FAQ
faq/is-this-really-free.json
"q": "Is this really free?"
Yes. Claiming a name costs nothing and there is no paid tier. The operator pays the ~$10/year for runs-at.dev itself; you never pay to claim, hold, or point a name.
faq/is-it-a-tld.json
"q": "Is it a TLD?"
No. runs-at.dev is a subdomain registry, not a top-level domain. Your name is <name>.runs-at.dev, not a domain you own outright. A real TLD means an ICANN application and running a registry, which is a different and much more expensive thing.
faq/who-owns-my-name.json
"q": "Who owns my name?"
The operator (@preetmendpara) owns runs-at.dev. You are the recorded owner of your claimed record (domains/<name>.json), and only you can edit or remove it by pull request, but the name itself is granted, not sold or transferred to you.
faq/can-you-take-it-away.json
"q": "Can you take it away?"
Yes. The policy reserves the right to reclaim a name that goes dormant, or one used for impersonation, phishing, malware, or illegal content, without notice for the last four. Read the full policy at /policy.
faq/what-happens-if-the-project-shuts-down.json
"q": "What happens if the project shuts down?"
Names would stop resolving. This runs on a wildcard DNS record and a GitHub Actions pipeline that the operator runs; if the operator stops paying for or maintaining runs-at.dev, every *.runs-at.dev name goes down with it. The registry is open source, so anyone could fork it and stand up their own domain, but that is a fork, not a guaranteed continuation of this one.
faq/can-i-use-it-for-a-commercial-project.json
"q": "Can I use it for a commercial project?"
Yes, nothing in the policy restricts commercial use. Keep in mind it is still a free, best-effort service with no uptime guarantee, so treat it as you would any other free infrastructure you did not pay for.
faq/why-do-i-need-a-github-account.json
"q": "Why do I need a GitHub account?"
Sign-in and eligibility both run through GitHub: your account needs to be at least 30 days old with at least one public repository, so claiming is cheap for a real developer and expensive for a bot farm sweeping names at scale.
faq/how-many-names-can-i-have.json
"q": "How many names can I have?"
One per account. That is a hard limit enforced at claim time, so a second name needs a second GitHub account.
faq/what-stops-someone-claiming-a-brand-name.json
"q": "What stops someone claiming a brand name?"
A blocklist of brands actually impersonated in the wild, checked before eligibility on every claim. It is not exhaustive: if you see a name that should be blocked, email abuse@runs-at.dev or open a pull request against the blocklist.