hetzner-dns-manager 0.2.1

Hetzner DNS Zone Manager

Hetzner DNS Manager

A command-line tool to interact with the Hetzner DNS API, allowing you to manage DNS records by editing a set of YAML files.

It is designed for small to medium installations with up to 100 zones. Function scope is limited to managing records within existing zones for now.

Features

• Import zones and records from the Hetzner DNS API
• Check DNS records against actual DNS entries
• Create missing and update mismatched DNS records
• Delete DNS records
• Stores zone data in YAML files for easy manual editing

Example Workflow

After initial import, add records to a zone YAML file with empty ID:

Then run update to push the change to the API and update the YAML file with the new ID:

The same way you can update records and push those.

Installation

The script uses PEP 723 for dependency management, so it's self-contained. You'll need Python 3.10 or higher and a working installation of uv, installed via your OS's package manager or via pip.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/serpent213/hetzner-dns-manager.git
cd hetzner-dns-manager

or

# Download raw script directly
curl -LO https://github.com/serpent213/hetzner-dns-manager/raw/refs/heads/master/hdem
chmod +x hdem

Install from PyPI

Alternatively install from PyPI:

# Install using pip
pip install hetzner-dns-manager

# Or with pipx for isolated installation
pipx install hetzner-dns-manager

After installation, you'll have access to the hdem command in your terminal.

Configuration

Set your Hetzner DNS API token as an environment variable:

export HETZNER_DNS_API_TOKEN="your_api_token_here"

You may want to add this to your shell profile file (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.) for persistence.

Usage

The database will be created in ./zones and consists of one YAML file per zone.

Import Zones and Records

Import a specific zone:

hdem import example.com

Import all zones:

hdem import --all

This will create YAML files in the ./zones directory.

Segmented TXT records (like "abc" "def") will be concatenated (to "abcdef") by default. This might be undesirable and can be disabled by passing --no-txt-concat.

Check DNS Records

Check a specific zone against actual DNS entries using one of the domain's authoritative servers:

hdem check --verbose example.com

Check all zones:

hdem check --all

SOA records will be ignored as they are updated automatically by Hetzner.

Update DNS Records

Check and update mismatched records for a specific zone:

hdem update example.com

Check and update mismatched records for all zones:

hdem update --all

To create new records, add to them to your zone YAML with empty ID field, which will be filled in after creation.

Delete DNS Records

Delete a specific record by name:

hdem delete example.com www

If there is more than one candidate, hdem will ask you which records to delete.

Data Structure

The YAML files in the ./zones directory follow this structure:

id: ZoneID
name: example.com
records:
  - id: RecordID1
    type: A
    name: www
    value: 192.0.2.1
  - id: RecordID2
    type: MX
    name: '@'
    value: '10 mail.example.com.'

Related Projects

Some other tools dealing with the Hetzner DNS API (that are not dynamic DNS updaters):

• hetzner-dns-tools: A simple Hetzner DNS API client for Python and Bash
• hdns_cli: Hetzner DNS CLI Tool