git:20260827.732a77b to git:20260829.d51eb76

---

name: affix-domains

---

# affix-domains

**Affix** a seed word with common brand prefixes and suffixes, check each candidate live against the authoritative registry, and prompt the user to register the free ones.

## Steps

1. **Gate on the bare seed's `.com`.** Before generating anything, check `<seed>.com` alone. It decides the scope of everything below:

- **Free** → the seed itself is winnable. Say so up front, then run the affix sweep on **`.com` only** — the original contract. Nothing else is needed.

- **Taken** → escalate. Every check from here on runs across the **full TLD set**: `.com .net .org .ai .io .co .app .cc`. Also sweep the **bare seed** across the other seven — `mate.ai` is worth more than `matebuddy.com`, and it costs eight lookups to find out.

2. **Generate candidates.** For seed `W`, produce `W` + each suffix and each prefix + `W` from the catalog below. Lowercase. Dedupe. Always drop triple-letter runs (`mateee`) and a suffix that repeats the seed (`matemate`).

The English-word filter is **mode-dependent**: in `.com`-only mode, drop any combination that spells an existing English word (e.g. `getup`, `openbox`) — its `.com` is almost certainly taken and burns a lookup. In **escalated mode, keep them** — that rationale is `.com`-specific, and a real word gone in `.com` says nothing about `.ai` or `.cc`. (`mately` is a dictionary adverb *and* the flagship `-ly` SaaS pattern; it is free in six TLDs.) If the user hints a style (playful, techy, marketplace…), weight the matching categories; default is every category.

3. **Check availability** with the bundled script, which already encodes the per-TLD endpoint, parallelism, and retry rules. It lives in this skill's `scripts/` dir — invoke it by absolute path:

```bash

~/.claude/skills/affix-domains/scripts/check_domains.sh \

--tlds com,net,org,ai,io,co,app,cc cand1 cand2 cand3 ...

```

With many candidates, pass them on stdin instead: `printf '%s\n' "${cands[@]}" | … --stdin`.

**`UNKNOWN` is not `FREE`.** It means the registry never gave a clean answer. Never show it as available; re-run those few names, and if they stay UNKNOWN, say so explicitly.

`.com` > `.ai` > `.io` > `.co` > `.net` > `.org` > `.app` > `.cc`

5. **Prompt the user to register.** Ask which they want to take. Point them to Cloudflare Registrar (or their preferred one) — note that Cloudflare Registrar does not sell every TLD in this set, so a second registrar may be needed. Do not enter payment on their behalf — registration is the user's action.

## TLD endpoints

Verified 2026-08-27, each against a known-taken and a known-free control. The script holds these; the table is here so a human can audit it.

| TLD | Method | Endpoint | Notes |

|---|---|---|---|

| `.com` | RDAP | `rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/` | Verisign, authoritative |

| `.net` | RDAP | `rdap.verisign.com/net/v1/domain/` | Verisign |

| `.cc` | RDAP | `tld-rdap.verisign.com/cc/v1/domain/` | Verisign, but a **different host** than `.com`/`.net` |

| `.org` | RDAP | `rdap.publicinterestregistry.org/rdap/domain/` | PIR |

| `.ai` | RDAP | `rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/` | Identity Digital |

| `.io` | RDAP | `rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/` | same host as `.ai`; **not in the IANA bootstrap** |

| `.app` | RDAP | `pubapi.registry.google/rdap/domain/` | Google Registry; **rate-limited**, see below |

| `.co` | **WHOIS** | `whois.registry.co` | **No RDAP service exists.** Free ⇔ `DOMAIN NOT FOUND` |

**`.app` rate limiting is a rolling quota, not a concurrency cap.** Dropping to `-P 2` does not help — once the budget is spent, every request 429s regardless of parallelism. The only fix is serial requests plus backoff-and-retry, which is what the script does. Treat `429` as *retry*, never as an answer.

### Endpoints that look right and are wrong

Both of these return **HTTP 404 for domains that are definitely registered** — a silent false-available that would tell the user to go buy a taken domain. Do not substitute them:

- `rdap.godaddy.com/v1/domain/` — 404s on `t.co`. It is the *registrar's* RDAP, not the registry's.

- `rdap.org/domain/` — a bootstrap proxy; 404s on both `.co` and `.io` because neither is in the IANA bootstrap file.

## Rules

- **Live lookups only** — never claim availability from cached knowledge or prior turns of this conversation. Domains get registered between checks.

- **Only an explicit negative means available.** RDAP `404`, or WHOIS `DOMAIN NOT FOUND`. Anything else — `429`, `5xx`, a timeout, an empty body — is `UNKNOWN`, which is reported as unknown and never as free.

- **Use the bundled script rather than hand-rolled `curl`.** The per-TLD hosts, the `.co` WHOIS special case, and the `.app` retry loop are all easy to get wrong in a way that fails silently toward false-available.

- **The escalated TLD set is fixed**: `.com .net .org .ai .io .co .app .cc`. If the user wants a TLD outside it, check it explicitly and say the endpoint was not pre-verified.

- **No payment on the user's behalf.** Prompt them to register; they check out.