pp-archive-is

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Translated

Use this skill whenever the user wants to archive a URL, bypass a paywall, look up an existing archive, view a cached version of a webpage, pull article text from archive.today or the Wayback Machine, or batch-archive a list of URLs. archive.today + Wayback Machine CLI with lookup-before-submit, automatic fallback when one backend is down, and agent-friendly output. No API key required. Triggers on phrasings like 'archive this article', 'bypass the paywall on this link', 'grab the cached text', 'save this url to archive.today', 'check if this was already archived', 'bulk archive these 20 URLs'.

8installs
Sourcemvanhorn/printing-press-library
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add mvanhorn/printing-press-library pp-archive-is

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
archive-toolwayback-machinecli-utilityurl-archivingpaywall-bypass

SKILL.md Content

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archive.today — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the 
archive-is-pp-cli
binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:
  1. Install via the Printing Press installer:
    bash
    npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install archive-is --cli-only
  2. Verify: 
    archive-is-pp-cli --version
  3. Ensure 
    $GOPATH/bin
    (or 
    $HOME/go/bin
    ) is on 
    $PATH
    .
If the 
npx
install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.23+):
bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/archive-is/cmd/archive-is-pp-cli@latest
If 
--version
reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on 
$PATH
. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this whenever a user wants to archive a URL, read a paywalled article, check whether something was previously archived, or batch-capture a list of URLs for research. Specifically good when:
  • A user sends a paywalled link and asks "can you read this" → 
    read
    fetches text via archive
  • They want to preserve a URL that might change → 
    save
    forces a fresh capture
  • They want historical versions → 
    history
    lists all known snapshots
  • They have 20+ URLs to archive → 
    bulk
    runs rate-limited batch archival
Don't reach for this if the URL is trivially scrapeable without archive services (no paywall, robots-allowed, direct HTTP works), or if the user wants the original source rather than a cached version.

Unique Capabilities

The whole CLI is unique — archive.today has no official API. But within this CLI, certain commands are the differentiators.

The hero commands

  • read <url>
     — Find or create an archive for a URL. Looks up existing snapshots first (Memento timegate → CDX fallback); submits a fresh capture only if nothing exists. The "always do the right thing" command.
    This is how 90% of agent calls should start. It's idempotent — calling it twice on the same URL doesn't double-submit.
  • get <url> [--format text|html]
    / 
    tldr <url>
     — Fetch article text, optionally LLM-summarized. Automatic Wayback fallback when archive.today serves a CAPTCHA (which happens daily to cloud IPs).
    tldr
    pipes the fetched text through a summarization step — useful for agent chains where you want a short take without shipping 20KB of HTML back.

Durability operations

  • save <url>
     — Force a fresh capture via 
    /submit/?url=<x>&anyway=1
    . Use when 
    read
    returns an existing snapshot that's too old or missing a paywall update.
  • history <url>
     — List all known snapshots via Memento timemap parsing. Shows every capture date across both archive.today and Wayback.
  • bulk [file]
     — Rate-limited batch archiving from a file or stdin. Reads URLs one per line, submits each with backoff, returns a report of successes / failures / pre-existing.
    grep -oE 'https?://[^ )]+' notes.md | archive-is-pp-cli bulk -
    archives every URL in a markdown file.
  • request <url>
     — Fire-and-forget submit with optional wait+poll. Useful for long captures where you want to come back later.

Observability

  • snapshots newest <url>
     — Just the newest snapshot URL for a target, useful in scripts.
  • captures
     — List your local capture index (post-sync).
  • feeds
     — archive.today's global recent-archives feed.
  • --backend archive-is,wayback
     — Every read/get accepts a backend preference. Defaults to archive-is with Wayback fallback; flip the order for Wayback-primary.

Command Reference

Archive + retrieve:
  • archive-is-pp-cli read <url>
    — Find or create (hero command)
  • archive-is-pp-cli get <url>
    — Fetch article text (with Wayback fallback)
  • archive-is-pp-cli tldr <url>
    — Fetch + summarize
  • archive-is-pp-cli save <url>
    — Force fresh capture
  • archive-is-pp-cli request <url>
    — Fire-and-forget submit
  • archive-is-pp-cli check <url>
    — Does an archive exist?
Listing + history:
  • archive-is-pp-cli history <url>
    — All known snapshots
  • archive-is-pp-cli newest <url>
    — Newest snapshot URL
  • archive-is-pp-cli captures
    — Local capture index
  • archive-is-pp-cli feeds
    — Global recent feed
Batch:
  • archive-is-pp-cli bulk [file]
    — Batch from file or stdin
Local store:
  • archive-is-pp-cli sync
    / 
    archive
    / 
    export
    / 
    import
    — Local SQLite ops
Auth + health:
  • archive-is-pp-cli auth
    — Config (no API key needed; auth is a no-op)
  • archive-is-pp-cli doctor
    — Verify backend reachability

Recipes

Read a paywalled article

bash
archive-is-pp-cli read "https://www.wsj.com/articles/..." --agent
# or: return just the text
archive-is-pp-cli get "https://www.wsj.com/articles/..." --format text --agent
read
returns the archive URL (finding existing or creating new). 
get --format text
returns the article body, falling back to Wayback if archive.today CAPTCHAs.

