# coredns/coredns

CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins

Repository: https://github.com/coredns/coredns
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/coredns
Homepage: https://coredns.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: dns-server, go, cncf, coredns, plugin, service-discovery
Last push: 2026-08-26T22:34:30+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3820, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 15, "gap_med": 36.5, "n_releases_24m": 17}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 14280, forks 2514 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:06.658756+00:00)

## What it is
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
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: http-server, caching, service-discovery, monitoring, plugin-system, middleware
- domain: networking, infrastructure-as-code, cloud-computing, self-hosted, microservices
- platform: windows, go, cross-platform
- tags: dns-server, dns-over-tls, dns-over-https, dns-over-quic, kubernetes-dns, cncf, zone-file, dnssec, forwarder, devops, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- coredns/coredns (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:06.658756+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:12:40.805349+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/coredns/coredns (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:06.658756+00:00, sha 766033f735eb)
  - homepage: https://coredns.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:06:14.124403+00:00, sha 9a857a948c33)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.