mosdns is a DNS forwarder written in Go, licensed under GPL-3.0, and aimed at people who want to run their own DNS forwarding and resolution path instead of relying on the resolver handed to them by a router, an ISP, or a third-party service.

What it is

mosdns is a DNS forwarder — the project's own tagline is 一个 DNS 转发器 — and it lives in the Infrastructure & Operations / Networking & Connectivity area of this registry. It is written in Go and distributed under the GPL-3.0 licence from the GitHub repository IrineSistiana/mosdns, which at the time of this snapshot has 3,749 stars, 486 forks, and 118 open issues. Its topic list places it squarely in the DNS ecosystem: the repository is tagged dns, dns-proxy, dns-server, and mosdns itself.

The concrete role it takes over is that of the forwarding resolver: the component that accepts a DNS lookup and passes it on to an upstream resolver. What makes that role worth replacing is the transport. The topic list names dns-over-http, dns-over-https, dns-over-quic, and dns-over-tls, so the project is built around encrypted and multiplexed upstream transports rather than a single plaintext forwarding path. For an operator, that means the choice of how queries leave the network and which resolver answers them is a decision made at the mosdns layer instead of being inherited from the network's defaults.

Key capabilities

• Acts as a DNS forwarder, tagged with the project's own mosdns topic as well as the generic dns topic.
• Functions as a DNS proxy and as a DNS server, per the dns-proxy and dns-server topics.
• Supports DNS over HTTPS through the dns-over-https topic.
• Supports DNS over TLS through the dns-over-tls topic.
• Supports DNS over QUIC through the dns-over-quic topic.
• Supports DNS over HTTP through the dns-over-http topic.
• Is published as a Docker image at irinesistiana/mosdns on Docker Hub, and as precompiled files on the GitHub releases page.

Who uses it and how

• Operators who deploy DNS infrastructure as containers, pulling the irinesistiana/mosdns image from Docker Hub and running it as a service alongside the rest of their stack.
• Self-hosters who avoid containers and download the precompiled files from the releases page instead, running the forwarder directly on a host they manage.
• Networks that want their upstream DNS leg carried over an encrypted or QUIC-based transport, using the DoH, DoT, DoQ, or DoH-over-HTTP support named in the topic list.
• Administrators who configure the forwarder against the project's wiki, which is where the README directs readers for functionality, configuration, and tutorials.

Getting started

The README points to three concrete routes: download a precompiled file from the GitHub releases page, pull the Docker image irinesistiana/mosdns from Docker Hub, or read the wiki for configuration and tutorials. Configuration itself is documented in that external wiki rather than in the repository README.

How it compares

The facts provided name no competing DNS forwarders and no list of paid products that mosdns is positioned to replace, so no peer comparison can be made from the available material. It stands alone in this registry on the evidence given.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate the forwarder itself, choosing between the Docker image and a precompiled binary, and must learn its configuration from the external wiki, because the repository README carries no configuration detail. Anyone who needs documentation bundled with the source, a permissive non-GPL licence for embedding, or a fully managed hosted service should look elsewhere. The honest caveats are the sparse README, the reliance on an off-site GitBook wiki, and the 118 open issues at the time of this snapshot, even though the last push is recent.