Domain Availability Helper

Some of the names we consider for the public-facing site (e.g. imgfcy, pixforge, etc.) are short enough that a quick automated check is useful before purchasing a TLD.

To avoid repeated manual lookups, we've added a simple Python utility that produces a list of candidate domains and performs a DNS resolution check plus a WHOIS query when the python-whois package is installed.

Usage

Make sure you have Python 3 available on your path. Only a small dependency is needed:
```
pip install python-whois  # optional, helps determine "registered" status
```
Run the helper script from the workspace root:
```
cd /path/to/image-factory
python scripts/check_domains.py
```
By default the script will probe a handful of bases and the .com, .io, and .app TLDs. You can provide your own list on the command line or via a file:
```
python scripts/check_domains.py imagefactory imgfactory
python scripts/check_domains.py --tlds com,net,dev --base-list mynames.txt
```
Inspect the output. A domain is likely available if it does not resolve and the WHOIS status reports available. This is only a heuristic – always double check with a registrar before registering.
Feel free to add to DEFAULT_BASES in the script or supply your own generation logic if you want more ideas.

The file lives under docs/reference so it can be referenced by contributors when they're picking a name for the project or configuring IF_REGISTRY_DOMAIN.