canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/cloudns.net/cloudns

# ClouDNS DNS API

The ClouDNS DNS API provides programmatic management of authoritative DNS zones and records hosted on the ClouDNS global Anycast network. It exposes operations to register and delete zones, list zone records, add, modify, and delete A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT and other record types, and check zone propagation status across the ClouDNS nameservers. Authentication uses an auth-id and auth-password pair passed as query parameters, and responses are available in both JSON and XML formats.

## For AI agents

Manage authoritative DNS zones and records on ClouDNS - register zones, add and modify A/AAAA/MX/CNAME/TXT records, and check propagation status across nameservers.

## Scope

Does not handle domain registration, TLS certificate issuance, or web hosting - use for authoritative DNS zone and record management only.

## Capabilities

- Register and delete DNS zones on the ClouDNS Anycast network
- Add, modify, and delete individual DNS records inside a zone
- List zones with pagination and retrieve aggregate zone statistics
- Activate or deactivate DNS zones without deleting their records
- Check whether a zone has fully propagated across all ClouDNS nameservers
- Verify auth-id and auth-password credentials before running other operations

## Use cases

### Automated DNS Provisioning for New Customer Domains

Hosting providers and SaaS platforms that issue subdomains or full domains to customers can use the ClouDNS API to register a new zone and seed it with the required A, CNAME, and MX records in a single workflow. The `/dns/register.json` and `/dns/add-record.json` endpoints handle zone creation and record population, and is-updated.json confirms global propagation before the customer-facing service is announced as ready. Typical end-to-end provisioning takes under a minute including propagation checks.

Example prompt: Register the zone example-customer.com, add an A record for the apex pointing to 203.0.113.10, add a CNAME for www pointing to the apex, and poll is-updated.json until propagation completes

### Bulk DNS Record Updates During Migrations

When migrating between hosting providers, mail providers, or CDN edges, infrastructure teams need to update many records consistently. The ClouDNS API exposes mod-record.json for in-place edits and delete-record.json plus add-record.json for full replacements, while list-zones.json and records.json provide the inventory needed to plan the change. Updates apply to the Anycast network within seconds and propagation can be tracked via update-status.json.

Example prompt: List all records in zone acme.com, identify every A record pointing to the legacy IP 198.51.100.5, and modify each one to point to 203.0.113.42

### Scheduled Zone Propagation Monitoring

Operations teams running production DNS changes need confirmation that updates have replicated across every authoritative nameserver before declaring a change complete. The update-status.json and is-updated.json endpoints return per-nameserver propagation state and a single is-fully-updated boolean. Polling these endpoints from a CI job or monitoring system replaces manual dig checks against each ClouDNS nameserver.

Example prompt: After modifying a TXT record on zone acme.com, poll is-updated.json every 10 seconds for up to 2 minutes and report when the zone is fully synchronised

### Agent-Driven DNS Operations via Jentic

AI agents that manage cloud infrastructure can call the ClouDNS API through Jentic to add, change, or remove DNS records as part of larger workflows such as TLS certificate validation, mail server setup, or domain handover. Jentic resolves the intent, supplies the auth-id and auth-password from its credential vault, and returns structured results so the agent can verify the change without parsing raw responses. Setup is search-load-execute rather than reading the ClouDNS HTTP API wiki.

Example prompt: Through Jentic, search for 'add a DNS record', load the ClouDNS add-record.json operation, and execute it to create a TXT record for ACME DNS-01 challenge validation

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | `/dns/register.json` | Register a new DNS zone |
| GET | `/dns/list-zones.json` | List DNS zones |
| GET | `/dns/records.json` | List DNS records for a zone |
| POST | `/dns/add-record.json` | Add a DNS record to a zone |
| POST | `/dns/mod-record.json` | Modify an existing DNS record |
| POST | `/dns/delete-record.json` | Delete a DNS record |
| GET | `/dns/is-updated.json` | Check whether a zone is fully propagated |

## Key resources

- **DNS Zones** — Register, list, delete, and activate or deactivate authoritative DNS zones
- **DNS Records** — Create, list, modify, and delete A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT and other record types within a zone
- **Propagation Status** — Per-nameserver update status and whole-zone fully-updated checks
- **Account Login** — Credential validation endpoint to confirm auth-id and auth-password before running other operations

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the ClouDNS DNS API by hand means passing your auth-id and auth-password as query parameters on every request and posting the zone and record calls to api.cloudns.net yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the ClouDNS DNS API from the API Directory, store the credentials once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** ClouDNS names the zone and record in the request parameters rather than pinning one id in the URL path, so scope the agent by the operations it needs, such as listing zones, reading records, or adding a record. You choose that set, so operations like modifying or deleting a record are only in reach if you include them.
- **Credential handling:** Your ClouDNS auth-id and auth-password are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected as query parameters at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'add a DNS record' or 'check DNS propagation', and Jentic returns the matching ClouDNS operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading the ClouDNS HTTP API wiki.

## Related APIs

- **Cloudflare API** — Cloudflare also offers authoritative DNS plus a global edge network, CDN, and security features
- **DigitalOcean API** — DigitalOcean exposes droplet, networking, and DNS endpoints for compute infrastructure that pairs with ClouDNS-managed zones
- **AWS API** — Amazon Route 53 (via the AWS API) is an alternative authoritative DNS provider integrated with the AWS ecosystem

## FAQ

### What authentication does the ClouDNS DNS API use?

The ClouDNS DNS API uses an apiKey scheme: every request must include auth-id and auth-password as query parameters. Through Jentic these credentials are stored in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so they never appear in the agent context or in logs.

### Can I add and modify individual DNS records with the ClouDNS DNS API?

Yes. `/dns/add-record.json` creates a record, `/dns/mod-record.json` updates an existing one in place, and `/dns/delete-record.json` removes it. The endpoints accept the standard ClouDNS record types (A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT and others) plus the zone name and record body.

### How can I tell when a DNS change has propagated across all ClouDNS nameservers?

Call `/dns/is-updated.json` with the zone name to get a single boolean indicating full propagation, or `/dns/update-status.json` for per-nameserver state. Polling is-updated.json every few seconds is the standard pattern for confirming a change before downstream services start using it.

### What are the rate limits for the ClouDNS DNS API?

The OpenAPI specification does not declare explicit rate limit headers or a 429 response. ClouDNS publishes account-tier limits in its wiki and applies throttling at the account level, so very high volume callers should batch updates and back off if requests start to fail. For agent workloads through Jentic, retries are handled by the SDK.

### How do I add a DNS record with the ClouDNS DNS API through Jentic?

Install the SDK with pip install jentic, search for 'add a DNS record', load the cloudns.net add-record.json operation, and execute it with the zone name, record type, host, and record value. Jentic supplies the auth-id and auth-password automatically and returns the structured response from `/dns/add-record.json.`

### Does the ClouDNS DNS API support both JSON and XML responses?

Yes. The same endpoints are available with .json or .xml suffixes. The Jentic-published spec covers the .json variants since structured JSON is what agents and SDKs consume directly.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the ClouDNS DNS API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, you decide which ClouDNS operations your agent may call, and your own rules govern access. ClouDNS names the zone and record in the request parameters rather than pinning one id in the URL path, so you scope the agent by the operations it needs, such as listing zones with `/dns/list-zones.json`, reading records with `/dns/records.json`, or adding a record with `/dns/add-record.json.` Higher-impact operations like `/dns/mod-record.json` and `/dns/delete-record.json` are only in reach if you include them in that set.