Why not! ;-)
A modern resolver designed for scalability, resiliency, and flexibility.
Open Source
Completely free to download and use under the GPL license. Community-driven development with transparent governance.
Feature-Packed
Modular architecture with C and Lua module support. The OpenResty of DNS — extend with custom logic easily.
High Performance
Shared-nothing architecture — no threading, no locks. Apply configuration changes without any downtime.
Secure & Stable
Extensive automated testing suite ensures stability, interoperability, and security across every release.
Trusted in
Production
"Knot Resolver is the cornerstone of our public resolver service running on 1.1.1.1."
Olafur Gudmundsson
Engineering Director, Cloudflare
"Knot Resolver has been a part of our infrastructure since 2017."
Milan Sykora
Network Services Specialist, CETIN
"The best platform for building our DNS filtering solution."
Robert Sefr
CTO, Whalebone
Get Started in Seconds
Pick your platform and start resolving.
# Add CZ.NIC repository
curl -fsSL https://pkg.labs.nic.cz/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/cznic.gpg
# Install Knot Resolver
sudo apt install knot-resolver
# Start the service
sudo systemctl enable --now kresd@1
✓ kresd is running on 127.0.0.1:53▋
# Run with Docker
docker run --rm -ti --network host \
docker.io/cznic/knot-resolver
✓ kresd is running▋
# Enable COPR repository
sudo dnf copr enable @cznic/knot-resolver
# Install
sudo dnf install knot-resolver
✓ kresd is running▋
Part of the CZ.NIC Open Source Ecosystem
Start Resolving
Today
Join CETIN, Cloudflare, and Whalebone. Deploy the resolver trusted by billions of DNS queries.
$ systemctl status kresd@1
● kresd@1.service - Knot Resolver
Active: active (running)