internet-archive-mcp-server

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Overview

The Wayback Machine and Internet Archive library (40M+ items). Find and fetch archived snapshots of any URL, search the library by keyword and metadata, and retrieve item metadata, file manifests, and OCR text.

Tools

Tool	Description
ia_find_snapshots	Find Wayback Machine snapshots of a URL, by closest timestamp or full capture history
ia_get_snapshot	Fetch archived page content at a specific Wayback timestamp
ia_search_items	Search the IA library (40M+ items) by keyword and metadata filters
ia_get_item	Retrieve full metadata and file manifest for an Archive item
ia_get_text	Retrieve readable OCR text from a text item, with paging

Resources

Resource	Description
ia://item/{identifier}	Metadata snapshot for an Archive item — title, creator, mediatype, description, subjects, collections, date, license, and file count

All resource data is also reachable via ia_get_item.

Capability reference

ia_find_snapshots _tool

• closest mode: returns the nearest capture to a given timestamp via the Availability API, falling back to one CDX closest-capture query (preferring a 200 capture, 25 s deadline) when the Availability API has no answer
• history mode: full capture list via the CDX API; filter by date range (from/to) and HTTP status (status_filter)
• For an exact URL with timestamp:N collapse, pass the returned resume_key with the same URL to continue without skipping the page boundary. The cursor expires after one hour and retains the original filters; limit may change between pages. An invalid cursor returns invalid_resume_key; conflicting explicit filters return resume_key_conflict. Legacy CDX keys and wildcard histories remain available with a notice that pages may omit captures
• collapse is timestamp:8 (one capture per day) when omitted or blank; adjustable to timestamp:N, N=1–14, with timestamp:14 listing one row per distinct capture second
• Up to 10,000 records per call (limit, default 100); a larger limit (up to 150,000) is served as 10,000, setting truncated and a notice naming resume_key when captures remain; resume_key pagination for large histories
• Replay URLs are always https://web.archive.org/web/…
• Typed errors: missing_timestamp (closest mode without a timestamp, answered before any lookup), no_snapshots (no matches), no_snapshot_available (closest mode, no capture near timestamp from either source; or, in either mode, the Wayback Machine does not serve the URL — a 403, 410, or 451, as for a site excluded from it), cdx_unavailable (CDX 5xx, 429, another 4xx, timeout, network error, or unreadable response, or the closest-mode CDX check did not complete), availability_unavailable (closest mode, Availability API 5xx, 429, another 4xx, timeout, network error, or unreadable response); a 429, another 4xx, or a request timeout is answered after one request, a 429 with a hint to wait and a 4xx with a hint that repeating the request will not help

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ia_get_snapshot _tool

• Resolves to the nearest available capture when the exact timestamp has no snapshot; exact 14-digit timestamps skip resolution
• Reports the capture Wayback served — replay_url, resolved_timestamp, and resolved_status follow Wayback's redirect when the requested timestamp is not itself a capture
• Decodes the page with its declared charset (Content-Type, then <meta>, else UTF-8 when the bytes are valid UTF-8, else Wayback's guessed charset or windows-1252), then removes scripts, styles, comments, and tags and decodes character references, returning readable plain text alongside the replay URL
• Reads at most the first 4 MiB of a page (a notice says when a page is longer); output capped at IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS (default 50,000 characters)
• Typed errors: no_snapshot_available (no capture near the timestamp, the capture is an archived error page — the message names its timestamp and archived status — or Wayback refused the replay with a 4xx, or the lookup with a 403, 410, or 451, as it does for a site excluded from the Wayback Machine), content_fetch_failed (Wayback unreachable, rate-limiting, refusing the lookup, or timed out during lookup or fetch)

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ia_search_items _tool

• Solr query syntax plus structured filters: mediatype, collection, creator, language, and date range (date_from/date_to)
• Date bounds accept YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD: date_from uses the period's first day and date_to its last day, including leap years. Blank bounds leave that side open; invalid dates return invalid_date_range before a search request
• mediatype takes the ten Internet Archive media types — texts, movies, audio, software, image, data, web, collection, etree, account — case-insensitively, and resolves common near-misses (text, book, books → texts; movie, video, videos → movies; images → image; collections → collection)
• Sort by downloads, date, title, or random (sort, Solr syntax such as date asc or titleSorter asc; default downloads desc; Advanced Search has no relevance sort). Ties under the sort are ordered by identifier, so consecutive pages neither repeat nor skip an item
• query is at most 2,047 characters, the longest Advanced Search accepts; the filters count toward it, and a URL in the query must be quoted
• Up to 200 results per call (rows, default 50), 1-indexed page; on page 1 a larger rows (up to 10,000) is served as 200, setting truncated and a notice naming rows: 200, page: 2 when more results remain
• Advanced Search serves only the first 10,000 results, so page × rows ≤ 10,000
• Output carries total_found, page, and the rows applied for pagination; an empty page returns a notice rather than an error — naming the mediatype applied when nothing matched, or the last page when page is past the end
• title, date, creator, and collection may be a string or a list; collection leaves out per-account fav- favorites lists, and creator lists the first 10 names, with creator_count when a record has more
• Typed errors answered before any search request: invalid_date_range (an invalid date bound), invalid_mediatype (any other mediatype, listing the accepted values), rows_over_cap (rows above 200 past page 1), and page_limit_exceeded (page × rows past 10,000, naming the last reachable page)
• Typed errors from Advanced Search: invalid_query (it rejected the query syntax, an unquoted URL, a query its filters take past 2,047 characters, or the sort field; its message is relayed) and search_unavailable (it failed, rate-limited the request, sent an unreadable response, timed out, or could not be reached); a 5xx or network error is retried, while a 429, another 4xx, a timeout, or an error body is answered after one request, a 4xx with a hint that repeating the request will not help

