DNS Records

The DNS records endpoints let you browse the complete DNS history for any monitor with the DNS check enabled. We track changes to your DNS record types and alert you when anything changes.

You'll need a monitor ID for these endpoints.

Example request:

$ OHDEAR_TOKEN="your API token"
$ curl https://ohdear.app/api/monitors/1/dns-history-items \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $OHDEAR_TOKEN" \
    -H 'Accept: application/json' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

All endpoints below follow the same authentication pattern.

Get a specific DNS history item #

GET /api/monitors/{monitorId}/dns-history-items/{dnsHistoryItemId}

Returns a single DNS history item by its ID.

Here's what the response looks like:

{
  "id": 2,
  "authoritative_nameservers": [
    "ns1.openprovider.nl",
    "ns2.openprovider.be",
    "ns3.openprovider.eu"
  ],
  "dns_records": [
    {
      "host": "freek.dev",
      "ttl": 1017,
      "class": "IN",
      "type": "A",
      "ip": "138.197.187.74"
    },
    {
      "host": "freek.dev",
      "ttl": 4435,
      "class": "IN",
      "type": "MX",
      "pri": 10,
      "target": "aspmx.l.google.com"
    },
    {
      "host": "freek.dev",
      "ttl": 1060,
      "class": "IN",
      "type": "TXT",
      "txt": "v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ..."
    },
    "..."
  ],
  "raw_dns_records": {
    "ns1.openprovider.nl": [
      "freek.dev.\t\t1017\tIN\tA\t138.197.187.74",
      "..."
    ],
    "..."
  },
  "issues": [
    {
      "name": "NameserversAreNotInSync",
      "nameservers": ["ns2.openprovider.be"]
    }
  ],
  "diff_summary": "No changes",
  "created_at": "2021-11-05 16:07:38"
}

• authoritative_nameservers: the nameservers we queried for your domain
• dns_records: parsed DNS records grouped by type. Each record includes host, ttl, class, type, and type-specific fields (e.g., ip for A records, target for MX/NS, txt for TXT)
• raw_dns_records: raw DNS responses from each nameserver
• issues: array of detected issues (see possible issues below)
• diff_summary: human-readable summary of changes compared to the previous check
• created_at: when this check was performed (UTC)

Results are sorted in reverse chronological order -- the first item contains your current DNS records.

List DNS history #

GET /api/monitors/{monitorId}/dns-history-items

Returns a list of DNS history items for a monitor. Each item follows the same shape as the single response above.

Query parameters:

• filter[created_at] (string, optional) -- only return records created at or after this timestamp in YmdHis format, in UTC (e.g., 20240615000000)

Possible issues #

The issues array can contain these issue types:

• CouldNotDiscoverNameservers: we couldn't find the authoritative nameservers for your domain
• CouldNotFindAnyDnsRecords: some nameservers didn't return any records. The affected nameservers are listed in the nameservers property.
• NameserversAreNotInSync: a nameserver returned different records than the others. The out-of-sync nameservers are listed in the nameservers property.
• DnsLookupFailed: DNS lookup failed. The issue includes a message and optional debug information.