- name
- adguard
- description
- Control AdGuard Home DNS filtering via HTTP API. Use when managing blocklists/allowlists, checking domain filtering status, toggling protection, or clearing DNS cache. Supports blocking/allowing domains, viewing statistics, and protecting/disabling DNS filtering.
AdGuard Home Controller
Manage AdGuard Home DNS filtering from the command line via the REST API.
Requirements
- AdGuard Home running with web interface
- Admin username and password
curlinstalled (usually default on macOS/Linux)
Quick Start
# Set password once
export ADGUARD_PASSWORD=your_admin_password
# Use commands
./adguard.sh status
./adguard.sh check example.com
./adguard.sh allow broken-site.com
./adguard.sh block malware.ruConfiguration
Set environment variables for your AdGuard instance:
export ADGUARD_URL="http://192.168.1.100:3000" # Your AdGuard IP and port
export ADGUARD_USERNAME="admin" # Usually 'admin' (default)
export ADGUARD_PASSWORD="your_admin_password" # REQUIREDAdd to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for persistence.
Config File Alternative
Create ~/.adguard/config.json (optional):
{
"url": "http://192.168.1.100:3000",
"username": "admin"
}Then set ADGUARD_PASSWORD separately for security.
Commands
check <domain>
Check if a domain is currently blocked or allowed.
./adguard.sh check doubleclick.net
# ✗ doubleclick.net IS BLOCKED
# Blocked by: Adblock Plus filter
./adguard.sh check example.com
# ✓ example.com is NOT blocked (allowed)allow <domain> | whitelist <domain>
Add a domain to the allowlist (whitelist). Creates an exception rule that overrides blocklists.
./adguard.sh allow broken-site.com
# ✓ Added rule: @@||broken-site.com^
# Domain: broken-site.com
# Action: allowblock <domain> | blacklist <domain>
Add a domain to the blocklist. Creates a custom blocking rule.
./adguard.sh block spyware-domain.ru
# ✓ Added rule: ||spyware-domain.ru^
# Domain: spyware-domain.ru
# Action: blockstatus | stats
Display DNS filtering statistics and protection state.
./adguard.sh status
# ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
# AdGuard Home Status
# ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
# Protection: ✓ ENABLED
#
# DNS Queries: 1,234
# Blocked by rules: 156
# Blocked by safe browsing: 23
# Safe search replacements: 5
# Block rate: 14%
# ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━toggle | protection
Enable or disable DNS protection. Useful for temporarily disabling filtering.
./adguard.sh toggle
# Disabling protection...
# ✓ Protection is now falsecache-clear
Clear the DNS cache to apply rule changes immediately.
./adguard.sh cache-clear
# Clearing DNS cache...
# ✓ Cache clearedFinding Your AdGuard Home Device
If you don't know your AdGuard URL:
- Router admin panel — Look for a device named "AdGuard Home" or check for port 3000
- Local network scan — Use
nmapor check "Connected Devices" - If running on same machine — Default is
http://localhost:3000 - mDNS/Bonjour — Try
http://adguard-home.local:3000(depends on network)
Filtering Rules Syntax
AdGuard uses a DNS filtering rule syntax:
| Rule | Effect | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| `\ | \ | example.com^` | Block example.com and subdomains |
| `@@\ | \ | example.com^` | Allow example.com (exception/whitelist) |
example.com | Block exact domain only | ||
| `\ | \ | ad.example.com^` | Block only ad.example.com |
See API Reference for complete syntax.
Common Scenarios
Allow a site that's blocked by accident
adguard.sh allow my-bank.comBlock a known malware domain
adguard.sh block malicious-tracker.xyzCheck if a domain is being filtered
adguard.sh check ads.google.comView today's statistics
adguard.sh statusTemporarily disable filtering (e.g., for troubleshooting)
adguard.sh toggleTroubleshooting
Error: Failed to authenticate → Check ADGUARD_PASSWORD is correct and set → Verify ADGUARD_URL points to the right IP and port
Error: API call failed (HTTP 401) → Authentication failed, check credentials
Rules don't take effect → Run adguard.sh cache-clear to flush DNS cache → Wait 5+ minutes for clients to refresh their cache → Restart your device's network connection
Can't connect to AdGuard → Verify device is on the same network → Check firewall isn't blocking port 3000 → Ping the device: ping <ip>
Advanced: Batch Operations
Block multiple domains:
for domain in tracker1.com tracker2.com tracker3.com; do
adguard.sh block "$domain"
doneCheck multiple domains:
for domain in example.com test.org my-site.net; do
echo "Checking $domain..."
adguard.sh check "$domain"
doneAPI Reference
See references/api.md for complete AdGuard Home API documentation.