How this works
- Your browser works out what you typed: a domain, an IP address, an address block or an AS number. Web and email addresses are trimmed to the domain or IP address in them.
- It asks
abbott.cloud/api/rdap. Each registry runs its own RDAP server, so the Worker reads IANA's bootstrap files at data.iana.org (RFC 9224) to find the right one for the TLD, address block or AS number, then asks it. A block is looked up as a whole (RFC 9082 §3.1.1). If that registry redirects the request to another (RFC 7480 §5.2), the Worker follows it (https only) and the page names the one that answered.
- For most generic domains the registry's answer links to the registrar's own RDAP record, which usually has the contacts and the registrar's dates. The Worker follows that one link (https only, no redirects).
- The JSON comes back unchanged, and this page explains it: status codes (RFC 8056), dates, contacts (jCard, RFC 7095), DNSSEC and notices. Findings use the registry's status codes, which are the ones in force. Each server's answer is in the Raw RDAP section and in the request log below; one that can't be used as JSON, such as an error page, is shown as text (up to 2,000 characters).
RDAP and WHOIS: WHOIS (RFC 3912) is plain text over TCP port 43, in a different layout at every registry. RDAP (RFC 9082 and RFC 9083) answers the same questions over HTTPS as structured JSON, with standard status codes and rules for redacting personal data. ICANN made RDAP the definitive source for generic TLDs such as .com and .org, and their registries and registrars could switch WHOIS off from 28 January 2025.
Where the facts come from: the registry and registrar named next to each one. abbott.cloud doesn't change or add to them.
What's kept: nothing. What you look up goes in the page's address so you can share the result, but it isn't stored. The registry sees the request arrive from Cloudflare's network, not from your IP address.
Limitations: some country-code registries don't run RDAP yet, and browsers can't reach WHOIS on port 43. Registries only hold registered domains, not names inside them such as www. Personal details are usually redacted. Dates are in UTC, and a date a server gives without a time zone is read as UTC. To keep the registries' services fair for everyone, abbott.cloud limits how many lookups each visitor can make a minute, and how often it asks any one registrar's server. The registries IANA lists set their own limits.
Code: whois.js (this page), rdap.js (reading RDAP answers), ip.js and domain.js (input), net.js (requests).