Preserve a URL before it changes

bash
archive-is-pp-cli save "https://example.com/important-page" --agent
archive-is-pp-cli history "https://example.com/important-page" --agent  # verify
Force capture, then check history to confirm the new snapshot registered.

Bulk archive a research batch

bash
grep -oE 'https?://[^ )]+' research-notes.md | archive-is-pp-cli bulk - --agent
# or from a file:
archive-is-pp-cli bulk urls.txt --agent
Reads URLs one per line, submits each with exponential backoff, returns per-URL status (archived, pre-existing, failed) as JSON.

Wayback-preferred for a reliable-read

bash
archive-is-pp-cli read "https://ft.com/content/xyz" --backend wayback,archive-is --agent
Use when the Wayback Machine snapshot is known to be cleaner or archive.today is rate-limiting.

Auth Setup

No API key required. Archive.today and Wayback Machine are both public. The 
auth
subcommand exists for consistency but is a no-op — 
doctor
reports "Auth: not required" which is the expected state.
Optional env:
  • ARCHIVE_IS_BASE_URL
    — override archive.today host (for mirrors)
  • WAYBACK_BASE_URL
    — override Wayback Machine host

Agent Mode

Add 
--agent
to any command. Expands to 
--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes --no-prompt
. Every action command also prints structured 
next_actions
hints on stderr when called non-interactively — the calling agent sees "tried X, got Y, consider Z" automatically.
Notable flags:
  • --submit-timeout <duration>
    — max wait for a fresh submit (default 
    10m
    ; 
    0
    = unbounded)
  • --backend archive-is,wayback
    — backend preference and fallback order
  • --format text|html
    — 
    get
    /
    tldr
    output format

Filtering output

--select
accepts dotted paths to descend into nested responses; arrays traverse element-wise:
bash
archive-is-pp-cli <command> --agent --select id,name
archive-is-pp-cli <command> --agent --select items.id,items.owner.name
Use this to narrow huge payloads to the fields you actually need — critical for deeply nested API responses.

Response envelope

Data-layer commands wrap output in 
{"meta": {...}, "results": <data>}
. Parse 
.results
for data and 
.meta.source
to know whether it's 
live
or local. The 
N results (live)
summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a TTY; piped/agent consumers see pure JSON on stdout.

Exit Codes

CodeMeaning
0Success
2Usage error
3Not found (no snapshot exists)
5API error (archive.today or Wayback down)
7Rate limited (too many submits)

Installation

bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/archive-is/cmd/archive-is-pp-cli@latest
archive-is-pp-cli doctor

MCP Server

bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/archive-is/cmd/archive-is-pp-mcp@latest
claude mcp add archive-is-pp-mcp -- archive-is-pp-mcp

Argument Parsing

Given 
$ARGUMENTS
:
  1. Empty, 
    help
    , or 
    --help
     → run 
    archive-is-pp-cli --help
  2. install
     → CLI; 
    install mcp
     → MCP
  3. Anything that looks like a URL, or "archive <url>" / "bypass paywall on <url>" → 
    read <url> --agent
    is the default — it's idempotent and covers the 90% case.
  4. "bulk archive" / "archive these" → 
    bulk
    from stdin if URLs are pasted, else ask for the file path.
<!-- pr-218-features -->

Agent Workflow Features

This CLI exposes three shared agent-workflow capabilities patched in from cli-printing-press PR #218.

Named profiles

Persist a set of flags under a name and reuse them across invocations.
bash
# Save the current non-default flags as a named profile
archive-is-pp-cli profile save <name>

# Use a profile — overlays its values onto any flag you don't set explicitly
archive-is-pp-cli --profile <name> <command>

# List / inspect / remove
archive-is-pp-cli profile list
archive-is-pp-cli profile show <name>
archive-is-pp-cli profile delete <name> --yes
Flag precedence: explicit flag > env var > profile > default.

--deliver

Route command output to a sink other than stdout. Useful when an agent needs to hand a result to a file, a webhook, or another process without plumbing.
bash
archive-is-pp-cli <command> --deliver file:/path/to/out.json
archive-is-pp-cli <command> --deliver webhook:https://hooks.example/in
File sinks write atomically (tmp + rename). Webhook sinks POST 
application/json
(or 
application/x-ndjson
when 
--compact
is set). Unknown schemes produce a structured refusal listing the supported set.

feedback

Record in-band feedback about this CLI from the agent side of the loop. Local-only by default; safe to call without configuration.
bash
archive-is-pp-cli feedback "what surprised you or tripped you up"
archive-is-pp-cli feedback list         # show local entries
archive-is-pp-cli feedback clear --yes  # wipe
Entries append to 
~/.archive-is-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl
as JSON lines. When 
ARCHIVE_IS_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT
is set and either 
--send
is passed or 
ARCHIVE_IS_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true
, the entry is also POSTed upstream (non-blocking — local write always succeeds).