namecom

The command-line interface for name.com

Register domains, manage DNS, and run your entire domain portfolio — without leaving the terminal.

---

Recorded against the sandbox API with vhs — see docs/demo.tape for the script.

And namecom status, for the portfolio at a glance — illustrated below with a representative account rather than a real one:

$ namecom status

  Profile   default → https://api.name.com
  ────────────────────────────────────────────
  47 domains   3 expiring soon   1 transfer pending

  Expiring soon
    acme.io          2026-07-01   (in 16 days)
    staging.dev      2026-07-18   (in 33 days)
    oldsite.net      2026-08-02   (in 48 days)

→ Run 'namecom domain renew acme.io' to renew now

Contents

• Why
• Installation
• Quick start
• Commands
• Workflows
• Output formats
• Configuration
• Shell completion
• Global flags
• Development
• Contributing
• Changelog
• Security policy
• License

Why

The name.com web UI is great for humans. The CLI is for agents and terminal wizards

• Automate domain renewals, DNS changes, and email forwards in CI/CD pipelines
• Script bulk operations across dozens of domains at once
• Integrate with secret managers via token_cmd — no credentials in shell history
• Pipe JSON output directly into jq, grep, and other tools
• Stay fast — tab completion, --dry-run, and --yes flags for confident automation

Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux):

brew tap patramsey/tap
brew trust patramsey/tap
brew install namecom

Download a release binary:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/patramsey/namecom-cli/releases/latest/download/namecom_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv namecom /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Intel)
curl -L https://github.com/patramsey/namecom-cli/releases/latest/download/namecom_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv namecom /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (amd64)
curl -L https://github.com/patramsey/namecom-cli/releases/latest/download/namecom_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv namecom /usr/local/bin/

All platforms and checksums on the releases page.

Go install:

go install github.com/patramsey/namecom-cli@latest
mv "$(go env GOPATH)/bin/namecom-cli" "$(go env GOPATH)/bin/namecom"

go install names the binary after the module path (namecom-cli); the mv renames it to namecom to match the rest of this README.

Quick start

# 1. Authenticate (grab your API token from name.com → Account → API)
namecom auth login

# 2. See your portfolio at a glance
namecom status

# 3. Check if a domain is available
namecom domain check mycoolstartup.com

# 4. Register it
namecom domain register mycoolstartup.com

# 5. Point it somewhere
namecom dns create mycoolstartup.com --type A --answer 1.2.3.4

# Tip: jump to the name.com dashboard for any domain
namecom open mycoolstartup.com

Commands

Group	Commands
domain	list get search check register renew lock autorenew privacy set-ns contacts auth-code pricing update
dns	list create update delete export import
dnssec	list get create delete
transfer	list get create cancel eligibility internal-in cancel-outbound
email	list get create update delete
url	list get create update delete
vanity-ns	list get create update delete
auth	login logout status
order	list get refund
config	list-profiles use show
api	raw HTTP passthrough with auth applied
open	open name.com in a browser

namecom --help
namecom domain --help
namecom dns --help

Workflows

Register a domain and set it up:

namecom domain check acme.io                              # check availability
namecom domain register acme.io                           # register it
namecom dns create acme.io --type A --answer 1.2.3.4
namecom dns create acme.io --type MX --answer mail.google.com --priority 10
namecom email create acme.io hello --to you@gmail.com     # hello@acme.io → you@gmail.com
namecom domain autorenew on acme.io                       # never let it expire

Manage DNS records:

namecom dns list acme.io
namecom dns create acme.io --type CNAME --host www --answer acme.io.
namecom dns update acme.io 12345 --answer 5.6.7.8
namecom dns export acme.io --zone > acme.io.zone           # export as BIND zone file

Transfer a domain in:

namecom transfer eligibility acme.io                      # confirm it's eligible
namecom transfer create acme.io --auth-code XXXXXX
namecom transfer get acme.io                              # check status

Set up email and URL forwarding:

namecom email create acme.io hello --to you@gmail.com     # hello@acme.io → you@gmail.com
namecom email list acme.io
namecom url create acme.io --to https://new-site.com      # redirect apex to another URL

