Without active preservation effort, everything on the internet eventually disappears or degrades. Archive.org does a great job as a centralized service, but saved URLs have to be public, and they can't save every type of content.
*ArchiveBox is an open source tool that lets organizations & individuals archive both public & private web content while retaining control over their data. It can be used to save copies of bookmarks, preserve evidence for legal cases, backup photos from FB/Insta/Flickr or media from YT/Soundcloud/etc., save research papers, and more...*
> ➡️ Get ArchiveBox with `pip install archivebox` on [Linux](#quickstart), [macOS](#quickstart), and [Windows](#quickstart) (WSL2), or via **[Docker](#quickstart)** ⭐️.
*Once installed, it can be used as a [CLI tool](#usage), [self-hosted Web App](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Publishing-Your-Archive), [Python library](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#python-shell-usage), or [one-off command](#static-archive-exporting).*
📥 **You can feed ArchiveBox URLs one at a time, or schedule regular imports** from your bookmarks or history, social media feeds or RSS, link-saving services like Pocket/Pinboard, our [Browser Extension](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/archivebox-browser-extension), and more.
You can run ArchiveBox as a Docker web app to manage these snapshots, or continue accessing the same collection using the `pip`-installed CLI, Python API, and SQLite3 APIs.
All the ways of using it are equivalent, and provide matching features like adding tags, scheduling regular crawls, viewing logs, and more...
🛠️ ArchiveBox uses [standard tools](#dependencies) like Chrome, [`wget`](https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/), & [`yt-dlp`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp), and stores data in [ordinary files & folders](#archive-layout).
*(no complex proprietary formats, all data is readable without needing to run ArchiveBox)*
The goal is to sleep soundly knowing the part of the internet you care about will be automatically preserved in durable, easily accessible formats [for decades](#background--motivation) after it goes down.
- [**Powerful CLI**](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#CLI-Usage) with [modular dependencies](#dependencies) and [support for Google Drive/NFS/SMB/S3/B2/etc.](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Setting-Up-Storage)
- [**Supports scheduled/realtime importing**](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Scheduled-Archiving) from [many types of sources](#input-formats)
- [**Usable as a oneshot CLI**](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#CLI-Usage), [**self-hosted web UI**](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#UI-Usage), [Python API](https://docs.archivebox.io/en/dev/apidocs/archivebox/archivebox.html) (BETA), [REST API](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/496) (ALPHA), or [desktop app](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/electron-archivebox)
- [**Saves all pages to archive.org as well**](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#save_archive_dot_org) by default for redundancy (can be [disabled](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Security-Overview#stealth-mode) for local-only mode)
- Advanced users: support for archiving [content requiring login/paywall/cookies](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#chrome_user_data_dir) (see wiki security caveats!)
- Planned: support for running [JS during archiving](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/51) to adblock, [autoscroll](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/80), [modal-hide](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/175), [thread-expand](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/345)
ArchiveBox is free for everyone to self-host, but we also provide support, security review, and custom integrations to help NGOs, governments, and other organizations [run ArchiveBox professionally](https://zulip.archivebox.io/#narrow/stream/167-enterprise/topic/welcome/near/1191102):
> ***[Contact us](https://zulip.archivebox.io/#narrow/stream/167-enterprise/topic/welcome/near/1191102)** if your org wants help using ArchiveBox professionally.* (we are also seeking [grant funding](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/1126#issuecomment-1487431394))
<li>Download the <ahref="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/dev/docker-compose.yml"download><code>docker-compose.yml</code></a> file into a new empty directory (can be anywhere).
<i>For more info, see <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install#option-a-docker--docker-compose-setup-%EF%B8%8F">Install: Docker Compose</a> in the Wiki. ➡️</i>
See <ahref="#%EF%B8%8F-cli-usage">below</a> for more usage examples using the CLI, Web UI, or <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#sql-shell-usage">filesystem/SQL/Python</a> to manage your archive.
