check_domain_transfer

Can this domain move, and what would it cost?

check_domain_transfertakes one domain somebody already owns at another registrar and reports what would stop a transfer, who sponsors the domain today, whether its DNS keeps answering through the move, and the total price for one full transfer term. It reads two public sources - the registry’s own record and our registrar’s price list - so it is safe to call anonymously and it knows nothing about anyone’s account.

It is the second of two tools on the Just Domain MCP server. The first, search_domains, answers whether a name is free to register. This one answers about a name that is already taken - by the person asking.

The same server, no extra setup.

Both tools live on one hosted Model Context Protocol server. If your client is already connected for search, this tool is already there. If it is not, the install paths for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and any other MCP client are on the MCP server docs.

What it takes

One argument, and only one:

• domain - required, a string, 3 to 253 characters. One fully-qualified domain including its ending, for example acme.com.

Not a bare label and not a list. Each call reads a third-party registry, so the tool takes one name at a time on purpose. No other properties are accepted: the schema sets additionalProperties: false, so a stray argument is a validation error rather than something silently ignored.

What comes back.

A single object. The values below are the shape, taken from a real call - the actual state and price are whatever the live read returns at the moment you ask:

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "tld": "com",
  "supported": true,
  "ready": false,
  "checked_at": "2026-09-09T19:25:22.502657+00:00",
  "blockers": [
    {
      "code": "locked",
      "detail": "The registry shows a transfer lock on this domain ...",
      "eligible_at": null
    }
  ],
  "registrar": { "name": "Example Registrar Ltd.", "iana_id": "447" },
  "nameservers": ["ns-1.example-dns.org", "ns-2.example-dns.net"],
  "dns_continuity": {
    "case": "independent",
    "provider": "AWS Route 53",
    "detail": "DNS for this domain is answered by AWS Route 53, not by the ..."
  },
  "price": {
    "amount": "10.46",
    "currency": "USD",
    "term_years": 1,
    "term_note": "A transfer adds one year to the domain's current expiry ...",
    "expected_new_expiry": "2028-09-11",
    "is_premium": false
  },
  "source": { "rdap": true, "registrar_pricing": true },
  "transfer_url": "https://justdomain.ai/learn/transfer-a-domain-to-just-domain?domain=example.com",
  "next_step": "One thing stands between example.com and a transfer. ...",
  "auth_code_policy": "Just Domain never returns, accepts, or asks for an ..."
}

Field by field

• supported - whether Just Domain sells this ending at all. It says nothing about this particular domain.
• ready - a convenience over blockers, true only when that list is empty. It can never disagree with the list, because anything we could not establish becomes a blocker rather than a green light.
• blockers[] - what stands in the way, most blocking first. Each carries a code, a plain detail sentence you can show as-is, and eligible_at, set only where the registry gave us a real clearing date.
• registrar and nameservers - who sponsors the domain today and what it is delegated to, as the registry reports them.
• dns_continuity.case - one of independent (the nameservers belong to a DNS provider, so a transfer does not touch them), losing_registrar (they belong to the registrar being left, which is the case that takes a site or mail down after the move), or unknown.
• price - or null when the price list could not be read. See the money rules below.
• source - which public sources actually answered on this request, as two booleans.
• transfer_url, next_step and auth_code_policy- the handoff link for a person, one sentence about what happens next already matched to this domain’s state, and the standing rule about authorization codes, restated in the payload so it travels with the answer.

Blocker codes

Treat the list as open. Codes can be added without a client release, so a code you do not recognise is reported through its detail string, never dropped.

Five rules, and they are not suggestions.

1. An empty blocker list is the only ready

Read blockers before saying anything. An empty list means nothing on the public record is in the way. It does not mean the current registrar has no hold of its own, and it never means an authorization code is unnecessary.

2. A price is always a full-term total

amount is the total for term_years years, not a rate. Most endings transfer one year at a time. .ai transfers add and charge two years, because its registry works in two-year units and offers no one-year option. Never divide the amount, never multiply it, and never label it per year. Quote term_note beside it whenever the term is longer than a year.

3. A missing price is missing, not free

price: nullmeans our registrar’s price list could not be read. Say that. Do not substitute an estimate, a list price, or a figure from another ending.

4. The new expiry is a projection

expected_new_expiryis the registry’s current expiry plus the term. Present it as expected. No registry has confirmed it.

5. A registry that did not answer establishes nothing

source.rdap: false means the public record could not be read on that attempt. The call still succeeds, with less in it. That is missing knowledge, and it must never be reported as a clear result.

No agent ever gets a code.

The walkthrough for the human half is how to move your domain to another registrar. Point an owner there.

Moving a domain in is not self-service yet.

The tool tells a user whether their domain is eligible to move and what one full term would cost. It does not start a transfer, and there is no payment step behind it. transfer_url is a page a person opens in a browser; an inbound move is arranged by hand and routed through support@just-done.ai. Do not promise what that page will do, and do not describe a checkout that is not there.

The same check is also available over plain HTTP for callers that do not speak MCP: GET https://mcp.justdomain.ai/api/transfer/precheck?domain=example.com, unauthenticated and read-only. Two differences worth knowing before you swap one for the other: the HTTP payload names the projected date new_expiry rather than expected_new_expiry, and it carries no ready, transfer_url, next_step or auth_code_policy. Every rule above still applies, and neither surface accepts an authorization code or an unlock argument.

Prefer a screen a person can read? The same answer, rendered, is the free domain transfer checker.

Prompts that work.