Domains

Use the public Registrar API for unauthenticated discovery. Use the installed Vercel CLI for account and project operations, or the REST API for structured automation. vc and vercel are equivalent.

Registration, Vercel team ownership, project assignment, and authoritative DNS are separate. Connecting an already-owned domain does not require buying it or transferring its registration.

Search before asking for credentials

Start exact-name research with one request returning availability and pricing together:

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  https://api.vercel.com/v1/registrar/domains/search \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"domains":["example.com","example.dev","example.app"]}'

Send 1–200 exact domain names per request. The endpoint checks the supplied names; it does not generate suggestions. Generate candidates from the user's naming constraints, then batch them. No Vercel account, token, or project link is needed.

Results preserve input order. Available entries include domain, available, years, price, renewalPrice, and premium; prices are USD for the returned term. Report registration and renewal costs with that term, and flag premium domains. available: false means unavailable or availability could not be confirmed; it does not prove someone owns the name. Missing prices are unknown, not zero. Availability and quotes can change before purchase.

For keyword/TLD discovery, a recent CLI can generate candidates:

vercel domains search acme --tld com --tld dev --available --format=json
vercel domains check example.com example.dev --format=json
vercel domains price example.com --format=json

Check vercel domains --help and the selected subcommand's --help against the installed version. If discovery is unavailable or the CLI asks for login, use the public endpoint directly. CLI search accepts a keyword; API search accepts exact names. Do not substitute one input shape for the other.

Connect and diagnose an existing domain

For authenticated work, inspect vercel whoami and use --scope <team> when selecting a team. Resolve the intended project before changing its domains.

vercel domains ls --scope my-team
vercel domains inspect example.com --scope my-team
vercel domains add example.com my-project --scope my-team
vercel domains verify example.com --project my-project --format=json --scope my-team

Use the actual expected DNS records and ownership-verification values returned for that domain and project. Do not hardcode a universal A record or CNAME target. Configure records at the authoritative DNS provider; vercel dns changes Vercel DNS only. Preserve unrelated records, especially MX and email-verification TXT records. Nameserver changes require carrying over the zone's required records.

Task	CLI
List DNS records	vercel dns ls example.com
Inspect a record	vercel dns inspect <record-id> --format=json
Add the required TXT record	vercel dns add example.com <record-name> TXT <record-value>
Update an existing record	vercel dns update <record-id> --value <record-value>
Remove a specific record	vercel dns rm <record-id>
Move team ownership	vercel domains move example.com <destination-team>
Remove team ownership	vercel domains rm example.com

After a change, rerun domains verify and check DNS propagation and HTTPS. Verification can exit nonzero while returning useful JSON describing the mismatch. An accepted DNS write is not proof that DNS has propagated or a certificate is ready. domains add --force can detach the domain from another project; use it only when that reassignment is intended. Removing team ownership is not a registrar transfer or cancellation of registration.

Purchase, transfer, and renew

Use existing authorization for the exact domain, term, price, and renewal preference. If those choices are unresolved, prepare the current quote before asking. Do not treat a discovery request as permission to purchase. Use real user-provided registrant information and keep tokens, contact data, and transfer codes out of logs and committed files.

Task	CLI
Register a domain	vercel domains buy example.com
Transfer from another registrar	vercel domains transfer-in example.com
Renew registration	vercel domains renew example.com
Enable or disable automatic renewal	vercel domains auto-renew example.com on / off

Purchase, transfer, and renewal flows may require interactive input. JSON output does not bypass renewal's charge confirmation. For an authorized noninteractive operation, use the Registrar API with the required payload instead of inventing CLI flags. Moving between Vercel teams uses domains move, not transfer-in.

Registrar API

Base URL: https://api.vercel.com. Consult the live OpenAPI schema for the selected operation's request and response fields before constructing a mutation.

Public discovery

Use the Registrar API reference for public TLD metadata, term-specific domain prices, availability, and contact requirements. These operations require no authentication. Bulk availability and price calls accept 1–50 domains; search accepts 1–200.

TLD base prices do not quote premium domains. Use domain-specific prices for the requested term; price endpoints return purchasePrice, unlike search's price. Some price fields can be strings rather than numeric quotes; do not submit those as expectedPrice.

Authenticated operations

Send Authorization: Bearer <token> and use ?teamId=<team-id> for the intended team. Use Content-Type: application/json for JSON bodies. Reuse a securely available token; do not ask for one for public discovery.

Use the selected operation in the live schema for purchases, transfers, renewals, automatic renewal, nameservers, and contact verification. Inspect asynchronous results with GET /v1/registrar/orders/{orderId}. An empty nameservers array selects Vercel defaults; contact verification is unavailable for the first 30 minutes after purchase.

For purchases, retrieve the contact schema and supply required TLD-specific values through the purchase payload's contactInformation.additional field. For transfers, use only contact fields accepted by that operation's live schema; it does not accept the purchase-only additional field. Punycode purchases require a supported languageCode; inspect the TLD metadata. Quote the exact operation and term, then use that numeric quote as expectedPrice. Reassess a price mismatch against the user's authorized spend instead of silently accepting an increase.

Purchases, renewals, and transfers can complete asynchronously. Save the returned order ID, inspect the order and each domain's status, and report pending or failed outcomes accurately. If a submission times out, reconcile its order status before resubmitting a charge. Stop polling when completed or failed; if still pending after a bounded check, return the order ID and next status-check action. Complete any required registrant email verification.

Use /v1/registrar/* for registrar operations instead of sunset legacy purchase, price, availability, or transfer endpoints. Existing project-domain and DNS APIs serve separate purposes; the registrar API does not replace them.