<i>For more info, see <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install#option-a-docker--docker-compose-setup-%EF%B8%8F">Install: Docker Compose</a> in the Wiki. ➡️</i>
<i>For more info, see <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install#option-b-automatic-setup-script">Install: Bare Metal</a> in the Wiki. ➡️</i>
See <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/bin/setup.sh"><code>setup.sh</code></a> for the source code of the auto-install script.<br/>
See <ahref="https://docs.sweeting.me/s/against-curl-sh">"Against curl | sh as an install method"</a> blog post for my thoughts on the shortcomings of this install method.
<li>Install <ahref="https://realpython.com/installing-python/">Python >= v3.10</a> and <ahref="https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/">Node >= v18</a> on your system (if not already installed).</li>
<li>Install the ArchiveBox package using <code>pip3</code> (or <ahref="https://pipx.pypa.io"><code>pipx</code></a>).
<i>See the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install">Install: Bare Metal</a> Wiki for full install instructions for each OS...</i>
<sub>See the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/pip-archivebox"><code>pip-archivebox</code></a> repo for more details about this distribution.</sub>
<sub>See the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/debian-archivebox"><code>debian-archivebox</code></a> repo for more details about this distribution.</sub>-->
<i>See the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install#option-c-bare-metal-setup">Install: Bare Metal</a> Wiki for more granular instructions for macOS... ➡️</i>
<sub>See the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/homebrew-archivebox"><code>homebrew-archivebox</code></a> repo for more details about this distribution.</sub>
<i>✨ Alpha (contributors wanted!)</i>: for more info, see the: <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/electron-archivebox">Electron ArchiveBox</a> repo.
</a> (<ahref="https://zulip.archivebox.io/#narrow/stream/167-enterprise/topic/welcome/near/1191102">get hosting, support, and feature customization directy from us</a>)</li>
<sub><i>Referral links marked 🎗 provide $5-10 of free credit for new users and help pay for our <ahref="https://demo.archivebox.io">demo server</a> hosting costs.</i></sub>
- Tweak your UI or archiving behavior [Configuration](#configuration), read about some of the [Caveats](#caveats), or [Troubleshoot](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Troubleshooting)
- Read about the [Dependencies](#dependencies) used for archiving, the [Upgrading Process](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Upgrading-or-Merging-Archives), or the [Archive Layout](#archive-layout) on disk...
ArchiveBox commands can be run in a terminal [directly on your host](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#cli-usage), or via [Docker](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#usage-1)/[Docker Compose](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#usage).
<i>For more info, see our <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#python-shell-usage">Python Shell</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#sql-shell-usage">SQL API</a>, and <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox#archive-layout">Disk Layout</a> wikis. ➡️</i>
-<imgsrc="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/assets/511499/ff20d251-5347-4b85-ae9b-83037d0ac01e"height="28px"/><b>From the official <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/archivebox-extension">ArchiveBox Browser Extension</a></b>
<i>Provides realtime archiving of browsing history or selected pages from Chrome/Chromium/Firefox browsers.</i>
-<imgsrc="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/assets/511499/64078483-21d7-4eb1-aa6e-9ad55afe45b8"height="22px"/> From manual imports of URLs from RSS, JSON, CSV, TXT, SQL, HTML, Markdown, etc. files
<i>ArchiveBox supports injesting URLs in [any text-based format](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#Import-a-list-of-URLs-from-a-text-file).</i>
-<imgsrc="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/assets/511499/32b494e6-4de1-4984-8d88-dc02f18e5c34"height="22px"/> From manually exported [browser history](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Quickstart#2-get-your-list-of-urls-to-archive) or [browser bookmarks](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Quickstart#2-get-your-list-of-urls-to-archive) (in Netscape format)
-<imgsrc="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/assets/511499/4f7bd318-265c-4235-ad25-38be89946b12"height="22px"/> From URLs visited through a [MITM Proxy](https://mitmproxy.org/) with [`archivebox-proxy`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/archivebox-proxy)
-<imgsrc="https://getpocket.com/favicon.ico"height="22px"/> From bookmarking services or social media (e.g. Twitter bookmarks, Reddit saved posts, etc.)