Enable DNSSEC:

namecom dnssec list acme.io
namecom dnssec create acme.io --algorithm 13 --digest-type 2 --key-tag 12345 --digest abc123

Set up vanity nameservers:

namecom vanity-ns create acme.io --hostname ns1.acme.io --ips 1.2.3.4
namecom vanity-ns create acme.io --hostname ns2.acme.io --ips 5.6.7.8
namecom domain set-ns acme.io --ns ns1.acme.io,ns2.acme.io

Scripting and automation:

# List all domains expiring within 60 days
namecom domain list --output json | jq -r '.data[] | select(.expireDate != null and .expireDate < "2026-08-01") | .domainName'

# Bulk-create an A record across all domains
namecom domain list -q | xargs -I{} namecom dns create {} --type A --answer 1.2.3.4

# Dry-run first, then apply
namecom dns create acme.io --type TXT --answer "v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net ~all" --dry-run
namecom dns create acme.io --type TXT --answer "v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net ~all" --yes

Output formats

Every command supports --output table (default), --output json, and --output yaml:

namecom domain list                     # rich table with colors and expiry urgency
namecom domain list --output json       # machine-readable JSON
namecom domain list --quiet             # one domain per line, for scripting

Configuration

Credentials are written by namecom auth login to your platform's user config directory:

Platform	Location
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/namecom/config.yaml
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/namecom/config.yaml, or ~/.config/namecom/config.yaml
Windows	%AppData%\namecom\config.yaml

namecom auth status prints the path in use. An older ~/.namecom/config.yaml is still read if the current location has no config, and NAMECOM_CONFIG overrides both. Multiple profiles are supported for managing separate accounts:

namecom auth login --profile work
namecom auth login --profile personal
namecom domain list --profile work
namecom config use work                 # make it the default

Sandbox vs. production — test changes safely against name.com's sandbox API before running them for real:

namecom auth login --profile sandbox --sandbox
namecom domain register test.com --profile sandbox

Omit --profile to use your default (production) profile.

Environment variables (useful in CI):

export NAMECOM_USERNAME=yourname
export NAMECOM_TOKEN=yourtoken
export NAMECOM_SANDBOX=true        # target sandbox API
export NAMECOM_PROFILE=staging     # select a profile
export NAMECOM_CONFIG=~/namecom-ci.yaml    # use this file instead of the default
namecom domain list

Secret manager integration — add token_cmd to your config and credentials are fetched at runtime, never stored on disk:

profiles:
  default:
    username: yourname
    token_cmd: "op read op://vault/namecom/token"  # 1Password example

Shell completion

namecom completion bash  > /etc/bash_completion.d/namecom
namecom completion zsh   > "${fpath[1]}/_namecom"
namecom completion fish  > ~/.config/fish/completions/namecom.fish

Global flags

Flag	Default	Description
-o, --output	table in TTY, json otherwise	Output format: table, json, yaml
-q, --quiet		One result per line — for piping and scripting
-y, --yes		Skip all confirmation prompts
--dry-run		Print the API request without sending it
--profile		Use a named credential profile
--sandbox		Target the sandbox API (api.dev.name.com)
--color	auto	Colorize output: auto, always, never
--timeout	30s	Per-request timeout
--debug		Log HTTP requests/responses to stderr (token redacted)
--debug-file		Log HTTP requests/responses to a file (appends; useful as an audit log)
--no-header		Omit the header row from table output
--idempotency-key	auto-generated	Idempotency key for write operations — auto-generated per invocation; override to make cross-invocation retries safe
--username		API username (overrides config and NAMECOM_USERNAME)
--token		API token (overrides config and NAMECOM_TOKEN)

Development

make build      # compile to ./namecom
make test       # go test ./...
make lint       # golangci-lint run
make generate   # regenerate internal/api/gen/ from namecom.api.yaml

The API client in internal/api/gen/ is code-generated from namecom.api.yaml (a vendored OpenAPI 3.1 spec). See internal/api/gen/README.md for details on the codegen pipeline.

Contributing

Contributions welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the setup, the checks CI runs, and what to know before touching the generated API client or a command that writes. Participation is governed by the Code of Conduct.

Security issues should go through private vulnerability reporting rather than a public issue — see SECURITY.md.

Release history is in CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.