependencies. Each release on GitHub has builds for macOS, Linux and Windows on amd64 and arm64 (Apple silicon is darwin_arm64), plus a SHA256SUMS file to check the download.

# pick your build: darwin_arm64, darwin_amd64,
# linux_amd64 or linux_arm64
tar -xzf dk_*_darwin_arm64.tar.gz
sudo mv dk /usr/local/bin/
dk version

Expand-Archive dk_*_windows_amd64.zip C:\dk
# add C:\dk to your PATH, then
dk version

With Go 1.21 or newer, you can also build and install it in one step:

go install github.com/ABTdomain/domainkits-cli/cmd/dk@latest

Set Your API Key

dk reads your key from the DOMAINKITS_API_KEY environment variable. Keys start with dk_ and are created on your dashboard. The same key works for the REST API, the SDKs and the MCP server.

# macOS / Linux
export DOMAINKITS_API_KEY=dk_xxx

# Windows PowerShell
$env:DOMAINKITS_API_KEY = "dk_xxx"

# check the key and your credits
dk usage

dk health checks the service status and is the only API call that works without a key.

How Commands Work

Every command maps to one API endpoint. The first arguments fill the endpoint's required value (a search type, a domain, a nameserver), and everything after them goes to the API unchanged, so the filters in the API reference work as documented.

dk <command> [arguments] [key=value ...] [-o FILE]

dk search expired query=clinic tld=com
dk search expired --query clinic --tld=com      # same request

Parameters can be written as key=value, --key=value or --key value. A value that starts with - needs the key=value form. Unknown names and invalid values come back from the API with its error message, printed as returned.

Commands

Run dk help for the same list in your terminal.

Output, Files and Exit Codes

• JSON by default: the response body prints to stdout unchanged, ready for jq or any JSON tool.
• Files: export=csv, export=txt and download save a file and print {"saved": "...", "bytes": ...}. The server picks the file name; -o FILE sets your own. A transfer that breaks off leaves nothing under the target name.
• Exports: a search export returns up to 50,000 rows in one request and uses 1 Export credit on top of the endpoint's credits.

Recipes

dk search nrds query=ai tld=com limit=100 | jq -r '.data[].domain'

dk search expired tld=com age_min=5 sort=age_desc export=csv -o expired-com.csv

dk bulk whois - < domains.txt
Get-Content domains.txt | dk bulk whois -      # PowerShell

DOMAINKITS_API_KEY=dk_xxx
15 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/dk download tld=com type=domains_only -o ~/nrd/com-$(date +\%F).txt.gz

dk whois example.com > whois.json
case $? in
  0) echo "ok" ;;
  1) echo "API error, see whois.json" ;;
  2) echo "usage or network error" ;;
esac

dk get search/nrds tld=com
echo '{"domains":["example.com","example.org"]}' | dk post bulk/dns -

Environment Variables