It also includes a built-in scheduled import feature with `archivebox schedule` and browser bookmarklet, so you can pull in URLs from RSS feeds, websites, or the filesystem regularly/on-demand.
For each web page added, ArchiveBox creates a Snapshot folder and preserves its content as ordinary files inside the folder (e.g. HTML, PDF, PNG, JSON, etc.).
It uses all available methods out-of-the-box, but you can disable extractors and fine-tune the [configuration](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration) as-needed.
<li><strong>Audio & Video:</strong><code>media/</code> all audio/video files + playlists, including subtitles & metadata w/ <code>yt-dlp</code></li>
<sub>These methods also work the same way when run inside Docker, see the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#configuration">Docker Configuration</a> wiki page for details.</sub>
The configuration is documented here: **[Configuration Wiki](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration)**, and loaded here: [`archivebox/config.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/config.py).
To achieve high-fidelity archives in as many situations as possible, ArchiveBox depends on a variety of 3rd-party libraries and tools that specialize in extracting different types of content.
> Under-the-hood, ArchiveBox uses [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/start/overview/) to power its [Web UI](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#ui-usage), [Django Ninja](https://django-ninja.dev/) for the REST API, and [SQlite](https://www.sqlite.org/locrsf.html) + the filesystem to provide [fast & durable metadata storage](https://www.sqlite.org/locrsf.html) w/ [deterministic upgrades](https://stackoverflow.com/a/39976321/2156113).
ArchiveBox bundles industry-standard tools like [Google Chrome](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Chromium-Install), [`wget`, `yt-dlp`, `readability`, etc.](#dependencies) internally, and its operation can be [tuned, secured, and extended](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration) as-needed for many different applications.
<p><em>TIP: For better security while running ArchiveBox, and to avoid polluting your host system with a bunch of sub-dependencies that you need to keep up-to-date,<strong>it is strongly recommended to use the <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker">⭐️ official Docker image</a></strong> which provides everything in an easy container with simple one-liner upgrades.</em></p>
You don't need to install every dependency to use ArchiveBox. ArchiveBox will automatically disable extractors that rely on dependencies that aren't installed, based on what is configured and available in your <code>$PATH</code>.
If not using Docker, make sure to keep the dependencies up-to-date yourself and check that ArchiveBox isn't reporting any incompatibility with the versions you install.
Installing directly on <strong>Windows without Docker or WSL/WSL2/Cygwin is not officially supported</strong> (I cannot respond to Windows support tickets), but some advanced users have reported getting it working.
Data folders can be created anywhere (`~/archivebox/data` or `$PWD/data` as seen in our examples), and you can create as many data folders as you want to hold different collections.
All <code>archivebox</code> CLI commands are designed to be run from inside an ArchiveBox data folder, starting with <code>archivebox init</code> to initialize a new collection inside an empty directory.
The on-disk layout is optimized to be easy to browse by hand and durable long-term. The main index is a standard <code>index.sqlite3</code> database in the root of the data folder (it can also be <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Publishing-Your-Archive#2-export-and-host-it-as-static-html">exported as static JSON/HTML</a>), and the archive snapshots are organized by date-added timestamp in the <code>data/archive/</code> subfolder.
Each snapshot subfolder <code>data/archive/TIMESTAMP/</code> includes a static <code>index.json</code> and <code>index.html</code> describing its contents, and the snapshot extractor outputs are plain files within the folder.
You can create one-off archives of individual URLs with `archivebox oneshot`, or export your index as static HTML using `archivebox list` (so you can view it without an ArchiveBox server).
<p><em>NOTE: These exports are not paginated, exporting many URLs or the entire archive at once may be slow. Use the filtering CLI flags on the <code>archivebox list</code> command to export specific Snapshots or ranges.</em></p>
<li><ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Publishing-Your-Archive#2-export-and-host-it-as-static-html">Wiki: Publishing Your Archive (Exporting as Static HTML)</a></li>
If you're importing pages with private content or URLs containing secret tokens you don't want public (e.g Google Docs, paywalled content, unlisted videos, etc.), **you may want to disable some of the extractor methods to avoid leaking that content to 3rd party APIs or the public**.
