glue record

A glue record is an A or AAAA record that lives in a parent zone to point to a nameserver that is also part of the same domain. It solves a chicken-and-egg problem: you can't look up ns1.example.com's IP if the only way to find that IP is to query ns1.example.com itself. Glue records break the loop by embedding the nameserver's IP directly in the parent zone file (usually at the registry level). When a resolver queries the root or TLD nameserver for example.com, it gets back both the NS records and the glue records in a single response, allowing it to immediately contact your authoritative nameservers without a separate lookup. This matters for performance and for domains using in-bailiwick nameservers—nameservers whose names fall within the domain they serve. Misconfigured or missing glue records can silently break your entire domain's DNS resolution, which is why registrars like us let you manage them directly. Most modern registrars abstract this away, but understanding glue records is essential if you're running your own authoritative nameservers or dealing with complex DNS setups.