# Wayback Machine Bulk Lookup (`jungle_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup`) Actor Look up Wayback Machine snapshots for any URL or list of URLs. Returns capture timeline, optional snapshot markdown, and live-vs-snapshot diff. Date range filtering, capture limit, bulk input. Built for OSINT, journalism, SEO link-rot recovery, and legal evidence. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Developer tools, News - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Wayback Machine Bulk Lookup Look up Wayback Machine (archive.org) snapshots for any URL or list of URLs. Returns the full capture timeline, optional snapshot HTML-to-markdown content, and a live-vs-snapshot text diff. Built for OSINT analysts, journalists verifying sources, SEO teams recovering link-rot, and legal evidence collection. --- ### What this actor does For each input URL, the actor: 1. **Queries the Wayback CDX API** to retrieve the snapshot index in your specified date range and capture limit 2. **Optionally fetches snapshot HTML** for each capture and converts it to markdown (for reading or archiving) 3. **Optionally fetches the current live URL** and computes a line-level text diff against the most recent snapshot (to detect page changes) Each output record contains the full snapshot timeline plus optional diff and content fields. --- ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | `urls` | array of strings | — | **Required.** URLs to look up in the Wayback Machine | | `maxItems` | integer | — | Maximum total output records across all URLs | | `dateFrom` | string | — | Earliest snapshot date to include (ISO date, e.g. `2020-01-01`) | | `dateTo` | string | — | Latest snapshot date to include (ISO date, e.g. `2024-12-31`) | | `captureLimit` | integer | `100` | Max snapshots per URL | | `fetchSnapshotContent` | boolean | `false` | Download snapshot HTML and convert to markdown | | `diffWithLive` | boolean | `false` | Compute text diff between latest snapshot and current live URL | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | none | Optional proxy config (usually not needed for Wayback) | **Example input:** ```json { "urls": [ "https://example.com/news/2024-article", "https://example.com/about" ], "dateFrom": "2023-01-01", "dateTo": "2024-12-31", "captureLimit": 50, "diffWithLive": true } ```` *** ### Output One record per input URL. | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `url` | string | The input URL | | `snapshotCount` | number | Number of snapshots found in the date range | | `firstCaptured` | string | Earliest snapshot timestamp (ISO 8601) | | `lastCaptured` | string | Latest snapshot timestamp (ISO 8601) | | `captures` | array | Snapshot entries — each a JSON-encoded string with `timestamp`, `archiveUrl`, `status`, `mimetype`, and optionally `contentMarkdown` | | `diff` | object | `{ addedLines, removedLines, changedRatio }` — only present when `diffWithLive=true` | | `liveStatus` | number | Current HTTP status of the live URL — only present when `diffWithLive=true` | | `finalLiveUrl` | string | Final URL after redirects | | `status` | string | `success`, `timeout`, or `error` | | `errorMsg` | string | Error details on failure, `null` on success | **Example output record:** ```json { "url": "https://example.com/news/2024-article", "snapshotCount": 14, "firstCaptured": "2024-03-12T08:42:00Z", "lastCaptured": "2026-04-29T22:11:00Z", "captures": [ "{\"timestamp\":\"2026-04-29T22:11:00Z\",\"archiveUrl\":\"https://web.archive.org/web/20260429221100/https://example.com/news/2024-article\",\"status\":200,\"mimetype\":\"text/html\"}" ], "diff": { "addedLines": 12, "removedLines": 3, "changedRatio": 0.04 }, "liveStatus": 200, "finalLiveUrl": "https://example.com/news/2024-article", "status": "success", "errorMsg": null } ``` *** ### Dataset views The actor produces two dataset views in the Apify console: - **Capture Timeline** — `url`, `snapshotCount`, `firstCaptured`, `lastCaptured`, `captures` - **Live vs Snapshot Diff** — `url`, `liveStatus`, `diff`, `lastCaptured` *** ### Rate limits and performance The actor respects Wayback Machine's rate limits: - CDX API queries: ~10 requests/second (110ms minimum delay) - Snapshot content fetches: ~1-2 requests/second (700ms minimum delay) For large batches with `fetchSnapshotContent=true`, expect longer runtimes. The default timeout is 2 hours. Start with a small `captureLimit` (e.g. 10) to estimate runtime before running at full scale. *** ### Use cases - **OSINT / research**: Check whether a source URL existed, when it was captured, and how its content has changed - **Journalism**: Verify archived versions of articles or government pages for fact-checking - **SEO / link-rot recovery**: Find archived versions of dead inbound links and plan redirects or outreach - **Legal evidence**: Retrieve timestamped snapshots of web pages for documentation - **Web archiving**: Bulk-check coverage for a list of URLs before deeper archiving work # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you. ## `urls` (type: `array`): List of URLs to look up in the Wayback Machine. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of total snapshot records to return across all URLs. ## `dateFrom` (type: `string`): Earliest snapshot date to include (e.g. 2020-01-01). ## `dateTo` (type: `string`): Latest snapshot date to include. ## `captureLimit` (type: `integer`): Max number of snapshots to return per URL. ## `fetchSnapshotContent` (type: `boolean`): Download HTML and convert to markdown for each snapshot. Costs more compute. ## `diffWithLive` (type: `boolean`): Compute text diff between latest snapshot and current live URL. Adds liveStatus + diff fields. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Optional. Default is no proxy. ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "urls": [ "https://example.com" ], "maxItems": 10, "captureLimit": 100, "fetchSnapshotContent": false, "diffWithLive": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "urls": [ "https://example.com" ], "maxItems": 10, "captureLimit": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "urls": ["https://example.com"], "maxItems": 10, "captureLimit": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "urls": [ "https://example.com" ], "maxItems": 10, "captureLimit": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/wayback-machine-bulk-lookup", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Wayback Machine Bulk Lookup", "description": "Look up Wayback Machine snapshots for any URL or list of URLs. Returns capture timeline, optional snapshot markdown, and live-vs-snapshot diff. Date range filtering, capture limit, bulk input. Built for OSINT, journalism, SEO link-rot recovery, and legal evidence.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "NNe1Xm4g10sc2YfTk" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~wayback-machine-bulk-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-wayback-machine-bulk-lookup", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~wayback-machine-bulk-lookup/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-wayback-machine-bulk-lookup", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~wayback-machine-bulk-lookup/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-wayback-machine-bulk-lookup", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "sp_intended_usage", "sp_improvement_suggestions", "urls" ], "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact Email", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you." }, "urls": { "title": "URLs", "type": "array", "description": "List of URLs to look up in the Wayback Machine.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of total snapshot records to return across all URLs." }, "dateFrom": { "title": "Date From (ISO date)", "type": "string", "description": "Earliest snapshot date to include (e.g. 2020-01-01)." }, "dateTo": { "title": "Date To (ISO date)", "type": "string", "description": "Latest snapshot date to include." }, "captureLimit": { "title": "Capture Limit", "type": "integer", "description": "Max number of snapshots to return per URL.", "default": 100 }, "fetchSnapshotContent": { "title": "Fetch Snapshot Content", "type": "boolean", "description": "Download HTML and convert to markdown for each snapshot. Costs more compute.", "default": false }, "diffWithLive": { "title": "Diff With Live URL", "type": "boolean", "description": "Compute text diff between latest snapshot and current live URL. Adds liveStatus + diff fields.", "default": false }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy", "type": "object", "description": "Optional. Default is no proxy." } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```