do-ddns

A tiny dependency-free Dynamic DNS service for DigitalOcean's nameservers.

Every 5 minutes it checks your public IP via ipify. When the IP changes it looks up the matching A record for each configured host and PUTs the new IP to the DigitalOcean DNS API. The last-known IP is kept in memory and re-checked each cycle, so the API is only written to on a real change.

Setup

1. Requires Node.js 20.12+ (uses the built-in fetch and .env loader — no npm install needed).
2. Create your env file and add a DigitalOcean API token:

   cp .env.example .env
   # edit .env and set DO_API_KEY

   Create the token at https://cloud.digitalocean.com/account/api/tokens with read + write scope.
3. List the hosts to keep updated in domains.json:

   [
     { "name": "api", "domain": "iabdo.me" },
     { "name": "vpn", "domain": "example.com" }
   ]

   Use "@" as the name to update the apex/root record of a domain. The A records must already exist in DigitalOcean.

Run

npm start

domains.json is re-read every cycle, so you can edit it without restarting.

Run as a service (systemd)

# /etc/systemd/system/do-ddns.service
[Unit]
Description=DigitalOcean DDNS
After=network-online.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/do-ddns
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node index.js
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now do-ddns