Domain Finder — A Script to Find Cool .com Domain Names
Every time I start a new business, project, app or whatever, I have to think of an interesting name for it that’s also available as a .com domain. I go through this ridiculous cycle of imagining keywords, coming up with nice names, then searching for them on a domain service.
Every time, I through the same cycle, asking myself the same questions. Should I just get a .co? Or .app? Should I use a subdomain? Should I use a hyphen?
No, to hell with it. A long name with normal words ending in a .com is always better than whatever other crap places like Namecheap or Godaddy offer me. They’re trying to flog .ai or .io domains and I won’t bite. It’s .com or bust!
That’s why I came up with this simple script — Domain Finder — to a) programmatically come up with domain names and b) check to see which of them are actually available.
How Domain Finder Works
Domain Finder uses the Anthropic API to generate brand names based on a theme you provide. It then checks each generated name to see if it’s available as a .com domain. The script outputs two lists: available domains and unavailable ones.
Usage
Using Domain Finder is straightforward. You’ll need Python installed and an Anthropic API key. Here’s the basic command:
python domain_finder.py "your theme" --prefix optional_prefix --postfix optional_postfix --num_brands 100
For example, if you’re starting a coffee shop, you might run:
python domain_finder.py "coffee shop" --postfix "cafe" --num_brands 50
This will generate 50 coffee shop-related brand names with “cafe” at the end and check their availability as .com domains.
Before you get started, create a .env
file with your Anthropic API key in it.
GitHub Repo
I’ve open-sourced Domain Finder on GitHub. You can find it at github.com/hooshd/domainfinder. Feel free to fork it, improve it, or just use it as is.
Caveats
While Domain Finder is a handy tool, it’s not perfect:
- API limits: The Anthropic API has rate limits, so you might hit those if you’re generating a lot of names.
- Availability checks: The script uses the
whois
library, which might not be 100% accurate or up-to-date. - Creativity: While AI is great, it might not capture that stroke of genius you’d have at 2 AM. Sometimes, human creativity still wins.
Future Extensions
I’ve got some ideas to make Domain Finder even better:
- GUI: A simple web interface would make it more user-friendly.
- More TLDs: Add options to check other top-level domains like .net or .org.
- Name scoring: Implement some kind of scoring system to rank the generated names.
- Integration with domain registrars: Wouldn’t it be cool to buy the domain right from the tool?
Domain Finder has already saved me hours of frustration. No more endless cycles of brainstorming and checking availability manually. Give it a try for your next project — you might just find the perfect domain name without the headache.
Happy hunting!