porkbun-cli

A command-line tool for managing domains and DNS records through the Porkbun API.

$ porkbun dns list example.com

ID          Type  Name               Content         Prio  TTL
----------  ----  -----------------  --------------  ----  -----
123456789   A     example.com        203.0.113.1           600
123456790   MX    example.com        mail.example.com  10  3600
123456791   TXT   example.com        v=spf1 ...            3600

Install

pip install porkbun

# With interactive menu support
pip install porkbun[interactive]

Setup

Get your API keys from porkbun.com/account/api. You need to enable API access per-domain in your Porkbun account settings.

Then run:

porkbun configure

This prompts for your API key and secret, then saves them to ~/.config/porkbun-cli/config.json with 600 permissions.

To verify the connection works:

porkbun ping
# Success! Your IP: 203.0.113.42

Commands

Domains

# List all domains in your account
porkbun domain list

# Check availability and pricing for a domain
porkbun domain search coolname.com

# Register a domain (prompts for confirmation before charging)
porkbun domain buy coolname.com

# View nameservers
porkbun domain ns example.com

# Set custom nameservers
porkbun domain ns-set example.com ns1.host.com ns2.host.com

# Download SSL certificate bundle
porkbun domain ssl example.com --output ./certs/example
# Writes example.crt, example.key, example.ca

DNS Records

# List all records
porkbun dns list example.com

# Filter by type
porkbun dns list example.com --type TXT

# Create records
porkbun dns create example.com A 203.0.113.1 --name www
porkbun dns create example.com MX mail.example.com --prio 10
porkbun dns create example.com TXT "v=spf1 include:example.com ~all"
porkbun dns create example.com CNAME target.example.com --name blog

# Edit a record by its ID
porkbun dns edit example.com 123456789 A 203.0.113.2 --name www

# Upsert — creates the record if it doesn't exist, updates it if it does
porkbun dns upsert example.com A 203.0.113.1 --name www

# Delete by ID
porkbun dns delete example.com 123456789

Supported record types: A, AAAA, CNAME, ALIAS, MX, TXT, NS, SRV, TLSA, CAA, HTTPS, SVCB, SSHFP

URL Forwarding

# List URL forwards
porkbun url list example.com

# Set a redirect (302 by default)
porkbun url set example.com https://destination.com

# Set a permanent 301 redirect from a subdomain
porkbun url set example.com https://destination.com --subdomain blog --type 301

# Wildcard redirect with path passthrough
porkbun url set example.com https://destination.com --wildcard --path

# Delete a forward
porkbun url delete example.com 987654321

Bulk Export / Import

Good for backups or migrating DNS between domains.

# Export all DNS records to JSON
porkbun bulk export example.com -o records.json

# Export as CSV
porkbun bulk export example.com --format csv -o records.csv

# Print to stdout (pipe-friendly)
porkbun bulk export example.com

# Preview what an import would do without changing anything
porkbun bulk import records.json --dry-run

# Import to original domain (reads domain from JSON file)
porkbun bulk import records.json

# Import to a different domain
porkbun bulk import records.json --domain newdomain.com

The JSON format supports an optional action field per record: create (default), upsert, or delete.

Interactive Mode

Install with [interactive] to get a menu-driven interface instead of remembering all the flags:

porkbun interactive
# or shorthand:
porkbun i

Fetches your domain list on startup so you can pick from a menu — handy when you manage several domains.

Config File

Credentials are stored at ~/.config/porkbun-cli/config.json:

{
    "apikey": "pk1_...",
    "secretapikey": "sk1_..."
}

The file is created with 600 permissions by porkbun configure. Do not commit it.

You can also pass keys directly via environment or by instantiating PorkbunAPI programmatically — see the api.py module if you want to use the client in your own scripts.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• requests
• tabulate
• questionary (only for porkbun interactive, installed via pip install porkbun-cli[interactive])

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Author

Luke Steuber · GitHub · Bluesky