CoreDNS

CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server written in Go that serves as the default DNS service for Kubernetes clusters. It is flexible and extensible through a plugin architecture, supporting DNS-based service discovery, forwarding, caching, and integration with etcd, Kubernetes, and other backends. CoreDNS can serve as an authoritative DNS server or a recursive resolver, with HTTP plugins exposing health, readiness, and Prometheus metrics endpoints for Kubernetes operations.

CoreDNS publishes 5 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Health API, Metrics API, Ready API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Apache 2.0, Cloud-Native, CNCF, DNS, and Go.

The CoreDNS catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 3 Spectral governance rulesets.

CoreDNS’s developer surface includes documentation, getting-started guide, engineering blog, changelog, and 20 more developer resources.

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39.6/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 24/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent self hosted · Apache-2.0 Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-10-17 · rubric v0.24.0

AccessFree

2 published contracts

Apache 2.0 Cloud-Native CNCF DNS Go Graduated Kubernetes Networking Open Source Plugins Prometheus Service Discovery

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-10-17 · rubric v0.24.0

Composite quality — 39.6/100 · developing

Contract Quality 8.6 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 5.0 / 15

Access Clarity 0.8 / 15

Operational Transparency 3.6 / 10

Contract Governance 2.5 / 9

Discoverability 4.8 / 8

Regulatory Posture 1.6 / 15

Open Source Surface 10.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 24/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Open Source Surface applies to this provider. This product is open source and we read its repository directly, so Open Source Surface carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from what the repository actually publishes — a security policy, a contribution guide, a release history, a code of conduct — read live from the provider rather than inferred from our own catalog pointers. This facet adds; nothing was taken away to make room for it. An open-source project is not excused from the commercial facets, because exemption would strip it of the points it does earn. If we have the wrong repository, or this product is not open source, say so on your provider repo and we will drop the facet rather than have you publish against it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because both conditional facets apply and carry 25 points together. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/coredns: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Domains and DNS (registrars, registries, DNS)	standard	17.2 (thin)	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

DNS

tagged — the provider's own APIs.json carries the standard as a tag; implementation not verified

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

CoreDNS DNS Interface

CoreDNS implements the standard DNS protocol (RFC 1035) serving both UDP and TCP queries. In Kubernetes, it resolves service names to cluster IPs, headless services to pod IPs, ...

CoreDNS Plugin API

The CoreDNS plugin framework allows extending DNS server functionality through a chain of plugins defined in the Corefile configuration. External plugins can be written in Go to...

CoreDNS Health API

Health check endpoints used by Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes to assess the operational state of the CoreDNS process.

CoreDNS Metrics API

Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoints exposing DNS query statistics, cache performance, latency histograms, and build information.

CoreDNS Ready API

Readiness check endpoints that indicate whether CoreDNS plugins have finished initializing and are ready to serve DNS queries.

Open Collections 6

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

CoreDNS Health API

OPEN COLLECTION

CoreDNS Health API

OPEN COLLECTION

CoreDNS Health Metrics API

OPEN COLLECTION

CoreDNS Metrics API

OPEN COLLECTION

CoreDNS Health Ready API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Coredns Plans Pricing

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Coredns Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Coredns Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Coredns Context

0 classes · 8 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 3

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

CoreDNS — health rules

8 rules · 6 errors 2 warnings

SPECTRAL

CoreDNS — jsonschema rules

6 rules · 5 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

CoreDNS — metrics rules

8 rules · 5 errors 2 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

CoreDNS Corefile Configuration

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Coredns Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Coredns Agentic Access

3 operations

3 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Documentation 3

Reference material describing how the API behaves

ContributionGuide

ContributionGuide

JSONSchema

JSONSchema

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

JSONLD

JSONLD

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Build 5

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

CodeOfConduct

CodeOfConduct

GitHubOrganization

GitHubRepository

Plugins

ExternalPlugins

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

SecurityPolicy

SecurityPolicy

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 4

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

IssueTracker

ChangeLog

Community

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

License

License

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CNCF

CNCF

Source (apis.yml)

