What you can retrieve
Registry data is best-effort. Optional values may be
null or absent when the
registry does not provide them.
Accepted input
The API normalizes the hostname before performing the lookup:
The original normalized hostname remains available as
query_domain, while
domain contains the registrable root domain.
Authentication
POST /api/v1/domain/whois accepts a Pirehub API key with the domain:whois
scope for server-to-server integrations. Send the key in x-pirehub-api-key or
as a bearer token.
See Authentication for OAuth support and credential handling.
Lookup request
Lookup response
200
with success: true and data.registered: false.
Cache and fresh lookups
Normal requests may use cached registry data for faster, more reliable responses. Inspectdata.meta to understand the result:
cached: truemeans the response was served from cache.stale: truemeans cached data was returned because a fresh provider lookup failed.
forceRefresh: true only when you need to attempt a new upstream lookup. If
the provider is unavailable and cached data exists, the API may still return the
cached result with stale: true.
Limits and failures
Administrator-issued API keys use the per-minute and monthly request limits configured for that key. InspectX-ApiKey-RateLimit-* and X-ApiKey-Monthly-* response headers.
First-party browser requests without an API key use the public per-IP limit and
return X-RateLimit-* headers.
Invalid input returns VALIDATION_ERROR. Provider failures may return 502,
503, or 504; honor Retry-After when present and retry with bounded backoff.
Next steps
WHOIS endpoint
Review the complete request and response schema.
Authentication
Learn about scopes and credential handling.
Errors and retries
Handle failures safely and predictably.
Subscription-backed API keys
Paid self-service keys use shared owner credits and the plan’s per-second and concurrent-job limits. Successful results, including cache hits, consume the configured action cost; errors release the reservation. Video jobs settle at completion. InspectX-ApiKey-Credit-* and X-ApiKey-RateLimit-*.
An optional Idempotency-Key prevents repeated synchronous execution/debits;
repeated operations return 409 rather than replaying a response. Job starts use
requestId instead. See API plans and idempotency
for costs, billing periods, headers, error codes and retry rules.