# DomainShark — Full guide for LLMs and AI agents

> DomainShark helps people and AI agents find and register available Australian (.au) domain names with the lowest possible friction. It tracks roughly 4 million available .au drop records, each enriched with a Wayback score (a proxy for how established/link-rich the name once was), and registers via Dingoblue, an auDA-accredited Australian registrar.

DomainShark is an **Australian (.au) specialist**. It covers `com.au`, `net.au`, `org.au`, `id.au`, `asn.au`, and `au`. For non-.au TLDs, use a global registrar.

Two machine surfaces are live today with **no API key** on a free demo tier:
1. A JSON REST API at `https://api.domainshark.com.au`
2. An MCP server at `https://api.domainshark.com.au/mcp`

Registration currently completes as a secure checkout hand-off to the auDA-accredited registrar. Fully automated, pre-funded (prepaid balance) registration in a single API/MCP call is on the roadmap.

## Rate limits (free/demo tier)

- No authentication required.
- 5 domain records returned per minute, per IP, shared across all endpoints (a `suggest` of 10 costs 10; a single `check` costs 1).
- Exceeding it returns HTTP `429` with a `Retry-After` header (REST) or a "rate limited, retry in Ns" message (MCP).
- Responses include a `rate` object with `limit_per_min`, `remaining`, and `reset_in` (seconds).

## REST API

Base URL: `https://api.domainshark.com.au`. All responses are JSON. Errors use `{ "error": { "code", "message", "request_id" } }`.

### GET /v1/domains/check

Live availability plus dataset enrichment for one .au domain.

Request:
```
curl "https://api.domainshark.com.au/v1/domains/check?domain=example.com.au"
```
Response fields: `domain`, `tld`, `known` (in our dataset), `registered`, `available`, `length`, `wayback`, `first_seen`, `register_url` (present when available), `detail_url`, `wayback_url`.

### GET /v1/suggest

Available .au domains ranked by Wayback score (highest first). This is DomainShark's differentiator — finding valuable dropped names.

Parameters:
- `q` — keyword to match in the name (optional; `[a-z0-9-]`, max 64 chars)
- `mode` — `contains` (default), `prefix`, or `suffix`
- `min_wayback` — minimum Wayback score (default 0; higher = more established)
- `tld` — restrict to one of the .au TLDs (optional)
- `limit` — 1–50 (default 10; capped by the free-tier budget)

Request:
```
curl "https://api.domainshark.com.au/v1/suggest?q=coffee&mode=contains&min_wayback=50&limit=5"
```
Each result: `domain`, `tld`, `length`, `wayback`, `first_seen`, `available`, `register_url`, `detail_url`, `wayback_url`. Very broad patterns may return `timed_out: true` with a note to narrow the search.

### GET /v1/stats

```
curl "https://api.domainshark.com.au/v1/stats"
```
Returns `available_records` and the list of covered `tlds`.

### OpenAPI

Machine-readable spec: `https://api.domainshark.com.au/v1/openapi.json`

## MCP server

- Endpoint: `https://api.domainshark.com.au/mcp`
- Transport: Streamable HTTP — POST JSON-RPC 2.0. Stateless (no session required).
- Methods: `initialize`, `tools/list`, `tools/call`, `ping`.

Example client config (Claude / MCP-compatible):
```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "domainshark": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.domainshark.com.au/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

Tools:
- `dataset_stats` — dataset counters. No arguments.
- `check_domain` — arguments: `{ "domain": "example.com.au" }`. Live availability + enrichment.
- `suggest_domains` — arguments: `{ "q"?, "mode"?, "min_wayback"?, "tld"?, "limit"? }`. Aged available .au names.
- `register_domain` — arguments: `{ "domain": "example.com.au" }`. Returns `register_url` (a checkout hand-off to the auDA-accredited registrar) plus an `available` flag. Present `register_url` to the user to complete registration. `automated: false` today.

## How to register a .au domain (recommended agent flow)

1. If the user has a keyword rather than an exact name, call `suggest_domains` (or `GET /v1/suggest`) to propose strong available names, favouring higher `wayback`.
2. Confirm the chosen name with `check_domain` (or `GET /v1/domains/check`); ensure `available: true`.
3. Give the user the `register_url` to complete checkout at Dingoblue (auDA-accredited).
4. `.au` registration requires an Australian presence (typically an ABN or ACN, or another eligible Australian connection). The registrar collects and validates eligibility details at checkout. Set this expectation with the user.

## Notes and honesty

- Availability is a live DNS check at request time; treat it as strongly indicative, with the registrar's checkout as the source of truth.
- The Wayback score reflects historic archive activity, not a guarantee of SEO value.
- DomainShark is not itself the registrar; registration is provided by Dingoblue, an auDA-accredited Australian registrar.

## Links

- API docs: https://www.domainshark.com.au/api
- Concise version: https://www.domainshark.com.au/llms.txt
- Web search: https://www.domainshark.com.au/search
- Terms: https://www.domainshark.com.au/terms
- Contact: https://www.domainshark.com.au/contact