coredns/coredns
CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
95/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 86
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 36.5
- age_days: 3820
- days_rel: 15
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 17
Adoption not part of the score
14280 stars · 2514 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
CoreDNS is a fast and flexible DNS server and forwarder written in Go that chains plugins, each performing a DNS function. It is a CNCF graduated project that supports serving zones, caching, DNSSEC signing, and service discovery backends like Kubernetes, etcd, and major cloud DNS providers.
Use cases
- run a dns server for my kubernetes cluster
- resolve service names inside kubernetes
- forward dns queries to upstream resolvers
- serve dns zone files with dnssec signing
- set up dns over https or dns over tls
- cache dns responses to reduce upstream load
- replace skydns with an etcd-backed dns server
- monitor dns query metrics with prometheus
When to choose
- you need a flexible, plugin-based authoritative or recursive DNS server
- you run Kubernetes and need cluster service discovery
- you want modern DNS transports like DoT, DoH, DoH3, or DoQ
- you want to integrate DNS with etcd or cloud provider DNS services
When to avoid
- you need a full recursive resolver with a root hints cache like BIND or Unbound
- you need a GUI-managed DNS solution for non-technical administrators
- you only need simple DNS lookups from application code, where a DNS client library suffices
Facets
service · maturity stable
http-server caching service-discovery monitoring plugin-system middleware networking infrastructure-as-code cloud-computing self-hosted microservices windows go cross-platform dns-server dns-over-tls dns-over-https dns-over-quic kubernetes-dns cncf zone-file dnssec forwarder devops linux macos docker kubernetes
2 sources
- readme: https://github.com/coredns/coredns · fetched 2026-08-28 · 766033f735eb
- homepage: https://coredns.io · fetched 2026-08-29 · 9a857a948c33
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| coredns/coredns | main | 95 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem