Show HN: I built a DNS resolver from scratch in Rust – no DNS libraries

rdme 92 points 53 comments April 02, 2026
github.com · View on Hacker News

I built a DNS resolver that lets me use https://frontend.numa instead of localhost:5173 — auto-generated TLS certs, WebSocket passthrough, path routing. No mkcert, no nginx, no /etc/hosts.

Discussion Highlights (16 comments)

rdme

Since I needed it to be my primary DNS, I also added: recursive resolution from root nameservers, DNSSEC chain-of-trust validation, ad blocking (385K+ domains), and LAN service discovery. I wrote about the DNSSEC implementation here: https://numa.rs/blog/posts/dnssec-from-scratch.html It's now my daily system DNS. Single binary (~8MB), macOS/Linux/Windows. `sudo numa install`

rbluethl

Cool idea, every developer running apps in dev on their machine knows this pain for sure. I'll give it a spin and let you know how it goes!

lyfeninja

I think I need to give this a go. Cool project.

_kidlike

very interesting. how does the blocklist work? can one manage the lists? like StevenBlack or others.

6r17

Same hack here ; I have no DSN running by default - much more handy than having to set up nginx as it has no opinion on the targeted infrastructure. And the bonus point is that you can see every sneaky request that happens when you browse ; so another side-project connected to this is to make an inventory and policy filter

voltagex_

Great idea, pity about the slop.

bahador

feature request: libnuma so i can use it programmatically with configuration. also, multiple user defined blocklists.

EdoardoIaga

Rust it’s crazy good

p2hari

Nice idea. To test I ran a simple nextjs on port 3000. Added the service via the dashboard. However, when I visit the url, (using chrome latest version), https://{mygivenname}.numa/ I hit a DNS resolution fail error. If I do not use a trailing '/' then it is going to google search for {mygivenname}.numa and shows me some search results. Should I open an issue?

goodpoint

we need a [slop] flag in the headlines

voxadam

It's neither here nor there but can I ask about the name? I only ask because when I see "numa" in relation to computing I immediately think "Non-Uniform Memory Access". Very cool project by the way. I wonder how this would run on an OpenWRT device. I see in your install.sh that you support Linux and Darwin/MacOS, do you think there would be any major hurdles in supporting FreeBSD?

kevin061

The interface looks vibecoded. I have no problem with people vibecoding things. In fact, I have zero frontend skills, so I rely on AI to be able to make easy-to-use interfaces. However, I feel like this should be clearly and prominently displayed in the project page. Furthermore it is a little off-putting to see a vibecoded UI because I have very little confidence that the rest of the backend code is not vibecoded. I know I am possibly being unfair, but this is how it looks to me. If the developer tells me they didn't use AI at all, I would believe it.

dev_l1x_be

How is to compare to AdGuard? If it gets those features I would be switching over.

dwedge

I have a couple of projects that once a month need to run a few million dns lookups as quickly as possible. I'm tempted to try this just to see how it performs and if it breaks.

Asuka-wx

Nice work. What made you choose this license?

conradludgate

What's the reason you're not using hickory? Or was that the LLMs choice? Genuinely curious

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