Wayback Machine snapshot

Look up a URL in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine: returns the archived snapshot closest to an optional timestamp (default: most recent), with the snapshot URL, capture time, and archived HTTP status. Send POST /api/archive-snapshot with the required field url and pay $0.003 per call over x402 or MPP (there is no free tier). It returns a JSON object with url, requestedTimestamp, available, snapshot and source.

Useful for citations, dead-link recovery, and checking what a page said at a point in time. URLs never archived return {available:false}.

Category: Web & documents · Tags: web archive wayback snapshot history citation research · Also found as: wayback website-history site-history

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Parameters

Example request

curl -i -X POST https://agent402.tools/api/archive-snapshot \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://example.com"}'

Without payment this returns HTTP 402 Payment Required with the exact price for archive-snapshot; any x402 v2 or MPP client pays it and retries.

Example response

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "requestedTimestamp": null,
  "available": true,
  "snapshot": {
    "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260101000000/https://example.com/",
    "timestamp": "20260101000000",
    "status": "200"
  },
  "source": "web.archive.org"
}

From an MCP client

catalog.call {
  "slug": "archive-snapshot",
  "params": {
    "url": "https://example.com"
  }
}

The hosted connector at https://agent402.tools/mcp needs a payment for archive-snapshot; the stdio package pays it from a wallet or from AGENT402_CREDITS_KEY. Local install: npx -y agent402-mcp.

Errors and behavior

• url is required. An input the tool rejects returns an HTTP 4xx whose body carries error, tool, expected, required and example, so the caller can correct it.
• A paid call that ends in any status of 400 or above is not charged over x402, MPP or a prepaid credits key: settlement is cancelled when the tool fails. The exception is a Tempo push credential, a transfer the buyer sent before the call: it settles before the tool runs, so if the tool then fails the payment is recorded as a refund owed to the paying wallet.
• Wallet-only: this tool reaches the network or stored state, so it has no proof-of-work tier. A prepaid card-credits key issued earlier (Authorization: Bearer a402_...) also pays it.
• A GET or HEAD to /api/archive-snapshot returns the same 402 quote, so the price can be read without a body.
• An Idempotency-Key header makes a retried paid call replay the first 200 instead of charging again (an answer larger than 1 MB is not replayed).

Paid call (JavaScript agent)

import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from "@x402/fetch";
import { x402Client } from "@x402/core/client";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

const client = new x402Client();
client.setSpendControls?.(false); // keep your own spending ceiling in code
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(KEY) });
const payFetch = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await payFetch("https://agent402.tools/api/archive-snapshot", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "url": "https://example.com"
  }),
});

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