DNS Lookup Skill

DNS questions ("did the record propagate," "where's mail for this domain going," "who owns this") come with two keyless answers: Google's DNS-over-HTTPS for records, and RDAP — WHOIS's structured successor — for registration. This skill queries both, and does the part dig doesn't: decoding what the records mean — an SPF string into its policy, MX priorities into the actual mail provider, an expiry date into "renews in 6 weeks."

What This Skill Produces

• The records — A/AAAA/MX/TXT/CNAME/NS/whatever was asked, with TTLs
• The decode — mail provider identified from MX, SPF/DMARC policies read out, CNAME chains followed
• Registration facts — registrar, creation/expiry dates, status codes (from RDAP; contact data is mostly redacted now, and the answer says so)
• The commands — exact curls, rerunnable

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The domain — and the record type if the question implies one ("where's mail going" → MX; "is the site moved" → A/CNAME; "verify ownership token" → TXT)
• The scenario — propagation check, email debugging, domain due-diligence, expiry watch — the decode leads with it

Framework: The Two Protocols

1. Records (DoH): curl -s "https://dns.google/resolve?name=github.com&type=MX" — types by name (A, AAAA, MX, TXT, CNAME, NS, SOA, CAA). Cloudflare as fallback/second opinion: curl -s -H "accept: application/dns-json" "https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query?name=github.com&type=A". Two resolvers agreeing is also the honest propagation check.
2. Registration (RDAP): curl -s "https://rdap.org/domain/github.com" — rdap.org bootstraps to the right registry. Read: events (registration/expiration dates), status (clientTransferProhibited etc. — decode the meaningful ones), registrar entity. Expect redacted contacts — post-privacy-era WHOIS data is minimal, and pretending otherwise misleads.
3. The decodes that add value: MX hosts → the provider ("aspmx.l.google.com → Google Workspace"); TXT v=spf1 → which services may send mail and the -all/~all strictness; _dmarc TXT → the policy (none/quarantine/reject) in words; CNAME chains followed to their end.
4. Propagation is TTL + resolver spread: compare answers across dns.google and Cloudflare, quote the TTL, and frame "propagated?" as "these major resolvers see the new value; stragglers cache up to TTL]."
5. Read-only boundary: lookups, decoding, and diagnosis — yes; this skill doesn't do zone changes, subdomain enumeration sweeps, or anything aimed at finding weaknesses in third-party domains. Debugging your own mail is the use case; auditing someone else's attack surface is not.

Output Format

DNS: domain] record type(s)]

The decoded answer first: "Mail goes to Google Workspace; SPF allows Google + Mailchimp, DMARC is quarantine."]

| Record | Value | TTL | Decoded | |---|---|---|---|

Registration section when asked: registrar · created · expires ("renews in N weeks") · status decoded · contacts: redacted, as is normal]

Source: dns.google / Cloudflare DoH / RDAP] · rerun: [exact curls] Propagation mode: the two-resolver comparison and the TTL framing]

Quality Checks

• ] The decode leads — the provider/policy in words before the record table
• ] SPF/DMARC strings are read out, not just quoted
• ] Propagation answers compare two resolvers and quote TTL
• ] RDAP redaction is stated as normal, not as a finding
• ] Every answer carries its rerunnable curl

Anti-Patterns

• ] Do not dump records without decoding — the MX hostname is a clue, the provider name is an answer
• ] Do not answer from memory — DNS is live by definition; fetch or hand over the command
• ] Do not promise global propagation — resolvers cache; frame it as major-resolvers + TTL
• ] Do not treat redacted WHOIS/RDAP contacts as suspicious — it's the post-privacy default
• ] Do not slide into recon — decoding your domain's mail setup and enumerating someone else's infrastructure are different activities, and this skill does the first