<p><em>CAUTION: Assume anyone <em>viewing</em> your archives will be able to see any cookies, session tokens, or private URLs passed to ArchiveBox during archiving.</em>
<em>Make sure to secure your ArchiveBox data and don't share snapshots with others without stripping out sensitive headers and content first.</em></p>
<li><ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Chromium-Install#setting-up-a-chromium-user-profile">Wiki: Chromium Install (Setting Up a User Profile)</a></li>
Be aware that malicious archived JS can access the contents of other pages in your archive when viewed. Because the Web UI serves all viewed snapshots from a single domain, they share a request context and **typical CSRF/CORS/XSS/CSP protections do not work to prevent cross-site request attacks**. See the [Security Overview](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Security-Overview#stealth-mode) page and [Issue #239](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/239) for more details.
<p><em>NOTE: Only the <code>wget</code>&<code>dom</code> extractor methods execute archived JS when viewing snapshots, all other archive methods produce static output that does not execute JS on viewing.</em><br/>
<em>If you are worried about these issues ^ you should disable these extractors using:<br/><code>archivebox config --set SAVE_WGET=False SAVE_DOM=False</code>.</em></p>
For various reasons, many large sites (Reddit, Twitter, Cloudflare, etc.) actively block archiving or bots in general. There are a number of approaches to work around this, and we also provide <ahref="https://docs.monadical.com/s/archivebox-consulting-services">consulting services</a> to help here.
<li>Set <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#curl_user_agent"><code>CHROME_USER_AGENT</code>, <code>WGET_USER_AGENT</code>, <code>CURL_USER_AGENT</code></a> to impersonate a real browser (by default, ArchiveBox reveals that it's a bot when using the default user agent settings)</li>
<li>Set up a logged-in browser session for archiving using <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Chromium-Install#setting-up-a-chromium-user-profile"><code>CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR</code>&<code>COOKIES_FILE</code></a></li>
In the future we plan on adding support for running JS scripts during archiving to block ads, cookie popups, modals, and fix other issues. Follow here for progress: <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/51">Issue #51</a>.
Because ArchiveBox uniquely identifies snapshots by URL, it must use a workaround to take multiple snapshots of the same URL (otherwise they would show up as a single Snapshot entry). It makes the URLs of repeated snapshots unique by adding a hash with the archive date at the end:
The <imgsrc="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/511499/115942091-73c02300-a476-11eb-958e-5c1fc04da488.png"alt="Re-Snapshot Button"height="24px"/> button in the Admin UI is a shortcut for this hash-date multi-snapshotting workaround.
Improved support for saving multiple snapshots of a single URL without this hash-date workaround will be <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/179">added eventually</a> (along with the ability to view diffs of the changes between runs).
<li><ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#explanation-of-buttons-in-the-web-ui---admin-snapshots-list">Wiki: Usage (Explanation of Web UI Buttons)</a></li>
Because ArchiveBox is designed to ingest a large volume of URLs with multiple copies of each URL stored by different 3rd-party tools, it can be quite disk-space intensive. There are also some special requirements when using filesystems like NFS/SMB/FUSE.
<li><strong>ArchiveBox can use anywhere from ~1gb per 1000 Snapshots, to ~50gb per 1000 Snapshots</strong>, mostly dependent on whether you're saving audio & video using <code>SAVE_MEDIA=True</code> and whether you lower <code>MEDIA_MAX_SIZE=750mb</code>.</li>
<li>Disk usage can be reduced by using a compressed/<ahref="https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/ixsystems-and-klara-systems-celebrate-valentines-day-with-a-heartfelt-donation-of-fast-dedupe-to-openzfs-and-truenas/">deduplicated</a> filesystem like <ahref="https://www.reddit.com/r/zfs/comments/t9cexx/a_simple_real_world_zfs_compression_speed_an/">ZFS</a>/BTRFS, or by turning off extractors methods you don't need. You can also deduplicate content with a tool like <ahref="https://github.com/adrianlopezroche/fdupes"><code>fdupes</code></a> or <ahref="https://github.com/pauldreik/rdfind"><code>rdfind</code></a>.
