AI assistants cannot check domain availability on their own — they guess, and they're usually wrong. CanYouGrab.it solves this by providing live DNS + WHOIS lookups with confidence scoring, so your AI agent knows how reliable each result is.

Features

Confidence scoring — every result is rated high/medium/low so the agent can qualify its answer
Bulk checking — up to 100 domains per request
WHOIS enrichment — registrar, creation date, expiry, nameservers for registered domains
Domain info lookup — detailed RDAP/WHOIS data for any registered domain
Read-only and safe — all tools are non-destructive with correct MCP safety annotations
Fast — responses typically under 2 seconds, cached results under 100ms

Quick Start

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add to your MCP config (~/.claude/.mcp.json or Claude Desktop settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canyougrab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-canyougrab"],
      "env": {
        "CANYOUGRAB_API_KEY": "cyg_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Cursor

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "canyougrab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-canyougrab"],
      "env": {
        "CANYOUGRAB_API_KEY": "cyg_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT / Remote Clients

Connect to the remote endpoint (OAuth 2.0 authentication):

https://api.canyougrab.it/mcp

Get an API Key

Tools

check_domains

Check availability of up to 100 domains per request. Each result includes:

available: true (registrable), false (taken), or null (couldn't determine)
confidence: high / medium / low
source: dns / whois / cache
checked_at: When the data was gathered
cache_age_seconds: How fresh the data is
registration: Registrar, creation date, expiry date (for taken domains)

Confidence Levels

Level	Meaning
high	Verified by DNS + WHOIS, or fresh DNS with active nameservers
medium	DNS only — WHOIS was unavailable or timed out
low	DNS failure, timeout, or stale cached data

Examples

Example 1: Quick availability check

User: "Is coolstartup.com available?"

→ check_domains(["coolstartup.com"])

{
  "results": [
    {
      "domain": "coolstartup.com",
      "available": false,
      "confidence": "high",
      "source": "dns",
      "checked_at": "2026-03-17T12:00:00Z",
      "cache_age_seconds": 0,
      "registration": {
        "registrar": "GoDaddy.com, LLC",
        "created": "2015-06-12",
        "expires": "2027-06-12"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The domain is taken with high confidence. Registration details show the registrar and expiry date.

Example 2: Bulk comparison across TLDs

User: "Check if grabify.io, grabify.co, grabify.dev, and grabify.app are available"

→ check_domains(["grabify.io", "grabify.co", "grabify.dev", "grabify.app"])

{
  "results": [
    { "domain": "grabify.io", "available": false, "confidence": "high", "source": "dns" },
    { "domain": "grabify.co", "available": true, "confidence": "high", "source": "whois" },
    { "domain": "grabify.dev", "available": true, "confidence": "high", "source": "dns" },
    { "domain": "grabify.app", "available": true, "confidence": "high", "source": "dns" }
  ]
}

Three of four domains are available. The agent can recommend the best option.

Example 3: Handling ambiguous results

User: "Can I register example.xyz?"

→ check_domains(["example.xyz"])

{
  "results": [
    {
      "domain": "example.xyz",
      "available": null,
      "confidence": "low",
      "source": "dns",
      "checked_at": "2026-03-17T12:00:00Z",
      "cache_age_seconds": 0,
      "registration": null
    }
  ]
}

When available is null with low confidence, the lookup was inconclusive (DNS timeout, WHOIS failure). The agent should inform the user and suggest trying again.

get_domain_info

Get WHOIS/RDAP information for a registered domain — registrar, dates, nameservers, and status codes.

Example

Example 4: Domain reconnaissance

User: "Who owns example.com and when does it expire?"

→ get_domain_info("example.com")

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "registrar": "RESERVED-Internet Assigned Numbers Authority",
  "created_date": "1995-08-14T00:00:00Z",
  "expiry_date": "2025-08-13T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_date": "2024-08-14T07:01:38Z",
  "nameservers": ["a.iana-servers.net", "b.iana-servers.net"],
  "status": ["clientDeleteProhibited", "clientTransferProhibited", "clientUpdateProhibited"],
  "source": "rdap"
}

Returns structured WHOIS data including registrar, registration dates, nameservers, and EPP status codes.

check_usage

Check your current API usage and remaining quota for the billing period.

Example

Example 5: Monitor your quota

User: "How many domain lookups do I have left this month?"

→ check_usage()

{
  "plan": "starter",
  "lookups_today": 847,
  "lookups_limit": 5000,
  "period": "monthly"
}

Safety Annotations

All tools include correct MCP safety annotations:

Tool	readOnlyHint	destructiveHint	idempotentHint	openWorldHint
check_domains	true	false	true	true
get_domain_info	true	false	true	false
check_usage	true	false	true	false

All operations are read-only — no user data is modified, no external actions are taken.

Negative Test Prompts

These prompts should not trigger CanYouGrab.it tools:

"What's the weather in New York?"
"Write me a poem about the ocean"
"How do I cook pasta?"
"What is the capital of France?"
"Summarize this article for me"
"Help me write a Python script"
"What time is it?"

The tools should only activate for domain-related queries: availability checks, WHOIS lookups, domain name suggestions, and API usage inquiries.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
`CANYOUGRAB_API_KEY`	Yes (STDIO mode)	—	Your API key from portal.canyougrab.it
`CANYOUGRAB_API_URL`	No	`https://api.canyougrab.it`	API base URL override

Privacy Policy

See our privacy policy: https://canyougrab.it/privacy

Summary: We collect only the domain names submitted for checks and request metadata (timestamps, API key identifier) for billing and rate limiting. We do not receive or store your AI assistant conversations. Query logs are retained for 30 days. We do not sell your data.