Numa

DNS you own. Everywhere you go. — numa.rs

A portable DNS resolver in a single binary. Block ads on any network, name your local services (frontend.numa), and override any hostname with auto-revert — all from your laptop, no cloud account or Raspberry Pi required.

Built from scratch in Rust. Zero DNS libraries. RFC 1035 wire protocol parsed by hand. Caching, ad blocking, and local service domains out of the box. Optional recursive resolution from root nameservers with full DNSSEC chain-of-trust validation, plus a DNS-over-TLS listener for encrypted client connections (iOS Private DNS, systemd-resolved, etc.). One ~8MB binary, everything embedded.

Quick Start

# macOS
brew install razvandimescu/tap/numa

# Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/razvandimescu/numa/main/install.sh | sh

# Arch Linux (AUR)
yay -S numa-git

# Windows — download from GitHub Releases
# All platforms
cargo install numa

# Docker
docker run -d --name numa --network host ghcr.io/razvandimescu/numa

sudo numa                              # run in foreground (port 53 requires root/admin)

Open the dashboard: http://numa.numa (or http://localhost:5380)

Set as system DNS:

Platform	Install	Uninstall
macOS	sudo numa install	sudo numa uninstall
Linux	sudo numa install	sudo numa uninstall
Windows	numa install (admin) + reboot	numa uninstall (admin) + reboot

On macOS and Linux, numa runs as a system service (launchd/systemd). On Windows, numa auto-starts on login via registry.

Local Services

Name your dev services instead of remembering port numbers:

curl -X POST localhost:5380/services \
  -d '{"name":"frontend","target_port":5173}'

Now https://frontend.numa works in your browser — green lock, valid cert, WebSocket passthrough for HMR. No mkcert, no nginx, no /etc/hosts.

Add path-based routing (app.numa/api → :5001), share services across machines via LAN discovery, or configure everything in numa.toml.

Ad Blocking & Privacy

385K+ domains blocked via Hagezi Pro. Works on any network — coffee shops, hotels, airports. Travels with your laptop.

Three resolution modes:

• forward (default) — transparent proxy to your existing system DNS. Everything works as before, just with caching and ad blocking on top. Captive portals, VPNs, corporate DNS — all respected.
• recursive — resolve directly from root nameservers. No upstream dependency, no single entity sees your full query pattern. Add [dnssec] enabled = true for full chain-of-trust validation.
• auto — probe root servers on startup, recursive if reachable, encrypted DoH fallback if blocked.

DNSSEC validates the full chain of trust: RRSIG signatures, DNSKEY verification, DS delegation, NSEC/NSEC3 denial proofs. Read how it works →

DNS-over-TLS listener (RFC 7858) — accept encrypted queries on port 853 from strict clients like iOS Private DNS, systemd-resolved, or stubby. Two modes:

• Self-signed (default) — numa generates a local CA automatically. numa install adds it to the system trust store on macOS, Linux (Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RHEL/SUSE, Arch), and Windows. On iOS, install the .mobileconfig from numa setup-phone. Firefox keeps its own NSS store and ignores the system one — trust the CA there manually if you need HTTPS for .numa services in Firefox.
• Bring-your-own cert — point [dot] cert_path / key_path at a publicly-trusted cert (e.g., Let's Encrypt via DNS-01 challenge on a domain pointing at your numa instance). Clients connect without any trust-store setup — same UX as AdGuard Home or Cloudflare 1.1.1.1.

ALPN "dot" is advertised and enforced in both modes; a handshake with mismatched ALPN is rejected as a cross-protocol confusion defense.

Phone setup — point your iPhone or Android at Numa in one step:

numa setup-phone

Prints a QR code. Scan it, install the profile, toggle certificate trust — your phone's DNS now routes through Numa over TLS. Requires [mobile] enabled = true in numa.toml.

LAN Discovery

Run Numa on multiple machines. They find each other automatically via mDNS:

Machine A (192.168.1.5)              Machine B (192.168.1.20)
┌──────────────────────┐             ┌──────────────────────┐
│ Numa                 │    mDNS     │ Numa                 │
│  - api (port 8000)   │◄───────────►│  - grafana (3000)    │
│  - frontend (5173)   │  discovery  │                      │
└──────────────────────┘             └──────────────────────┘

From Machine B: curl http://api.numa → proxied to Machine A's port 8000. Enable with numa lan on.