<li><strong>Don't store large collections on older filesystems like EXT3/FAT</strong> as they may not be able to handle more than 50k directory entries in the <code>data/archive/</code> folder.
<li><strong>Try to keep the <code>data/index.sqlite3</code> file on local drive (not a network mount)</strong> or SSD for maximum performance, however the <code>data/archive/</code> folder can be on a network mount or slower HDD.</li>
<li>If using Docker or NFS/SMB/FUSE for the <code>data/archive/</code> folder, you may need to set <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#puid--pgid"><code>PUID</code>&<code>PGID</code></a> and <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/1304">disable <code>root_squash</code></a> on your fileshare server.
ArchiveBox aims to enable more of the internet to be saved from deterioration by empowering people to self-host their own archives. The intent is for all the web content you care about to be viewable with common software in 50 - 100 years without needing to run ArchiveBox or other specialized software to replay it.
Vast treasure troves of knowledge are lost every day on the internet to link rot. As a society, we have an imperative to preserve some important parts of that treasure, just like we preserve our books, paintings, and music in physical libraries long after the originals go out of print or fade into obscurity.
Whether it's to resist censorship by saving news articles before they get taken down or edited, or just to save a collection of early 2010's flash games you loved to play, having the tools to archive internet content enables to you save the stuff you care most about before it disappears.
The balance between the permanence and ephemeral nature of content on the internet is part of what makes it beautiful. I don't think everything should be preserved in an automated fashion--making all content permanent and never removable, but I do think people should be able to decide for themselves and effectively archive specific content that they care about, just like libraries do. Without the work of archivists saving physical books, manuscrips, and paintings we wouldn't have any knowledge of our ancestors' history. I believe archiving the web is just as important to provide the same benefit to future generations.
In the U.S., <ahref="https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/copyright/libraries">libraries, researchers, and archivists</a> are allowed to duplicate copyrighted materials under <ahref="https://libguides.ala.org/copyright/fairuse">"fair use"</a> for <ahref="https://guides.cuny.edu/cunyfairuse/librarians#:~:text=One%20of%20these%20specified%20conditions,may%20be%20liable%20for%20copyright">private study, scholarship, or research</a>. Archive.org's non-profit preservation work is <ahref="https://blog.archive.org/2024/03/01/fair-use-in-action-at-the-internet-archive/">covered under fair use</a> in the US, and they properly handle <ahref="https://cardozoaelj.com/2015/03/20/use-of-copyright-law-to-take-down-revenge-porn/">unethical content</a>/<ahref="https://help.archive.org/help/rights/">DMCA</a>/<ahref="https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/#:~:text=An%20individual%20has%20the%20right,that%20individual%20withdraws%20their%20consent.">GDPR</a> removal requests to maintain good standing in the eyes of the law.
As long as you A. don't try to profit off pirating copyrighted content and B. have processes in place to respond to removal requests, many countries allow you to use sofware like ArchiveBox to ethically and responsibly archive any web content you can view. That being said, ArchiveBox is not liable for how you choose to operate the software. You must research your own local laws and regulations, and get proper legal council if you plan to host a public instance (start by putting your DMCA/GDPR contact info in <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#footer_info"><code>FOOTER_INFO</code></a> and changing your instance's branding using <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#custom_templates_dir"><code>CUSTOM_TEMPLATES_DIR</code></a>).
> **Check out our [community wiki](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Web-Archiving-Community) for a list of alternative web archiving tools and orgs.**
ArchiveBox tries to be a robust, set-and-forget archiving solution suitable for archiving RSS feeds, bookmarks, or your entire browsing history (beware, it may be too big to store), including private/authenticated content that you wouldn't otherwise share with a centralized service like Archive.org.
