Wayback Machine

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

• Wayback Availability API: keyless
• Wayback CDX Server: keyless
• Common Crawl index: keyless

Optional

• Health: liveness JSON
• Owner: ux-xd

Tools

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:

{

"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "type": "object", "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "minLength": 4, "maxLength": 2000, "description": "The live URL (scheme optional)." }, "timestamp": { "description": "Preferred capture time, 4–14 digits: YYYY, YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDDhhmmss. Closest capture wins; omit for the latest.", "type": "string", "pattern": "^\\d{4,14}$" }, "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:

{

"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:

{

"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "type": "object", "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "minLength": 3, "maxLength": 2000, "description": "URL or domain to query, e.g. \"example.com/blog/\" for prefix work or \"example.com\" with match_type \"domain\"." }, "match_type": { "default": "exact", "description": "How url matches captures. Default exact.", "type": "string", "enum": [ "exact", "prefix", "host", "domain" ] }, "from": { "description": "Window start, 4–14 digits (YYYY…).", "type": "string", "pattern": "^\\d{4,14}$" }, "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:

{

"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

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

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json)

{

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

VS Code / Copilot (user mcp.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:

[mcp_servers.wayback-machine]

url = "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"

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

[mcp_servers.wayback-machine]

url = "https://waybackmcp.com/mcp"

Gemini CLI

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)

{

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

Cline

{

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

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

name: wayback-machine

mcpServers:

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

Zed (settings.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

{

"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

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.