NS1 API
Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyCloud InfrastructureNetworkingapiKey37 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Manage NS1 DNS zones, records, data feeds, monitoring jobs, teams, and API keys through 37 endpoints. Authenticated via X-NSONE-Key header.
Use for: Create a new DNS zone for example.com, Add an A record pointing example.com to 192.0.2.1, List all monitoring jobs and their last status, Retrieve QPS stats for the last 24 hours
Not supported: Does not handle CDN, WAF, certificate issuance, or domain registration - use for managed DNS, traffic steering, and DNS monitoring only.
The NS1 API (now IBM NS1 Connect) provides programmatic control over managed DNS, traffic management, and connected DNS infrastructure. Thirty-seven endpoints cover DNS zones and records, data sources and feeds for dynamic traffic steering, monitoring jobs and regions, account settings, teams, API keys, usage statistics, and dedicated DNS networks. It is the backbone for ops teams running production-grade DNS with conditional routing, health checks, and observability built in.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the NS1 API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NS1 API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fns1.com%2Fns1" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fns1.com%2Fns1" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with NS1 API.
Create, update, and delete DNS zones and individual record sets
Configure data sources and feeds that drive dynamic traffic-steering answers
Provision and tune monitoring jobs for endpoint health checks across NS1 regions
Manage account teams, member roles, and per-key API permissions
Pull QPS and usage statistics for billing reconciliation and capacity planning
Inspect dedicated DNS networks and their assigned scopes
Use Cases
Patterns agents use NS1 API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Programmatic DNS Zone and Record Management
Platform teams automate DNS provisioning by calling /zones and /zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type} from CI pipelines and infrastructure-as-code tools. Creating a zone, adding records, and rotating values become idempotent steps in a deploy script, eliminating manual portal clicks. NS1's record types support standard A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, and TXT plus answer metadata for traffic steering.
PUT /zones with name=example.com then POST /zones/example.com/api.example.com/A with answer 192.0.2.10
Dynamic Traffic Steering with Data Feeds
NS1's signature capability is using live data feeds to drive answer selection. Operators register data sources and feeds via /data/sources and /data/feeds, then attach feeds to record answers so DNS responses shift based on latency, health, or custom signals. This use case turns DNS into an active load-balancing layer instead of a static lookup table.
POST /data/sources to register a Datadog feed, then POST /data/sources/{sourceId}/publish with a metric payload and verify the steered record updates
Endpoint Health Monitoring
NS1 monitoring jobs run health checks from regional probes and feed results back into traffic steering. Ops teams call /monitoring/jobs and /monitoring/regions to provision checks, choose probe regions, and inspect outage histories. Combining jobs with data feeds gives self-healing DNS that pulls bad endpoints out automatically.
POST /monitoring/jobs with type=tcp, host=api.example.com, port=443 and configure regions=us-east, eu-west
AI Agent DNS Operations via Jentic
SRE-focused AI agents use Jentic to run NS1 operations safely without holding the X-NSONE-Key in their context. The agent searches for the operation, loads the schema, and executes with credentials injected at request time, so it can rotate records or pause monitoring jobs in response to alerts.
Use Jentic to search 'add NS1 A record', load /zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type}, and execute with the record values
Key Endpoints
37 endpoints — the ns1 api (now ibm ns1 connect) provides programmatic control over managed dns, traffic management, and connected dns infrastructure.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/zones
List all DNS zones on the account
PUT
/zones/{zone}
Create or update a DNS zone
POST
/zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type}
Create a DNS record under a zone
GET
/monitoring/jobs
List monitoring jobs and their statuses
POST
/data/sources
Register a data source for traffic steering
POST
/data/sources/{sourceId}/publish
Publish data into a registered source
GET
/account/apikeys
List account API keys and permissions
GET
/stats/qps
Retrieve queries-per-second statistics
GET
/zones
List all DNS zones on the account
PUT
/zones/{zone}
Create or update a DNS zone
POST
/zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type}
Create a DNS record under a zone
GET
/monitoring/jobs
List monitoring jobs and their statuses
POST
/data/sources
Register a data source for traffic steering
POST
/data/sources/{sourceId}/publish
Publish data into a registered source
GET
/account/apikeys
List account API keys and permissions
GET
/stats/qps
Retrieve queries-per-second statistics
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the NS1 API by hand means passing your key in the X-NSONE-Key header on every call to api.nsone.net and mapping zones, records, monitoring jobs, and data sources yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the NS1 API from the API Directory, store the API key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
NS1 puts the zone in the URL path (/zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type}), so a rule can pin your agent to one zone and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so record creation and data-source publishing are not included unless you add them.
Credential isolation
Your NS1 API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected as the X-NSONE-Key header at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'add an NS1 A record' or 'create a DNS monitoring job', and Jentic returns the matching /zones, /monitoring/jobs, or /data/sources operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using NS1 API through Jentic.
What authentication does the NS1 API use?
The NS1 API uses an API key passed in the X-NSONE-Key request header. Keys are scoped via /account/apikeys and can be restricted per resource. Through Jentic, NS1 keys live encrypted in the vault and the X-NSONE-Key header is injected at execution time so the raw key never appears in agent prompts.
Can I create DNS records programmatically with the NS1 API?
Yes. POST /zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type} creates a record under an existing zone, where {type} is the record type (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.). PUT against the same path updates an existing record.
What are the rate limits for the NS1 API?
NS1 publishes per-account API rate limits at https://ns1.com/api; limits depend on plan tier. The API returns a 429 with retry-after when an account exceeds its allotment, so clients should implement exponential backoff.
How do I set up traffic steering through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'NS1 traffic steering data feed', load /data/sources and /data/sources/{sourceId}/publish, and execute the pair to register a source and push values into it. The flow is pip install jentic, then await client.search, load, and execute.
Is the NS1 API free?
NS1 (IBM NS1 Connect) is a paid service with usage-based DNS query and feature pricing. The API itself has no separate fee but usage counts against the plan; current pricing is on the NS1 website.
Which DNS record types does the NS1 API support?
Standard record types A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SRV, and others are supported via the /zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type} path, with the {type} segment selecting the record type. NS1 also supports answer metadata that drives geo, latency, and weighted steering.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the NS1 API?
Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which NS1 operations and credentials the agent may use. NS1 puts the zone in the URL path (/zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type}), so a rule can pin the agent to a single zone and nothing else. You also choose the exact operations it can call, so record creation via POST /zones/{zone}/{domain}/{type} or data-source publishing via POST /data/sources are excluded unless you explicitly allow them.
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