// Tool
DNS Delegation Trace
Walk the DNS delegation chain from root → TLD → authoritative — see where each level points the next, and which nameservers ultimately serve a domain. Useful for spotting misconfigured delegations and stale glue.
Queries Cloudflare DoH (1.1.1.1) for NS records at each label of the domain.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a DNS delegation trace?
It follows the chain a resolver actually walks — root servers to TLD servers to your authoritative servers — showing the referral at each step so you can see exactly where resolution breaks.
What is a glue record?
When a nameserver’s name is inside the zone it serves, the parent must supply its IP directly (glue) to avoid a chicken-and-egg lookup. Stale glue points to an old IP and causes intermittent failures.
Why does my domain resolve sometimes but not always?
Often a delegation mismatch — the parent lists nameservers that disagree with the zone’s own NS set, or one listed server is unreachable, so answers depend on which server a resolver picks.
