Internet MCP Server

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

Local serverstdio

What is the Internet MCP server?

If you already use Internet, the internet mcp server is the piece that lets your assistant work with it directly. Search the Wayback Machine and IA library (40M+ items), fetch snapshots, item metadata, and text.

What the server does

  • Declarative tool, resource, and prompt definitions — single file per primitive, framework handles registration and validation
  • Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches, classifies, and formats
  • Pluggable auth: none, jwt, oauth
  • Swappable storage backends: in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1
  • Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
  • STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

Available tools

The toolset is worth reading before you wire it up, because it tells you what the integration is really for:

  • ia_find_snapshots — Find Wayback Machine snapshots of a URL. Mode closest returns the nearest capture to a given timestamp. Mode history returns the full capture list
  • ia_get_snapshot — Fetch the archived content of a URL at a specific Wayback timestamp. Strips HTML to readable text and returns the canonical replay URL
  • ia_search_items — Search the IA library (40M+ items). Filter by media type, collection, creator, date range, and language. Sort by relevance, date, or downloads
  • ia_get_item — Retrieve full metadata and the file manifest for an Archive item by identifier — title, creator, description, subjects, collections, license, and
  • ia_get_text — Retrieve readable OCR text (DjVuTXT or plain-text) from a text item. Length-aware truncation with continuation pointer (char_offset) for paging
  • Prerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server
  • Installation — The Installation tool exposed by this server

Credentials and setup notes

Configuration is passed through the environment: MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

  • Bun v1.3.2 or higher (or Node.js v24+). - No external accounts or API keys required.

Installation

Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client. The configuration blocks on this page cover the common clients.

Where it fits

Among the file and storage access options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Internet's toolset — ia_find_snapshots, ia_get_snapshot, ia_search_items and 4 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by cyanheads; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.

Worth knowing first

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
ia_find_snapshotsFind Wayback Machine snapshots of a URL. Mode closest returns the nearest capture to a given timestamp. Mode history returns the full capture list via CDX with date range, status, and MIME filters, collapsed by default t
ia_get_snapshotFetch the archived content of a URL at a specific Wayback timestamp. Strips HTML to readable text and returns the canonical replay URL.
ia_search_itemsSearch the IA library (40M+ items). Filter by media type, collection, creator, date range, and language. Sort by relevance, date, or downloads. Returns identifiers, titles, types, and pagination context (total_found, pag
ia_get_itemRetrieve full metadata and the file manifest for an Archive item by identifier — title, creator, description, subjects, collections, license, and every file with its format, size, and direct download URL.
ia_get_textRetrieve readable OCR text (DjVuTXT or plain-text) from a text item. Length-aware truncation with continuation pointer (char_offset) for paging through large documents.
PrerequisitesThe Prerequisites tool exposed by this server.
InstallationThe Installation tool exposed by this server.

How to install the Internet MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "internet-archive-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/internet-archive-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.

Configuration

  • Bun v1.3.2 or higher (or Node.js v24+). - No external accounts or API keys required.
VariableDescriptionRequired
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPEConfiguration value read at startup.Optional
MCP_LOG_LEVELConfiguration value read at startup.Optional

Example prompts to try

  • Use Internet to ia find snapshots.
  • Use Internet to ia get snapshot.
  • Use Internet to ia search items.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Internet to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 7 tools (ia_find_snapshots, ia_get_snapshot, ia_search_items, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Internet directly.