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Internet Archive MCP Server

answering

Internet Archive MCP Server is answering right now. Last checked 3 min ago. 222 installs a week from npm. It exposes 5 tools. Last commit 28 Oct 2026.

Search the Wayback Machine and IA library (40M+ items), fetch snapshots, item metadata, and text.

Installs per day peak 307 · avg 57 · -72% w/w
a month agotoday
Uptime history 27 days of history · worst day 98%
27 days agonow
100.0%
Uptime 24h
92 of 92 checks
5
Tools
read from the server
561 ms
Response time
average over 24h
222
Installs / week
npm and PyPI

What changed 6

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 24 October 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

28 Oct a tool changed version
24 Oct 3 tools changed the parameters they ask for ia_find_snapshots, ia_get_text, ia_search_items
24 Oct a tool description was rewritten ia_get_text
24 Oct a tool changed version

Internet Archive MCP Server missed one check this week

Everything else answered, so this is steady rather than shaky. We check every 15 minutes, which is how a one-off gets told apart from the start of a pattern, and how you hear about the next one within the hour instead of from your users.

Three servers free · no card

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 3 min ago.

run in your terminal
claude mcp add internet-archive-mcp-server --transport http https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp
~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.internet-archive-mcp-server]
url = "https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "url": "https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 5

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

item
ia_get_item
Retrieve metadata and the file manifest for an Internet Archive item by identifier. Returns title, creator, description, subjects, collections, license, language, the total file count, and a page of files, each with its format, size, and direct download URL. Pages hold up to max_files files (default 50, at most 500 per call) starting at file_offset; set format to keep a single file type (e.g. "DjVuTXT", "Text PDF", "VBR MP3"). The primary tool to act on a search result from ia_search_items. Use ia_get_text to retrieve the readable text of a text item.
items
ia_search_items
Search the Internet Archive library (40M+ items) using the Advanced Search (Solr) API. Filter by media type (texts, audio, movies, software, image, etc.), collection, creator, date range, and language. Sort by downloads (the default), date, title, or random. Supports pagination via page/rows. Returns identifiers, titles, creators (the first 10, with creator_count when a record lists more), media types, dates, download counts, collections (without fav- favorites lists), total_found, and current page/rows for pagination context. Use ia_get_item with a returned identifier to get full metadata and file manifests.
snapshot
ia_get_snapshot
Fetch the archived content of a URL at a specific Wayback Machine timestamp. Resolves to the nearest available capture when the exact timestamp has no snapshot. Returns the archived page as readable plain text (HTML stripped) and the replay URL of the capture Wayback served, for browser access. Use ia_find_snapshots first to discover valid timestamps for a URL.
snapshots
ia_find_snapshots
Find Wayback Machine snapshots of a URL. Mode "closest" returns the single nearest capture to a given timestamp via the Availability API, falling back to a CDX closest-capture query when the Availability API has no answer (one result). Mode "history" returns the full capture list via the CDX API — filterable by date range and HTTP status code, collapsed by default to one capture per day (collapse "timestamp:8"); collapse "timestamp:14" lists one row per distinct capture second. Use history mode to survey how a page changed over time; use closest mode when you need the snapshot nearest a specific date. History mode returns up to limit records (at most 10,000 per call) and supports resume-key pagination for URLs with very large capture histories.
text
ia_get_text
Retrieve readable OCR DjVuTXT or plain text from an Internet Archive item, including public-domain books, documents, scanned periodicals, and transcripts. Set max_chars for page size, then pass next_continuation as continuation with the same identifier and omit char_offset. Direct char_offset access remains available. To confirm a text file exists, call ia_get_item with format "DjVuTXT".

Endpoints

URLTransportStateLatencyChecked
https://internet-archive.caseyjhand.com/mcp streamable-http answering 631 ms 3 min ago

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Internet Archive MCP Server — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Internet Archive MCP Server do?
It exposes 5 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: ia_find_snapshots, ia_get_item, ia_get_snapshot, ia_get_text, ia_search_items. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
Is Internet Archive MCP Server working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 92 of 92 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 561 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
How do I connect Internet Archive MCP Server?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.
Does Internet Archive MCP Server need an API key?
No. Internet Archive MCP Server completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 5 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.
How fast is Internet Archive MCP Server?
It answers our handshake in 561 ms on average, which is faster than 20% of all working MCP servers we measure. That is on the slow side — worth knowing if the tool sits inside an interactive loop. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.
How many people use Internet Archive MCP Server?
The npm package @cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server was installed 222 times in the last week. Week over week that is -72%. We show installs rather than GitHub stars on purpose: a star is a bookmark, an install is someone actually running it.
Is Internet Archive MCP Server open source?
The code is open source: it is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, written in TypeScript, 4 stars on GitHub and 11 open issues. The licence covers the code in the repository, not the hosted service at internet-archive.caseyjhand.com, which runs on its operator's own terms.