Overview

Run npx caniname <name> directly in your terminal before starting a new project to check if your chosen name is available on Netlify and NPM. Select a preset below or toggle --json to preview the CLI command and output:

CLI Command & Output Preview npx caniname
Presets: 
npx caniname rich-input
Terminal Output exit code 1
Fun fact: This tool was originally built under the name namecheck. Upon running ./bin/namecheck.js namecheck to dogfood it before publishing, it turned out that namecheck was already taken on both Netlify and NPM—so we used the tool itself to find an available name: caniname.

Features

Zero-Install CLI

Run directly via npx caniname <name> with zero external dependencies (uses Node.js built-in fetch and util.parseArgs).

Batch Name Checking

Pass multiple candidate project names in a single invocation (e.g. npx caniname formula-input calc-input) to compare options side by side.

Parallel Service Execution

All registered service checks run concurrently via Promise.all() for fast results with a 10-second request timeout per check.

Human & JSON Output

Prints colorized status icons (✔, ✖, ⚠) by default, or structured JSON via -j / --json for scripting and CI pipelines.

Semantic Exit Codes

Exits with code 0 when all checked names are available across every service, or 1 when any name is taken or encounters an error.

Pluggable Check Modules

Every check lives in its own file under src/checks/ and is automatically discovered and executed in parallel.

CLI Usage & Options

Run caniname directly with npx (requires Node.js >=20.12.0), or install it globally with npm install -g caniname.

Check One or Multiple Names CLI 
npx caniname formula-input
npx caniname formula-input calc-input

Or run locally from a cloned repository:

./bin/caniname.js formula-input calc-input
Output as JSON (-j / --json) JSON

Pass --json (or -j) to output machine-readable JSON. When checking a single name, a single result object is printed; when checking multiple names, an array of objects is returned: 

npx caniname formula-input --json
 
{
  "name": "formula-input",
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "netlify",
      "name": "Netlify",
      "target": "formula-input.netlify.app",
      "url": "https://formula-input.netlify.app",
      "available": false
    },
    {
      "id": "npm",
      "name": "NPM",
      "target": "formula-input",
      "url": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/formula-input",
      "available": false
    }
  ]
}
Option Short Description
--json -j Output availability results as formatted JSON instead of human-readable text.
--help -h Show the CLI help message and usage examples.

Included Checks

Out of the box, caniname validates project name formats and checks availability across the following services:

Service ID Target Checked How Availability Is Determined
Netlify netlify <name>.netlify.app Validates subdomain syntax and sends a HEAD request to https://<name>.netlify.app. Unclaimed Netlify subdomains return 404 without an ETag header.
NPM npm <name> Validates npm package naming rules (including scoped packages) and sends a HEAD request to https://registry.npmjs.org/<name>. Available when the registry responds with 404.

JavaScript API

In addition to the CLI, you can import checkName, checkNames, and loadChecks directly from caniname in Node.js:

Programmatic Usage in Node.js ESM 
import { checkName, checkNames, loadChecks } from 'caniname';

// Check a single project name across all built-in services
const singleResults = await checkName('my-cool-project');
console.log(singleResults);
// [
//   { id: 'netlify', name: 'Netlify', target: 'my-cool-project.netlify.app', url: 'https://my-cool-project.netlify.app', available: true },
//   { id: 'npm', name: 'NPM', target: 'my-cool-project', url: 'https://www.npmjs.com/package/my-cool-project', available: true }
// ]

// Check multiple project names in parallel
const batchResults = await checkNames(['formula-input', 'my-cool-project']);

// Or preload check modules manually
const checks = await loadChecks();

Adding New Checks

Each check lives in its own file inside src/checks/. Any .js file placed in src/checks/ is automatically discovered and executed in parallel.

Custom Check Module Template (src/checks/<service>.js) Plugin 
export async function check(name) {
  const normalized = name.trim().toLowerCase();
  const target = `${normalized}.example.com`;
  const url = `https://${target}`;

  // Perform availability check...
  const available = true;

  return {
    id: 'example',
    name: 'Example',
    target,
    url,
    available,
  };
}

export default {
  id: 'example',
  name: 'Example',
  check,
};