io.github.cyanheads/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 from any MCP client. Runs as a stdio process or a local Streamable HTTP server.

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: single lookup via the Availability API, returns the nearest capture to a given timestamp
• history mode: full capture list via the CDX API; filter by date range (from/to), HTTP status (status_filter), and MIME type
• Default collapse of timestamp:8 (one capture per day); adjustable to timestamp:N, N=1–14
• Up to 10,000 records per call (limit, default 100); resume_key pagination for large histories
• Typed errors: no_snapshots (no matches), no_snapshot_available (closest mode, no capture near timestamp), cdx_unavailable

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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 and assume status 200
• Strips scripts, styles, and nav from the archived HTML, returning readable plain text alongside the canonical replay URL
• Output capped at IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS (default 50,000 characters)
• Typed errors: no_snapshot_available, content_fetch_failed

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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)
• Sort by relevance, date, or downloads (sort, Solr syntax; default downloads desc)
• Up to 200 results per page (rows, default 50), 1-indexed page
• Output carries total_found, page, rows for pagination; empty results return a notice with guidance rather than an error

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ia_get_item _tool

• Returns title, creator, description, subject, collection, licenseurl, rights, and language when present in upstream metadata
• files[] includes every manifest file — format, size, md5, and a direct download_url
• Typed error item_not_found for unknown identifiers

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ia_get_text _tool

• max_chars (defaults to IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS) and char_offset page through long documents; has_more signals additional text remains
• Locates the best available text file — DjVuTXT preferred, falls back to plain text; source_file names the file fetched
• Typed errors: item_not_found, no_text_file, download_forbidden (restricted collections)

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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 error item_not_found for unknown identifiers

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) and resume_key (CDX history) so agents never have to guess whether results are complete
• Typed error reasons (no_snapshots, no_snapshot_available, item_not_found, no_text_file, download_forbidden) with recovery hints so callers can retry or explain to users without parsing text
• Structured file manifests — every ia_get_item response includes file-level metadata (format, size, URL) enabling agents to select the right file without a follow-up call

Getting started

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	30000
IA_MAX_SNAPSHOT_CHARS	Default character cap for ia_get_text responses	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.
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.