Scripting with the RDAP CLI

The RDAP CLI provides several output formats designed for consumption by scripts, along with parameters that simplify processing the output.

Output Formats for Scripts

The CLI provides multiple output formats via the -O (or --output-type) argument:

Output Type	Shortcut	Description
`json`		Standard RDAP JSON output
`pretty-json`		Pretty-printed JSON output
`pretty-compact-json`	`--json`	Compact but readable JSON (best for scripts)
`json-extra`		RDAP JSON with additional processing information
`url`		Just the RDAP server URL (useful for bootstrapping)
`status-text`		Only the object status, one per line
`status-json`		Object status as JSON
`event-text`		Only the events, one per line
`event-json`		Events as JSON
`rpsl`	`--rpsl`	Routing Policy Specification Language

Quick JSON Output

The simplest way to get script-friendly output:

rdap --json example.com

This is equivalent to -O pretty-compact-json.

JSContact Output

The --to-jscontact parameter converts vCard/jCard contact information in RDAP responses to JSContact format. This simplifies parsing contact information in scripts since JSContact is a more modern and easier-to-parse JSON format.

rdap --json --to-jscontact example.com

When used with JSON output, entity contact information will be in JSContact format instead of jCard/vCard, making it easier to extract specific fields:

# Get entity name from JSContact output
rdap --json --to-jscontact example.com | jq -r '.entities[0].contact.name.fullName'

# Get entity email
rdap --json --to-jscontact example.com | jq -r '.entities[0].contact.email[0].address'

Common Scripting Examples

Extract specific fields with jq

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.entities[0].vcardArray[1][] | select(.[0] == "fn").[3]'

Get the RDAP server URL for bootstrapping

rdap -O url example.com

Check if a domain exists (exit code 0 = found)

rdap --json example.com > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Domain exists"
fi

Get all nameservers

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.nameservers[].ldhName'

Get all entity names

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.entities[].fn'

Get registration date

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.events[] | select(.eventAction == "registration").eventDate'

Get domain status

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.status[]'

Query an IP address and get network info

rdap --json 192.0.2.0 | jq '.network'

Query an AS number

rdap --json AS15169 | jq '.autnums[0]'

Get only status information

rdap -O status-json example.com

Get only events

rdap -O event-json example.com

Redaction Flags

When querying RDAP data, some information may be redacted. The CLI provides flags to control how redactions are handled:

rdap --redaction-flag show-rfc9537 --json example.com

Available flags: - highlight-simple-redactions - Highlights simple redactions in output - show-rfc9537 - Shows RFC 9537 redaction directives - do-not-simplify-rfc9537 - Preserves RFC 9537 redaction format - do-rfc9537-redactions - Processes RFC 9537 redactions

Multiple flags can be combined with commas:

rdap --redaction-flag highlight-simple-redactions,show-rfc9537 --json example.com

Or via environment variable:

RDAP_REDACTION_FLAGS=highlight-simple-redactions,show-rfc9537 rdap --json example.com

Environment Variables for Scripts

Several environment variables can simplify scripting:

Variable	Description
`RDAP_OUTPUT`	Set default output format
`RDAP_NO_CACHE`	Disable caching (`true` or `false`)
`RDAP_LOG`	Set log level (off, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
`RDAP_BASE_URL`	Set explicit base URL
`RDAP_REDACTION_FLAGS`	Set redaction flags

Example:

export RDAP_OUTPUT=json
export RDAP_NO_CACHE=true
rdap example.com

Exit Codes

The CLI returns specific exit codes that scripts can use for error handling:

Exit Code	Description
0	Success
40	I/O error
42	Client error
60	Response error (non-200 OK)
62	Parsing error
100-106	RDAP-specific errors
200+	User error (invalid query, etc.)

See the Usage documentation for the complete exit code table.

Piping to Other Tools

The output is designed to work with standard Unix tools:

Using grep

rdap --json example.com | jq '.entities' | grep -i "registrar"

Using awk

rdap --json example.com | jq -r '.events[] | "\(.eventAction) \(.eventDate)"' | awk '{print $2}'

Using while read

for domain in example.com example.org; do
    rdap --json "$domain" | jq -r '.handle // "N/A"'
done