wayback-machine-mcp

Wayback Machine for agents: closest archived copy of a URL with its text, and full capture history

0 stars TypeScriptOthers Updated Sep 3, 2026

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Documentation

Wayback Machine

> Wayback Machine for agents: closest archived copy of a URL with its text, and full capture history Remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP at `https://waybackmcp.com/mcp`. Free, no API key. Tools: `archived_copy`, `capture_history`. The tool list is fixed per version.

Wayback Machine MCP wraps the Internet Archive's keyless APIs so an agent can recover a page that is gone, changed, or walled: `archived_copy` returns the closest snapshot to a date with the page text extracted, and `capture_history` lists every capture of a URL, prefix, host or domain with CDX filters (status, mime, collapse, date window, newest-first, resume-key paging). Falls back to the Common Crawl index when the Wayback Machine has nothing. Free, no API key, no account.

Use when: A page 404s, moved, was edited, or is behind a wall and you need what it said at a point in time; or you need every capture of a site or path (site archaeology: what a site ever had, when a page changed).

Not for: Fetching live pages (use a fetch tool), full-site mirroring, or bypassing paywalls on current content.

Quick install (Claude Code): `claude mcp add --transport http wayback-machine https://waybackmcp.com/mcp -s user`

Live server: https://waybackmcp.com

Docs

Full reference: every tool with its JSON input schema and an example
Install for any client: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Codex, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, Continue, Zed
OpenAPI twin: the same tools as plain HTTP POST endpoints
Registry server.json: machine-readable server record
Server card: transport + tool card (also at https://waybackmcp.com/.well-known/mcp.json, SEP-1960)
ARD manifest: Agentic Resource Discovery entry (also at https://waybackmcp.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json)

Upstreams

Optional

Health: liveness JSON
Owner: ux-xd

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Effects
`archived_copy`	Closest archived copy of a URL from the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive), nearest to a date if given. Returns the snapshot URL, its exact timestamp, the raw-bytes URL, and optionally the page text (HTML stripped, capped at 30k chars). Falls back to the Common Crawl index when the Wayback Machine has no capture. Use when a page is dead, changed, or walled and you need what it said.	read-only, open-world, idempotent
`capture_history`	Every capture the Wayback Machine holds for a URL, URL prefix, host or whole domain (CDX index). Filter by status code or MIME type, keep one capture per period (collapse), restrict a date window, and page with a resume key. Use for site archaeology: what a site ever had, when a page changed, every URL under a path.	read-only, open-world, idempotent

Every tool takes `task_context`: one sentence on what the user is trying to do. It is required.

`archived_copy`

Closest archived copy of a URL from the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive), nearest to a date if given. Returns the snapshot URL, its exact timestamp, the raw-bytes URL, and optionally the page text (HTML stripped, capped at 30k chars). Falls back to the Common Crawl index when the Wayback Machine has no capture. Use when a page is dead, changed, or walled and you need what it said.

Input schema:

json

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 4,
      "maxLength": 2000,
      "description": "The live URL (scheme optional)."
    },
    "timestamp": {
      "description": "Preferred capture time, 4–14 digits: YYYY, YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDDhhmmss. Closest capture wins; omit for the latest.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{4,14}$"
    },
    "fetch_text": {
      "default": true,
      "description": "Also fetch the snapshot and return its visible text (default true).",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "task_context": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 500,
      "description": "One sentence on what the user is ultimately trying to do (the task this call serves). Required; it tunes the result and is how this free service learns what agents need."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "url",
    "fetch_text",
    "task_context"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

Example arguments:

json

{
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "timestamp": "2020",
  "task_context": "example: Closest archived copy of a URL from the Wayback Machine (Int"
}

`capture_history`

Every capture the Wayback Machine holds for a URL, URL prefix, host or whole domain (CDX index). Filter by status code or MIME type, keep one capture per period (collapse), restrict a date window, and page with a resume key. Use for site archaeology: what a site ever had, when a page changed, every URL under a path.

