namecheap-domains

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Manage domains through the Namecheap API — register, renew, transfer, configure DNS, and manage nameservers. Use when the user mentions "namecheap", "register domain", "domain DNS", "nameservers", "domain transfer", "renew domain", "check domain availability", "DNS records", "email forwarding", "WHOIS", or any domain registrar operations. Also use when managing A records, CNAME, MX records, or TXT records for Namecheap domains.

10installs

Sourceclasen/skills

Added on2026-05-15

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add clasen/skills namecheap-domains

SKILL.md Content

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Namecheap Domains

Skill for managing domains through the Namecheap API. Covers domain registration, DNS configuration, nameserver management, and domain transfers.

These methods work only for domains registered with Namecheap that are present in the user's account.

Prerequisites

The user needs these credentials configured as environment variables:

Variable	Description
`NAMECHEAP_API_USER`	API username
`NAMECHEAP_API_KEY`	API key from Namecheap account
`NAMECHEAP_USERNAME`	Namecheap account username (usually same as API user)
`NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP`	Whitelisted IP address for API access

If any are missing, ask the user to set them. API access must be enabled in the Namecheap account dashboard and the client IP must be whitelisted.

API Basics

Base URL:

https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response

Sandbox URL:

https://api.sandbox.namecheap.com/xml.response

Every request requires these global parameters:

Parameter	Description
`ApiUser`	Username required to access the API
`ApiKey`	API key
`UserName`	Account username (use ApiUser if managing own account)
`ClientIp`	Whitelisted IP address
`Command`	API command to run (e.g., `namecheap.domains.getList` )

Making requests

Use HTTP GET for read operations and HTTP POST for write operations (especially

domains.create

due to the large number of parameters).

bash

# GET example — list domains
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&\
ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&\
ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.getList"

bash

# POST example — create domain
curl -s -X POST "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response" \
  -d "ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}" \
  -d "ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}" \
  -d "UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}" \
  -d "ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}" \
  -d "Command=namecheap.domains.create" \
  -d "DomainName=example.com" \
  -d "Years=1" \
  # ... additional parameters

Parsing XML responses

All responses are XML. Check the

Status

attribute on

ApiResponse

xml

<ApiResponse Status="OK">    <!-- Success -->
<ApiResponse Status="ERROR"> <!-- Failure — check <Errors> -->

Use

xmllint

to extract values:

bash

# Check response status
echo "$response" | xmllint --xpath "string(//ApiResponse/@Status)" -

# Extract error messages
echo "$response" | xmllint --xpath "//Errors/Error/text()" - 2>/dev/null

# Extract specific attributes
echo "$response" | xmllint --xpath "string(//DomainCreateResult/@Registered)" -

xmllint

is not available, use

grep

and

sed

for basic extraction, or Python's

xml.etree.ElementTree

API Quick Reference

domains.*

Command	Description
`namecheap.domains.getList`	List domains in the account
`namecheap.domains.getContacts`	Get contact info for a domain
`namecheap.domains.create`	Register a new domain
`namecheap.domains.getTldList`	List available TLDs
`namecheap.domains.setContacts`	Update contact info for a domain
`namecheap.domains.check`	Check domain availability
`namecheap.domains.reactivate`	Reactivate an expired domain
`namecheap.domains.renew`	Renew an expiring domain
`namecheap.domains.getRegistrarLock`	Get lock status
`namecheap.domains.setRegistrarLock`	Set lock status
`namecheap.domains.getInfo`	Get domain details

See references/api-domains.md for full parameter details.

domains.dns.*

Command	Description
`namecheap.domains.dns.setDefault`	Use Namecheap default DNS servers
`namecheap.domains.dns.setCustom`	Use custom DNS servers
`namecheap.domains.dns.getList`	Get DNS servers for a domain
`namecheap.domains.dns.getHosts`	Get DNS host records
`namecheap.domains.dns.getEmailForwarding`	Get email forwarding settings
`namecheap.domains.dns.setEmailForwarding`	Set email forwarding
`namecheap.domains.dns.setHosts`	Set DNS host records

