Tutorial

For ZenTLD 1.1, last updated June 12, 2026

In one minute

ZenTLD lives in your menu bar as a small stacked-stones icon. Click it to open the search window. From there you can:

The sections below cover each feature in detail.

1. The menu bar icon

After you install ZenTLD and launch it for the first time, a small icon (three stacked stones, the ZenTLD logo) appears in your menu bar at the top of the screen. The app does not show up in the Dock and does not show up in Command-Tab. The menu bar is its only home.

Click the ZenTLD icon to open the search window. Click it again to hide. Click off the window onto another app or the desktop and it hides automatically. There is no minimize button and no close button on the window itself; the menu bar is the toggle.

The icon is rendered as a template image, so it follows your macOS theme: dark stones on a light menu bar, white on a dark menu bar. It is small on purpose: this is a tool you reach for, not a notification surface.

2. The search window at a glance

From top to bottom, the search window contains:

The window stays open while you interact with it. Click outside the window, click the menu bar icon again, or click Quit in the footer to dismiss.

3. Running a search

Type a name into the input field. Just the name. Do not include a TLD; ZenTLD adds the TLD itself based on which ones you have selected. So acme, not acme.com.

Press Check (or hit Return) to run the search. ZenTLD looks each combined name (acme.com, acme.ai, and any others you have selected) up against the authoritative source for that TLD. Each row in the Results card fills in independently as its answer comes back, usually within a second or two.

Three possible outcomes per row:

If at least one row comes back Available and you have the gong enabled in Settings, a soft chime plays once when all results are in.

4. Choosing which TLDs to check

The TLDs that get checked on every search are shown as a row of small chips above the Check button. The defaults are .com and .ai. To add or remove TLDs, click the gear icon in the brand header to open Settings, then go to the TLDs tab.

Add a new TLD by picking it from the dropdown of common extensions (.com, .ai, .dev, .io, .co, .org, .net, and many more). Remove a TLD by clicking the minus button next to it. The order can be rearranged by drag, and the order in Settings is the order they appear in the search results.

You can also pause individual TLDs (un-check them in Settings) so they remain in your list but are not checked on the next search. Useful if you want to keep a TLD in the list for occasional checks without seeing it every time.

5. Reading the Results

Each result row shows, from left to right: an availability icon, the full domain (e.g. acme.ai), and a status label (Available or Taken).

Available rows are tinted green and use a bold green icon. They are not links: an available domain has no live site to visit.

Taken rows are clickable. Click the row to open https://<domain> in your default browser. This is useful for quickly verifying what is at the domain (a parked page, a real site, a redirect to a parent company, etc.) without re-typing the URL yourself.

Next to each row is a small copy button that puts the domain text on your clipboard, ready to paste into a registrar's checkout, an email, or a chat.

6. The search history sidebar

Every search you run is saved to the History sidebar on the left side of the window, with the most recent at the top. Each entry shows the name you searched, when you searched it, and how many of the checked TLDs were available at the time.

Click any past entry to load its full results back into the main area, exactly as they appeared at the time of the search. The historical view is read-only: a small banner across the top of the results indicates you are looking at a saved search, and a New search button returns you to a fresh search.

To delete a single entry, hover over it and use the trash icon. To clear everything, scroll to the bottom of the sidebar and click Clear all history. The clear action asks you to confirm.

The history is stored locally on your Mac. It never syncs to iCloud, never uploads anywhere, never leaves the device. ZenTLD itself does not see it either; we have no backend.

7. Optional Claude brainstorming

If a search comes back with no good options, ZenTLD can ask Claude to suggest alternative names. This feature is off by default and requires that you already have Claude installed on your Mac (specifically, the claude command-line tool from Claude Code).

To enable: open Settings (gear icon in the brand header), go to the Claude tab, and toggle Enable Claude brainstorming on. ZenTLD auto-detects the claude binary in common installation locations. If it cannot find it, you can paste the path manually and click Detect to verify.

Once enabled, the Brainstorm section card appears in the search window. Click Generate alternative names and ZenTLD runs claude -p with a structured prompt that asks for variants based on your search term. The conversation runs entirely between your Mac and your existing Claude subscription. ZenTLD does not see the conversation, and no separate API key is required.

