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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.name.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Follow these steps to quickly get up and running with the name.com Core API.

Download our latest OpenAPI spec before you begin, especially if you plan to use code generation. It is the simplest way to wire up clients and validate requests early.

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Step 1: Get Your API Token

1

Create Account

Create a name.com account if you don’t have one already.
We recommend not using Google/SSO when creating a reseller account. SSO-based signup often sets your account username to your email address, which is not ideal for reseller/API usage.Pick a generic, company-wide username you can share across the team (e.g., resellercompanyname, company-eng, company-dev). This is the username you’ll use for HTTP Basic Auth, and your sandbox username will be this value with -test appended.
2

Generate Tokens

Go to Account Settings → Security → API Tokens and issue both development and production tokens
3

Secure Storage

Keep your API token secure — treat it like a password
Newly generated sandbox (OT&E) credentials can occasionally take up to 15 minutes to become active in the test environment. If you get a 401 Unauthorized immediately after creating a token, wait a bit and retry. See Testing Environment.
If your account has two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, go to Account Settings → Security, and toggle name.com API Access on at the bottom.

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Step 2: Choose Your Environment

name.com offers two separate environments:

Production

Base URL: https://api.name.com
Purpose: Live domain registrations, renewals, and management

Sandbox

Base URL: https://api.dev.name.com
Purpose: Safe testing and development — no real charges

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Sandbox Environment Details

  • Use your username with -test appended (e.g., reseller123-test)
  • Requires a separate sandbox API token
  • The sandbox is API-only — not accessible through the browser
  • Supports the Try It feature (limited to test environment)
  • Includes preloaded testing credit
  • Data does not sync with production
  • Test domains must be registered in sandbox before use
  • Domain availability and pricing may differ from production
  • Some TLDs are not available in sandbox environment

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Step 3: Authenticate Your API Requests

Use HTTP Basic Auth with your username and API token. See the full guide in Authentication for curl shorthand vs explicit header, and how to generate a Base64 token on Linux/macOS and Windows PowerShell. 
curl -u your-username:your-api-token https://api.name.com/core/v1/hello

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Step 4: Make Your First API Call

Call the GET /core/v1/hello endpoint to verify connectivity: 
curl -u your-username:your-api-token https://api.name.com/core/v1/hello
A successful response should look like this: 
{
  "motd": "Welcome to Core API from Name.com",
  "serverName": "nameapiserver",
  "serverTime": "2025-01-01T12:15:00Z",
  "username": "myapiusername"
}

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Using “Try it” Feature

1

Navigate to Endpoint

Go to an endpoint you’d like to test (e.g., GET /core/v1/domains → ListDomains)
2

Click Try It

Click the “Try it” button at the top right of the endpoint panel
3

Select Environment

In the “Environment” dropdown (next to “History”):
  • Select Mock Server to test with sample responses (no credentials needed)
  • Select Testing to use the name.com sandbox environment
4

Enter Credentials

Use your sandbox credentials from Account Settings → API Tokens (https://www.name.com/account/settings/api)
5

Send Request

Click Send to make your test request
Only use sandbox credentials when testing in the development environment. Never use production credentials unless you are working with real data.

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Troubleshooting Common Issues

Check your username and API token; verify you’re using the right environment
If 2FA is enabled, go to Account Settings → Security and enable API Access
Make sure the domain or resource exists; in sandbox, register test domains first

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Next Steps

Explore API Resources

Browse the complete API reference

Read API Overview

Understand API structure and features

Visit FAQ

Get help with troubleshooting