Status

This project is currently unmaintained. The cloud function provider which it relied upon, Webtask, is no longer accepting new users.

There are also better tools for monitoring reserved domains, including ones from GoDaddy and Domain Hole. If you are worried about either of those services snooping on your watchlists and grabbing domains before you do, it wouldn't be hard to rewrite this script to run on something more reliable like AWS. Note that AWS even has an API for checking domain availability.

Previous instructions

domainspy monitors domains that you care about and emails you if any of them become available.

domainspy is not a hosted application. You must run it yourself by configuring Namecheap, Webtask, and SendGrid according to the instructions below.

domainspy does not automatically purchase domains when they become available because the Namecheap API prohibits drop catching.

Set up

Namecheap

1. Sign up for a free Namecheap account if you do not have one already
2. Follow the instructions in the Namecheap API documentation to enable the Namecheap API
   • Your account must meet these criteria to be eligible. The easiest way to qualify is by adding $50 to your account balance.
   • If Namecheap doesn't respond to your request for API access within a couple of days, contact support. They can speed things up.
   • You don't need to request sandbox API access unless you plan to modify or test this script
   • Make note of your username and API key
3. Whitelist the Webtask IP addresses in the API settings

SendGrid

1. Sign up for a free SendGrid account if you do not have one already
2. Create a SendGrid API key for domainspy and make note of its value

Webtask

1. Sign up for a free Webtask account if you do not have one already
2. Install the Webtask CLI

Installation

1. Clone this repository
2. Copy .secrets.dist to .secrets and provide values for all keys
   • DOMAINS is a comma-separated list of domains that you want to monitor
   • EMAIL_RECIPIENT is the email address that should receive alerts
   • All other values should have been noted in the steps above
3. Run this command while in the working directory: wt create --name domainspy --secrets-file .secrets index.js

Usage

After setup is complete, domainspy will check your domains once per day and email you if any become available. To check more often, run wt edit domainspy and set a more frequent schedule in the task's settings. Be sure not to exceed Namecheap's API limits.

The emails that domainspy sends may be considered spam. If this happens, create a filter in your email client which specifies that these messages should never be sent to spam.

Adding domains

To add a domain, run wt edit domainspy. Access the secrets from the settings menu and add your new domain to the comma-separated DOMAINS list.

Test

Run npm test