Input schema:

json

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 3,
      "maxLength": 2000,
      "description": "URL or domain to query, e.g. \"example.com/blog/\" for prefix work or \"example.com\" with match_type \"domain\"."
    },
    "match_type": {
      "default": "exact",
      "description": "How url matches captures. Default exact.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "exact",
        "prefix",
        "host",
        "domain"
      ]
    },
    "from": {
      "description": "Window start, 4–14 digits (YYYY…).",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{4,14}$"
    },
    "to": {
      "description": "Window end, same format.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{4,14}$"
    },
    "filter": {
      "description": "CDX field:regex filters, e.g. [\"statuscode:200\", \"!mimetype:warc/revisit\"]. Prefix with ! to negate.",
      "maxItems": 4,
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "collapse": {
      "description": "Dedupe key: \"urlkey\" (one row per URL), or \"timestamp:6\" for one capture per month, \"timestamp:4\" per year.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "limit": {
      "default": 50,
      "description": "Rows to return (default 50, max 1000), oldest first unless latest_first.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 1000
    },
    "resume_key": {
      "description": "Continue a previous page: the resume_key that call returned.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "latest_first": {
      "default": false,
      "description": "Return the NEWEST captures instead of the oldest (CDX negative limit). Cannot be combined with resume_key.",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "task_context": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 500,
      "description": "One sentence on what the user is ultimately trying to do (the task this call serves). Required; it tunes the result and is how this free service learns what agents need."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "url",
    "match_type",
    "limit",
    "latest_first",
    "task_context"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

Example arguments:

json

{
  "url": "example.com",
  "match_type": "domain",
  "filter": [
    "statuscode:200"
  ],
  "collapse": "timestamp:6",
  "limit": 20,
  "task_context": "example: Every capture the Wayback Machine holds for a URL, URL prefi"
}

Install

Endpoint: `https://waybackmcp.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP, MCP 2026-07-28 with 2025-era fallback). Authentication: none.

Claude Code

code

claude mcp add --transport http wayback-machine https://waybackmcp.com/mcp -s user

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json)

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "url": "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Copilot (user mcp.json)

json

{
  "servers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

or `code --add-mcp '{"name":"wayback-machine","type":"http","url":"https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"}'`

Claude Desktop / claude.ai

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → URL `https://waybackmcp.com/mcp`, Authentication: None.

ChatGPT

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → `https://waybackmcp.com/mcp`. Desktop app / Codex share `~/.codex/config.toml`:

toml

[mcp_servers.wayback-machine]
url = "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"

Codex CLI (~/.codex/config.toml)

toml

[mcp_servers.wayback-machine]
url = "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"

Gemini CLI

code

gemini mcp add --transport http wayback-machine https://waybackmcp.com/mcp -s user

(settings.json uses `httpUrl`, not `url`.)

Windsurf (~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json)

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "serverUrl": "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Cline

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Continue (.continue/mcpServers/wayback-machine.yaml)

yaml

name: wayback-machine
mcpServers:
  - name: wayback-machine
    type: streamable-http
    url: https://waybackmcp.com/mcp

Zed (settings.json)

json

{
  "context_servers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "source": "custom",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Any MCP client

Streamable HTTP endpoint: `https://waybackmcp.com/mcp`

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wayback-machine": {
      "url": "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

This page documents a server. It does not ask the reader to change any rules file, memory file, or host configuration.

Run it yourself

code

npm install && npm start            # http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp
docker compose up -d --build        # same, in a container
node scripts/smoke.mjs http://127.0.0.1:8080 archived_copy '{}'

Built with the MCP server kit (`kit/`): Streamable HTTP MCP plus agent-readable docs (llms.txt, server.json, install pages, a REST twin), all from one manifest (`servers/wayback-machine/mcp.factory.json`). This repo is the server logic only; no telemetry is collected or sent by this code. MIT.

Frequently asked questions

What is wayback-machine-mcp?

wayback-machine-mcp is Wayback Machine for agents: closest archived copy of a URL with its text, and full capture history

How do I install wayback-machine-mcp?

Open the GitHub repository and follow its README. Most MCP servers are added to your client's MCP config, then called by your agent.

Is wayback-machine-mcp open source?

Yes — it is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/ux-xd/wayback-machine-mcp.

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