.cli
Is .cli a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.cli is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Mux Registry L.L.C-FZ. Internet Naming Company named .cli as a backup string for its .bit application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A short developer-flavored name for command-line tools; a niche signal, not a default home for serious software projects.
developers and open-source maintainers shipping command-line tools, plus devtool startups wanting a terminal-native brand
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .bit application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: a short piece of developer jargon offered as the native namespace for people who build software, where the value comes from speaking the audience's own vocabulary rather than from mass-market volume.
Also a clipped technical term that became the name of a software artifact, bought by builders to put product identity on it, but it is a mass-consumer word with a far wider buyer pool than an insiders-only interface acronym.
Same buyer and same premise — a generic noun for the thing being made, chosen by makers as their primary identity — but it names the whole industry rather than one tool form factor, so it asks much less insider knowledge of the registrant.
What a .cli domain is
.cli is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .cli domain extension real yet?
.cli is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .cli domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .cli name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .cli was .dev, delegated on 18 December 2014.
Is .cli a real TLD?
Not yet. .cli is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .cli is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string .cli reads unambiguously as 'command-line interface' to its only natural buyer group, developers, and command-line tools are a real, growing product category (package-manager CLIs, agent and AI coding CLIs, infrastructure tooling), so some projects would plausibly register a tool.cli address as a product identity. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy with developer-targeted TLDs such as .dev, .sh and .run, the broader generic (.dev) and the terminal-connoting incumbent (.sh) already absorb most of this demand, and a project choosing .cli would still need to explain it to users and would likely hold a .com or .dev as the canonical address; inference from analogy, since no registration or aftermarket figures for .cli exist in the verified facts. It is not in the 10-29 band because the meaning is precise, the audience is identifiable and willing to pay for short developer names, and 'cli' is a short, memorable suffix that composes naturally with tool names rather than being a joke string. Applicant facts are neutral: a single confirmed application from Mux Registry L.L.C-FZ on the ICANN Reveal Day list of 7 October 2026, with no recorded category tag; contention count on the record is 1. Main market uncertainty: whether CLI-tool maintainers treat .cli as a primary identity (docs, install URLs, badges) or merely as a redirect vanity, which decides whether it sits near 45 or nearer 25 within five years.