internet-archive-mcp-server

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  <h1>@cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server</h1>
  <p><b>Search the Wayback Machine and IA library (40M+ items), fetch archived snapshots, retrieve item metadata and full text via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.</b>
  <div>5 Tools • 1 Resource</div>
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**Public Hosted Server:** [https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp](https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp)

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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 from any MCP client. Runs as a stdio process, a local Streamable HTTP server, or the public hosted endpoint above.

### 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` <sub>tool</sub>

- `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`)
- `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

---

### `ia_get_snapshot` <sub>tool</sub>

- 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)

---

### `ia_search_items` <sub>tool</sub>

- Solr query syntax plus structured filters: `mediatype`, `collection`, `creator`, `language`, and date range (`date_from`/`date_to`)
- `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_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

---

### `ia_get_item` <sub>tool</sub>

- 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, coul