explaingit

is-a-dev/register

★ 10,281JavaScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A community-run service where developers can claim a free personal subdomain under .is-a.dev by forking this repo, adding a config file, and opening a pull request that volunteers review and merge.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((is-a-dev/register))
    What it does
      Free dev subdomains
      Under .is-a.dev domain
    How to register
      Fork this repo
      Add config file
      Open pull request
      Volunteers review and merge
    Infrastructure
      Cloudflare DNS
      Auto-apply on merge
    Community
      Discord for announcements
      Contribution guidelines
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Claim a free yourname.is-a.dev subdomain to point at your personal portfolio or project page instead of buying a domain

USE CASE 2

Register a subdomain for a side project or open-source tool without paying for a custom domain name

USE CASE 3

Set up DNS records through a pull-request workflow backed by Cloudflare without managing your own DNS provider

Tech stack

JavaScriptCloudflare DNS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Registration requires a GitHub account, a fork of the repo, and waiting for a volunteer to review and merge your pull request, DNS goes live within minutes of merging.

In plain English

is-a.dev is a free service that gives developers a personal subdomain under the .is-a.dev domain name. Instead of paying for a domain like yourname.com, you can register yourname.is-a.dev at no cost and point it at your personal website, portfolio, or project page. The subdomains are intended for individual developers and personal use. To claim a subdomain, you fork this GitHub repository, add a small configuration file describing the DNS records you want, and open a pull request. Volunteers review the request and, once approved, merge it. The DNS records then go live within a few minutes, handled automatically through Cloudflare, which sponsors the service. The project is community-run and relies on manual review of each pull request. The README warns that pull requests generated by AI tools or submitted in bulk are treated as spam and will be closed. The team can also block repeat offenders and remove existing subdomains if the content they point to violates the terms of service. A Discord server handles announcements, service updates, and downtime notifications. Not all updates appear on GitHub, so the Discord is the main channel for staying informed about the service. The repository itself mostly contains the DNS configuration files that represent every registered subdomain, one file per subdomain. There is no software to install or run. The whole system is a GitHub-based registration process backed by Cloudflare DNS management.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through forking the is-a-dev/register repo and creating the correct config file to register myname.is-a.dev pointing to my GitHub Pages site
Prompt 2
What DNS record types does is-a.dev support and how do I format the JSON config file to point my subdomain at a Cloudflare Pages deployment?
Prompt 3
How do I check the status of my is-a-dev pull request and what are common reasons requests get rejected?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← is-a-dev on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.