See references/api-dns.md for full parameter details.

domains.ns.*

Command	Description
`namecheap.domains.ns.create`	Create a nameserver
`namecheap.domains.ns.delete`	Delete a nameserver
`namecheap.domains.ns.getInfo`	Get nameserver info
`namecheap.domains.ns.update`	Update nameserver IP

See references/api-nameservers.md for full parameter details.

domains.transfer.*

Command	Description
`namecheap.domains.transfer.create`	Transfer domain to Namecheap
`namecheap.domains.transfer.getStatus`	Check transfer status
`namecheap.domains.transfer.updateStatus`	Update/resubmit transfer
`namecheap.domains.transfer.getList`	List domain transfers

See references/api-transfers.md for full parameter details.

Common Workflows

1. Check availability and register a domain

bash

# Step 1: Check availability
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.check&DomainList=example.com,example.net"

# Look for: <DomainCheckResult Domain="example.com" Available="true" />

# Step 2: Register (use POST)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response" \
  -d "ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}" \
  -d "ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}" \
  -d "UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}" \
  -d "ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}" \
  -d "Command=namecheap.domains.create" \
  -d "DomainName=example.com" \
  -d "Years=1" \
  -d "RegistrantFirstName=John" \
  -d "RegistrantLastName=Smith" \
  -d "RegistrantAddress1=123 Main St" \
  -d "RegistrantCity=San Francisco" \
  -d "RegistrantStateProvince=CA" \
  -d "RegistrantPostalCode=94102" \
  -d "RegistrantCountry=US" \
  -d "RegistrantPhone=+1.4155551234" \
  -d "RegistrantEmailAddress=john@example.com" \
  -d "TechFirstName=John" \
  -d "TechLastName=Smith" \
  -d "TechAddress1=123 Main St" \
  -d "TechCity=San Francisco" \
  -d "TechStateProvince=CA" \
  -d "TechPostalCode=94102" \
  -d "TechCountry=US" \
  -d "TechPhone=+1.4155551234" \
  -d "TechEmailAddress=john@example.com" \
  -d "AdminFirstName=John" \
  -d "AdminLastName=Smith" \
  -d "AdminAddress1=123 Main St" \
  -d "AdminCity=San Francisco" \
  -d "AdminStateProvince=CA" \
  -d "AdminPostalCode=94102" \
  -d "AdminCountry=US" \
  -d "AdminPhone=+1.4155551234" \
  -d "AdminEmailAddress=john@example.com" \
  -d "AuxBillingFirstName=John" \
  -d "AuxBillingLastName=Smith" \
  -d "AuxBillingAddress1=123 Main St" \
  -d "AuxBillingCity=San Francisco" \
  -d "AuxBillingStateProvince=CA" \
  -d "AuxBillingPostalCode=94102" \
  -d "AuxBillingCountry=US" \
  -d "AuxBillingPhone=+1.4155551234" \
  -d "AuxBillingEmailAddress=john@example.com" \
  -d "AddFreeWhoisguard=yes" \
  -d "WGEnabled=yes"

# Step 3: Verify
# Check response for: <DomainCreateResult Registered="true" />

When the user provides contact info once, reuse it for all four contact types (Registrant, Tech, Admin, AuxBilling) unless they specify different contacts.

2. Configure DNS records

bash

# Step 1: Verify domain uses Namecheap DNS
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.dns.getList&SLD=example&TLD=com"

# If using custom nameservers, switch to default first (required for host records)
# Command=namecheap.domains.dns.setDefault&SLD=example&TLD=com

# Step 2: Get current records
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.dns.getHosts&SLD=example&TLD=com"

# Step 3: Set all records (setHosts replaces ALL records — include existing ones)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response" \
  -d "ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}" \
  -d "ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}" \
  -d "UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}" \
  -d "ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}" \
  -d "Command=namecheap.domains.dns.setHosts" \
  -d "SLD=example" \
  -d "TLD=com" \
  -d "HostName1=@" \
  -d "RecordType1=A" \
  -d "Address1=1.2.3.4" \
  -d "TTL1=1800" \
  -d "HostName2=www" \
  -d "RecordType2=CNAME" \
  -d "Address2=example.com" \
  -d "TTL2=1800"

Critical:

setHosts

replaces ALL existing records. Always fetch current records first with

getHosts

, then include them alongside new records in the

setHosts

call. Omitting existing records will delete them.