Claude's suggestions appear as a list. Click any suggestion to run it as a new search.

8. The soft gong

When a search comes back with at least one available domain, ZenTLD plays a soft synthesized gong, about four and a half seconds long. The sound is bundled with the app; nothing is fetched from the network.

To turn it off, open Settings, go to the Sound tab, and switch Ring a gong when a search finds an available domain off. There is also a Test button on that tab if you want to preview the sound.

System volume controls the gong like any other audio. If macOS is set to silent or your output device is muted, ZenTLD makes no sound.

9. The Welcome window

A five-step Welcome window appears automatically on first launch. It covers:

  1. What ZenTLD is. A short overview of the product.
  2. Launch at login. Optional toggle to have ZenTLD start whenever you sign in to your Mac.
  3. Claude brainstorming. Optional toggle for the Claude integration, and a quick way to detect the binary.
  4. Access requests. What macOS will and will not ask permission for. ZenTLD requests no privacy-sensitive entitlements.
  5. You're ready. A summary and a Finish button that closes the Welcome window and opens the main search window.

To re-open the Welcome window later (for instance, to flip the Launch at login toggle without going into System Settings), click Welcome in the footer of the search window.

10. Settings

Open Settings from the gear icon in the brand header. Settings is a single window with four tabs:

Settings changes save automatically; there is no Apply button. Close Settings when you are done.

11. Where your preferences and history are stored

ZenTLD stores its preferences in UserDefaults under the bundle identifier com.varyence.ZenTLD. On macOS that maps to:

~/Library/Preferences/com.varyence.ZenTLD.plist

You can inspect, edit, or reset preferences with the defaults command. For example:

Search history is kept in a small local database inside the app's container directory. To clear the history, use the Clear all history button in the sidebar of the app; that is the supported way and it asks you to confirm.

The plist contains no secrets, no authentication tokens, and no personally identifying information. Your TLD list, your Claude binary path, your gong preference, and your onboarding state are the only stored values.

12. Tips and shortcuts

13. Troubleshooting

Claude not found

In Settings, on the Claude tab, click Detect. If you see "Not found in PATH or common locations," you do not have Claude Code installed, or it is installed in an unusual location. Install it from docs.claude.com, or paste the full path to your claude binary into the field manually. Common locations are /opt/homebrew/bin/claude (Apple silicon Homebrew), /usr/local/bin/claude (Intel Homebrew), and ~/.claude/local/claude.

A result row shows Unresolvable

The lookup failed. Common causes: a momentary registry hiccup, no internet connection, or a TLD that has no responding lookup service. Try again in a few seconds. If it persists for one TLD specifically, that TLD may not be supported by the registry's lookup service today. Remove or pause the TLD in Settings.

Available and then Taken on a re-check

This can happen for two reasons. First, registries have caching: an available answer can change within seconds when someone else registers the same name. Second, ZenTLD always re-checks live; it does not cache results. If you see this with no obvious reason, it is most often a slow registry update on the previous query. Run the check one more time and trust the third result.

Gong does not play

Make sure the gong is enabled in Settings → Sound, and that macOS audio is not muted. The Test button on the Sound tab plays the sound on demand, which is a quick way to confirm both the toggle and your output device.

ZenTLD icon disappeared from the menu bar

If your menu bar is crowded, macOS sometimes hides items behind the notch on newer MacBooks. Move the ZenTLD icon with Command-click-drag to the left to reveal it. If ZenTLD is not running at all, launch it from Applications.

Launch at login does not stick

macOS may show an approval prompt the first time you toggle Launch at login on, or you may need to enable ZenTLD under System Settings → General → Login Items. Both surfaces stay in sync after that.

Permission prompts I did not expect

ZenTLD does not request Bluetooth, Location, Camera, Microphone, Accessibility, or Full Disk Access. The only permission macOS may surface is for Launch at login. If you see other prompts citing ZenTLD, quit and re-verify your download against the SHA-256 published on security.html.

14. Reporting bugs or feature requests

Email help@zentld.com with a clear description and (ideally) a screenshot. Security issues should go to security@zentld.com; see security.html for the responsible disclosure policy.