Hub mode: run one instance with bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:53" and point other devices' DNS to it — they get ad blocking + .numa resolution without installing anything.

Docker

# Recommended — host networking (Linux)
docker run -d --name numa --network host ghcr.io/razvandimescu/numa

# Port mapping (macOS/Windows Docker Desktop)
docker run -d --name numa -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp -p 5380:5380 ghcr.io/razvandimescu/numa

Dashboard at http://localhost:5380. The image binds the API and proxy to 0.0.0.0 by default. Override with a custom config:

docker run -d --name numa --network host \
  -v /path/to/numa.toml:/root/.config/numa/numa.toml \
  ghcr.io/razvandimescu/numa

Multi-arch: linux/amd64 and linux/arm64.

How It Compares

	Pi-hole	AdGuard Home	Unbound	Numa
Local service proxy + auto TLS	—	—	—	.numa domains, HTTPS, WebSocket
LAN service discovery	—	—	—	mDNS, zero config
Developer overrides (REST API)	—	—	—	Auto-revert, scriptable
Recursive resolver	—	—	Yes	Yes, with SRTT selection
DNSSEC validation	—	—	Yes	Yes (RSA, ECDSA, Ed25519)
Ad blocking	Yes	Yes	—	385K+ domains
Web admin UI	Full	Full	—	Dashboard
Encrypted upstream (DoH/DoT)	Needs cloudflared	DoH only	DoT only	DoH + DoT (tls://)
Encrypted clients (DoT listener)	Needs stunnel sidecar	Yes	Yes	Native (RFC 7858)
DoH server endpoint	—	Yes	—	Yes (RFC 8484)
Request hedging	—	—	—	All protocols (UDP, DoH, DoT)
Serve-stale + prefetch	—	—	Prefetch at 90% TTL	RFC 8767, prefetch at 90% TTL
Conditional forwarding	—	Yes	Yes	Yes (per-suffix rules)
Portable (laptop)	No (appliance)	No (appliance)	Server	Single binary, macOS/Linux/Windows
Community maturity	56K stars, 10 years	33K stars	20 years	New

Performance

0.1ms cached queries — matches Unbound and AdGuard Home. Wire-level cache stores raw bytes with in-place TTL patching. Request hedging eliminates p99 spikes: cold recursive p99 538ms vs Unbound 748ms (−28%), σ 4× tighter. Benchmarks →

Learn More

• Blog: DNS-over-TLS from Scratch in Rust
• Blog: Implementing DNSSEC from Scratch in Rust
• Blog: I Built a DNS Resolver from Scratch
• Configuration reference — all options documented inline
• REST API — 27 endpoints across overrides, cache, blocking, services, diagnostics

Roadmap

• DNS forwarding, caching, ad blocking, developer overrides
• .numa local domains — auto TLS, path routing, WebSocket proxy
• LAN service discovery — mDNS, cross-machine DNS + proxy
• DNS-over-HTTPS — encrypted upstream + server endpoint (RFC 8484)
• DNS-over-TLS — encrypted client listener (RFC 7858) + upstream forwarding (tls://)
• Recursive resolution + DNSSEC — chain-of-trust, NSEC/NSEC3
• SRTT-based nameserver selection
• Multi-forwarder failover — multiple upstreams with SRTT ranking, fallback pool
• Request hedging — parallel requests rescue packet loss and tail latency (all protocols)
• Serve-stale + prefetch — RFC 8767, background refresh at <10% TTL and on stale serve
• Conditional forwarding — per-suffix rules for split-horizon DNS (Tailscale, VPNs)
• Cache warming — proactive resolution for configured domains
• Mobile onboarding — setup-phone QR flow, mobile API, mobileconfig profiles
• pkarr integration — self-sovereign DNS via Mainline DHT
• Global .numa names — DHT-backed, no registrar

License

MIT