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ia_get_item _tool

• Returns title, creator, description, subject, collection, licenseurl, rights, and language when present in upstream metadata; creator, description, subject, collection, and language may be a string or a list
• files[] is one page of the manifest in upstream order — format, size, md5, and a direct download_url per file; file_count is always the full manifest size
• max_files (default 50, at most 500 per call) and file_offset (default 0) page through large items; a larger max_files (up to 300,000) is served as 500. When files remain, the response sets truncated and names the next file_offset
• format keeps one file type (exact match, case-insensitive — e.g. DjVuTXT, Text PDF, VBR MP3) before paging and reports the match count as totalCount; a format with no matches returns an empty page and a notice listing the formats the item has
• Typed errors: item_not_found (unknown or dark identifiers), archive_unavailable (the Metadata API failed, rate-limited or refused the request, timed out, could not be reached, or sent an unreadable response); a first timeout is retried once, so a call waits at most two request timeouts

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ia_get_text _tool

• max_chars and char_offset page through long documents; has_more signals additional text remains. max_chars defaults to and is capped at IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS — a larger value is served at that maximum, with a notice, and the output max_chars reports the value applied
• For sequential pages, pass next_continuation back as continuation with the same identifier, omitting char_offset. The cursor expires after one hour, binds the page to the selected text file, and resumes from its byte checkpoint. If a stable file validator or cursor storage is unavailable, the response gives an offset continuation notice
• Continuation errors: ambiguous_pagination when both token and offset are supplied, invalid_continuation for an invalid or changed-file cursor, and range_unavailable when the download cannot resume at the saved range. Recovery names the char_offset to use
• The upstream read stops at the page's end, so memory per call is bounded by the page size
• Locates the best available text file — DjVuTXT preferred, falls back to plain text; source_file names the file fetched and source_file_bytes its size in bytes, from the item manifest
• Typed errors: item_not_found, no_text_file, download_forbidden (restricted collections), archive_unavailable (the Metadata API or the text download failed, rate-limited or refused the request, timed out, or could not be reached); the metadata request and the download each retry a first timeout once and stop at a second

---

ia://item/{identifier} _resource

• Returns application/json — title, creator, mediatype, description, subject, collection, date, licenseurl, rights, language, and file_count
• identifier comes from ia_search_items results
• Typed errors: item_not_found for unknown identifiers, archive_unavailable when the Metadata API fails

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

Internet Archive-specific:

• No credentials required — all four APIs are public
• Three service layers: WaybackService (Availability + CDX), ArchiveSearchService (Solr), ArchiveMetadataService (Metadata + downloads)
• CDX collapse-by-day default and configurable limit keep responses tractable for high-capture URLs
• Identifies via a custom User-Agent on every request as required by IA's terms of use; configurable via IA_USER_AGENT

Agent-friendly output:

• Pagination context on every list response — total_found, page, rows (search), resume_key (CDX history), and file_count plus the next file_offset (item files) so agents never have to guess whether results are complete
• Typed error reasons with recovery hints so callers can retry, correct a filter, or recover an expired continuation without parsing error messages
• Structured file manifests — ia_get_item returns file-level metadata (format, size, URL) and a format filter, so agents can pick the right file without paging through thumbnails

Getting started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. It serves Streamable HTTP; each client takes its own configuration shape.

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http internet-archive-mcp-server https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp

For Cline (cline_mcp_settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For Cursor (mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "url": "https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop adds remote servers under Settings → Connectors.

Self-Hosted / Local

No API key required — the Internet Archive's APIs are fully public.

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
• No external accounts or API keys required.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd internet-archive-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# Optional: edit .env for custom User-Agent, timeouts, etc.

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts.

Variable	Description	Default
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	HTTP server port	3010
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (debug, info, notice, warning, error)	info
LOGS_DIR	Directory for log files (Node.js only)	<project-root>/logs
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE	Storage backend	in-memory
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation	false
IA_USER_AGENT	Custom User-Agent for IA API requests	internet-archive-mcp-server/{version} (github.com/cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server)
IA_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS	HTTP request timeout in milliseconds, headers and body. A positive integer — anything else fails startup	30000
IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS	Default and maximum characters per ia_get_text page (a larger max_chars is served at it); also caps ia_get_snapshot text. A positive integer — anything else fails startup	50000

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http
  

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec
  

Docker

docker build -t internet-archive-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 internet-archive-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/internet-archive-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Directory	Purpose
src/index.ts	createApp() entry point — registers tools, resource, and inits services.
src/config	Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
src/mcp-server/tools	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Five tools across Wayback and IA library.
src/mcp-server/resources	Resource definitions. ia://item/{identifier} item metadata resource.
src/services/wayback	WaybackService — Availability API + CDX API client, plus archived-page charset decoding and text extraction.
src/services/archive-search	ArchiveSearchService — Solr Advanced Search client.
src/services/archive-metadata	ArchiveMetadataService — Metadata API + file download client.
tests/	Unit and integration tests mirroring src/.

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.