3. Transfer a domain to Namecheap

bash

# Step 1: Initiate transfer
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.transfer.create&\
DomainName=example.com&Years=1&EPPCode=AUTH_CODE_HERE"

# Step 2: Monitor transfer status
curl -s "https://api.namecheap.com/xml.response?\
ApiUser=${NAMECHEAP_API_USER}&ApiKey=${NAMECHEAP_API_KEY}&\
UserName=${NAMECHEAP_USERNAME}&ClientIp=${NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP}&\
Command=namecheap.domains.transfer.getStatus&TransferID=TRANSFER_ID"

Transferable TLDs: .biz, .ca, .cc, .co, .co.uk, .com, .com.es, .com.pe, .es, .in, .info, .me, .me.uk, .mobi, .net, .net.pe, .nom.es, .org, .org.es, .org.pe, .org.uk, .pe, .tv, .us

Important Notes

SLD/TLD splitting: Many endpoints require
```
SLD
```
and
```
TLD
```
as separate parameters. For
```
example.com
```
, SLD=
```
example
```
and TLD=
```
com
```
. For
```
example.co.uk
```
, SLD=
```
example
```
and TLD=
```
co.uk
```
.
Phone format: Always use
```
+NNN.NNNNNNNNNN
```
(e.g.,
```
+1.4155551234
```
).
IDN domains: Send the domain name in Punycode format (e.g.,
```
xn--sdkhjsdhfkdh.com
```
) and include the
```
IdnCode
```
parameter.
Premium domains: Set
```
IsPremiumDomain=True
```
and provide
```
PremiumPrice
```
and optionally
```
EapFee
```
.
Rate limiting: Namecheap may throttle requests. If you receive errors, wait before retrying.
Sandbox: Use the sandbox URL for testing. Sandbox credentials are separate from production.

Error Handling

Common error patterns in the XML response:

xml

<ApiResponse Status="ERROR">
  <Errors>
    <Error Number="2016166">Domain is not associated with your account</Error>
  </Errors>
</ApiResponse>

Always check

Status="OK"

before processing results. If

Status="ERROR"

Extract the error number and message
Check the error codes listed in the relevant reference file
Common issues:
- Authentication errors: Verify credentials and whitelisted IP
- Domain not found (2019166): Check domain name and account association
- Invalid phone (2015182): Use format
```
+NNN.NNNNNNNNNN
```
- Domain not available (3019166/4019166): Domain already registered
- TLD not supported (2030280): Check supported TLDs

Troubleshooting

Error: Connection refused or timeout Cause: Client IP not whitelisted or API access not enabled. Solution: Check Namecheap dashboard → Profile → Tools → API Access. Verify the IP matches

NAMECHEAP_CLIENT_IP

Error: Empty or malformed response Cause: Missing required parameters. Solution: Verify all global parameters are present. Check that

Command

value is spelled correctly.

Error: DNS changes not taking effect Cause: Domain may be using custom nameservers instead of Namecheap default. Solution: Call

domains.dns.setDefault

first, then set host records. URL forwarding, email forwarding, and dynamic DNS only work with Namecheap default nameservers.

namecheap-domains

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Namecheap Domains

Prerequisites

API Basics

Making requests

Parsing XML responses

API Quick Reference

domains.*

domains.dns.*

domains.ns.*

domains.transfer.*

Common Workflows

1. Check availability and register a domain

2. Configure DNS records

3. Transfer a domain to Namecheap

Important Notes

Error Handling

Troubleshooting