aid: coredns
name: CoreDNS
kind: opensource
description: CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server written in Go that serves as the default DNS service for Kubernetes clusters.
  It is flexible and extensible through a plugin architecture, supporting DNS-based service discovery, forwarding, caching,
  and integration with etcd, Kubernetes, and other backends. CoreDNS can serve as an authoritative DNS server or a recursive
  resolver, with HTTP plugins exposing health, readiness, and Prometheus metrics endpoints for Kubernetes operations.
url: https://coredns.io
deliveryModel:
  model: self-hosted
  license: Apache-2.0
  license_evidence:
    repo: coredns/coredns
    spdx: Apache-2.0
    stars: 14344
  open_source: true
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Self-hosted open source · you run it yourself
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - openapi
  - repository-license
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/coredns.png
tags:
- Apache 2.0
- Cloud-Native
- CNCF
- DNS
- Go
- Graduated
- Kubernetes
- Networking
- Open Source
- Plugins
- Prometheus
- Service Discovery
tags_raw:
- Apache 2.0
- Cloud Native
- CNCF
- DNS
- Go
- Graduated
- Kubernetes
- Networking
- Open Source
- Plugins
- Prometheus
- Service Discovery
- Open-Source
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
type: Index
access: Public
position: Producing
apis:
- aid: coredns:coredns-dns-api
  name: CoreDNS DNS Interface
  description: CoreDNS implements the standard DNS protocol (RFC 1035) serving both UDP and TCP queries. In Kubernetes, it
    resolves service names to cluster IPs, headless services to pod IPs, and supports SRV records for port discovery. The
    Kubernetes plugin watches the API server for service and endpoint changes to keep DNS records current. Additional protocol
    bindings include DNS-over-TLS (DoT), DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ), and gRPC.
  humanURL: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
  tags:
  - DNS
  - DoH
  - DoQ
  - DoT
  - Kubernetes
  - Service Discovery
- aid: coredns:coredns-plugin-api
  name: CoreDNS Plugin API
  description: The CoreDNS plugin framework allows extending DNS server functionality through a chain of plugins defined in
    the Corefile configuration. External plugins can be written in Go to add custom DNS record sources, filtering, metrics,
    and middleware. Each plugin implements the Handler interface to process DNS requests.
  humanURL: https://coredns.io/explugins/
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/explugins/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://coredns.io/manual/plugins/
  tags:
  - Extensibility
  - Plugins
- aid: coredns:coredns-health-api
  name: CoreDNS Health API
  description: Health check endpoints used by Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes to assess the operational state of
    the CoreDNS process.
  humanURL: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8080
  tags:
  - Health
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/coredns-health-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/health/
  - type: ReadyDocumentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/ready/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-health-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/metrics/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: coredns:coredns-metrics-api
  name: CoreDNS Metrics API
  description: Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoints exposing DNS query statistics, cache performance, latency histograms,
    and build information.
  humanURL: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8080
  tags:
  - Metrics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/coredns-metrics-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/health/
  - type: ReadyDocumentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/ready/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-health-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/metrics/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: coredns:coredns-ready-api
  name: CoreDNS Ready API
  description: Readiness check endpoints that indicate whether CoreDNS plugins have finished initializing and are ready to
    serve DNS queries.
  humanURL: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8080
  tags:
  - Ready
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/coredns-ready-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/health/
  - type: ReadyDocumentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/ready/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-health-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://coredns.io/plugins/metrics/
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/coredns-metrics-rules.yml
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/coredns-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/coredns-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/coredns-finops.yml
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/issues
- type: SecurityPolicy
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/blob/master/SECURITY.md
- type: CodeOfConduct
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/blob/master/.github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/coredns-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/coredns-domain-security.yml
- type: JSONSchema
  url: json-schema/coredns-corefile-schema.json
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/coredns-context.jsonld
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/coredns-vocabulary.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://coredns.io/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://coredns.io/manual/toc/
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://coredns.io/2017/07/24/quick-start/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/coredns
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns
- type: Plugins
  url: https://coredns.io/plugins/
- type: ExternalPlugins
  url: https://coredns.io/explugins/
- type: Blog
  url: https://coredns.io/blog/
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/releases
- type: Community
  url: https://slack.cncf.io/
- type: License
  url: https://github.com/coredns/coredns/blob/master/LICENSE
- type: CNCF
  url: https://www.cncf.io/projects/coredns/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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