# Forward Resolution

Forward Resolution is the process of taking a .avax name and using it to retrieve a value, such as an 0x address for EVM chains. An important property of forward resolution is that many .avax names can resolve to the same value.

# How does forward resolution work?

Forward Resolution includes the use of two contracts:

The ResolverRegistry tracks which Resolver should be used to resolve values for a given name. Users can define custom Resolvers or use pre-built ones.
The Resolver responds to the actual query for the value.

Step 1. Find the address of the Resolver contract

To find the address of a Resolver contract for a name, we hash the name then call the get(uint256 name, uint256 hash) method on the ResolverRegistry.

It is possible that there is no entry for the name in the ResolverRegistry. If the name has two or less labels (e.g. myname.avax has two labels), forward resolution fails. If the name has three or more labels, the lowest tier label should be removed & the process should be repeated (e.g. for subdomain.domain.avax, we should repeat the process with domain.avax).

Step 2. Query the Resolver contract

If we have found an address for a Resolver contract, we can resolve a value as follows:

For custom records, call resolve(uint256 datasetId, uint256 hash, string memory key)
For standard records, call resolveStandard(uint256 datasetId, uint256 hash, uint256 key)

We recommend using our Client Libraries to perform forward resolution.

# Security Notes

There is absolutely no sanitization or authentication performed on the values set for forward resolution. Registrants of a .avax name have full control to set values; client applications of all kinds should treat these values as untrusted.