Softricks iDig: The Dream to Simplify DNS
DNS or Domain Name System is like a glorified hosts file — well, not anymore, but it surely started as such! Long long time ago in a faraway 20th century, when the Internet was in its infancy, all we had was a group of computers in a network and accessed using this weird sets of numbers with 4 groups — called the IP(v4) addresses. You wouldn’t know if 123.456.789.0AB is google.com or britishairways.com or nasa.gov. Try remembering more than 2 such IP addresses!
One had the option of /etc/hosts or hosts.txt file at the OS level where one could write/store some mappings like -
13.107.213.40 microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 localhost
But then it worked only on that machine and one would need to share a common copy to every computer. There was a need for a universal naming system which was up-to-date and in sync.
With this simple need, DNS systems started sometime around 1983. I won’t get into much history beyond this. There are enough resources on this already.
With Bind (first of many DNS Servers) coming on the scene around 1984, and RFCs 1034, 1035 in 1987, things improved on Query side of DNS. A tool called ‘dig’ which was part of Bind came into existence around 1990, allowing DNS lookups.
iDig derives its name from this ‘dig’ tool!
But if you have used ‘dig’, you will understand how hard it is to decode, link multiple commands and make sense out of it all!
API:
https://api.softricks.net/idig
Softricks-iDig API started with the intention of demystifying the dig lookups, tying DNSKeys, RRSigs, DS records together to validate chain of trust, check DNS records like A, AAAA, DANE, MX, etc, do reverse lookups, GeoIps.. All, without having a Unix terminal at your disposal.
The API was developed, along with an iPhone app, so that you can investigate DNS issues from anywhere.
Fifteen years later.. I decided to rewrite the API. Converted it from PHP to Python, hosted it on AWS, implemented several missing DNS record lookups, implemented Token management, defined usage tiers, added Diagnostics and DNSSEC chain of validation, SSL checks, resolution checks, and many other features.
The iDig API works with an access token which has usage tiers such as Free, Basic, Pro and Enterprise. You can request a token from the product page: https://softricks.net/idig.
The API endpoints are documented at https://softricks.net/idig/docs
More info at https://softricks.net/static/idig-api-concepts/.
Batch Mode:
For Enterprise customers, the API supports batch mode and can analyze hundreds of domains at once. This requires an Enterprise level token.
Swagger Docs:
https://api.softricks.net/idig/docs
The Swagger docs which provide an interactive request/response experience with the API directly.
Mobile Apps:
The Mobile apps were the key clients to show all this information. The tabs format displays all kinds of DNS information in an intuitive way. There is also an Export to PDF option.
The mobile apps provide a way to request a token. There are limits to how many requests can be fired using the token per day and there is IP based ratelimiting in place.
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The apps are Free and all features stay active for 7 days and after that, the Pro features will be available after a one-time fee. However, 8 basic DNS lookup features will always stay free.
Web Interface:
A web interface provides the same functionality in a browser. You will need to provide your token to be able to use this interface.
With the same kind of tabbed interface like the Mobile Apps, the web application provides all the DNS data by executing multiple queries behind the scenes, with the ability to generate a PDF report with all this information about the domain.
The AI angle!
AI is a big differentiator in the suite. The sheer interactive and natural language side of these tools is what serves the ultimate purpose of iDig —which is to demystify DNS and make diagnostics easier.
Here’s how the two AI surfaces fit together within the iDig suite:
AI Agent:
An AI-powered diagnostic agent built on top of the iDig API using Claude (Anthropic). Describe your problem in plain English — “my emails are going to spam” or “did my DNS changes propagate?” — and the agent decides which tools to call, chains multiple API queries automatically, and gives you a clear explanation with specific fix steps
A vague query like “check this domain and tell me how to fix whatever is broken” is allowed here! No need to know what DNS queries to fire, how to interpret them.
or ask the agent “How is email security of rediff.com”
..and finally the MCP Server:
Why MCP Server? — you might ask — if we already have an AI Agent. They sound similar but serve completely different purposes.
The AI Agent is a product. The MCP Server is infrastructure.
The AI Agent is a finished experience. A user goes to agent.softricks.net, types "why is my email going to spam?", and gets a plain-English answer. iDig does the DNS thinking for them. It's a consumer-facing tool — the intelligence is pre-packaged, the interface is fixed, and the user has no control over how it works under the hood.
The MCP Server is a capability you expose to other people’s AI systems. Instead of building the experience yourself, you hand a tool to Claude, GPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI and say: “here’s how to look up DNS health — use it whenever you need it.” The AI decides when to call it, what to do with the result, and how to present it to its own user.
A concrete example of why this matters
Say a developer is using Claude to help debug their infrastructure. They ask: “My deployment went live an hour ago but users in Europe can’t reach the site.”
Without MCP, Claude can only reason about this from general knowledge. It might suggest checking DNS propagation, but it can’t actually check anything.
With iDig’s MCP Server connected, Claude can call propagation_check mid-conversation, get live results from 16 global resolvers, and tell the developer exactly which regions are still resolving to the old IP — without the developer ever leaving their Claude session or knowing iDig exists.
That’s the key insight: the MCP Server lets iDig’s capabilities travel into workflows you didn’t build and don’t control.
In Summary:
iDig is a professional-grade DNS diagnostic platform built by a developer with 30+ years in the trenches. It goes far beyond simple record lookups. Whether you’re troubleshooting an outage at 2am, validating a migration, or auditing a client’s domain security posture, iDig gives you the depth you need and the clarity to act on it.
Try it out!
—
Kedar Bhave
Softricks LLC