Not all content is suitable to be archived on a centralized, publicly accessible platform. Archive.org doesn't offer the ability to save things behind login walls for good reason, as the content may not have been intended for a public audience. ArchiveBox exists to fill that gap by letting everyone save what they have access to on an individual basis, and to encourage decentralized archiving that's less succeptible to censorship or natural disasters.
By having users store their content locally or within their organizations, we can also save much larger portions of the internet than a centralized service has the disk capcity handle. The eventual goal is to work towards federated archiving where users can share portions of their collections with each other, and with central archives on a case-by-case basis.
ArchiveBox differentiates itself from [similar self-hosted projects](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Web-Archiving-Community#Web-Archiving-Projects) by providing both a comprehensive CLI interface for managing your archive, a Web UI that can be used either independently or together with the CLI, and a simple on-disk data format that can be used without either.
*If you want better fidelity for very complex interactive pages with heavy JS/streams/API requests, check out [ArchiveWeb.page](https://archiveweb.page) and [ReplayWeb.page](https://replayweb.page).*
*If you want more bookmark categorization and note-taking features, check out [Archivy](https://archivy.github.io/), [Memex](https://github.com/WorldBrain/Memex), [Polar](https://getpolarized.io/), or [LinkAce](https://www.linkace.org/).*
*If you need more advanced recursive spider/crawling ability beyond `--depth=1`, check out [Browsertrix](https://github.com/webrecorder/browsertrix-crawler), [Photon](https://github.com/s0md3v/Photon), or [Scrapy](https://scrapy.org/) and pipe the outputted URLs into ArchiveBox.*
ArchiveBox is neither the highest fidelity nor the simplest tool available for self-hosted archiving, rather it's a jack-of-all-trades that tries to do most things well by default. We encourage you to try these other tools made by our friends if ArchiveBox isn't suited to your needs.
<summary><i>Our <b><ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Web-Archiving-Community">Community Wiki</a></b> strives to be a comprehensive index of the web archiving industry...</i></summary>
- Check out the ArchiveBox [Roadmap](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Roadmap) and [Changelog](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Changelog)
- Learn why archiving the internet is important by reading the "[On the Importance of Web Archiving](https://items.ssrc.org/parameters/on-the-importance-of-web-archiving/)" blog post.
- Reach out to me for questions and comments via [@ArchiveBoxApp](https://twitter.com/ArchiveBoxApp) or [@theSquashSH](https://twitter.com/thesquashSH) on Twitter
> ✨ **[Hire the team that built Archivebox](https://zulip.archivebox.io/#narrow/stream/167-enterprise/topic/welcome/near/1191102) to solve archiving for your org.** ([@ArchiveBoxApp](https://twitter.com/ArchiveBoxApp))
<sub>There is also a mirror available on <ahref="https://archivebox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/">Read the Docs</a> (though it's sometimes outdated).</sub>
All contributions to ArchiveBox are welcomed! Check our [issues](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues) and [Roadmap](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Roadmap) for things to work on, and please open an issue to discuss your proposed implementation before working on things! Otherwise we may have to close your PR if it doesn't align with our roadmap.
For low hanging fruit / easy first tickets, see: <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3A%22help+wanted%22">ArchiveBox/Issues `#good first ticket``#help wanted`</a>.
ArchiveBox [`extractors`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/extractors/media.py) are external binaries or Python/Node scripts that ArchiveBox runs to archive content on a page.
Extractors take the URL of a page to archive, write their output to the filesystem `data/archive/TIMESTAMP/EXTRACTOR/...`, and return an [`ArchiveResult`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/core/models.py#:~:text=return%20qs-,class%20ArchiveResult,-(models.Model)%3A) entry which is saved to the database (visible on the `Log` page in the UI).
*Check out how we added **[`archivebox/extractors/singlefile.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/extractors/singlefile.py)** as an example of the process: [Issue #399](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/399) + [PR #403](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/pull/403).*
<br/>
**The process to contribute a new extractor is like this:**
> This process is getting much easier after v0.8.x, there is a new plugin system under development: https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/releases/tag/v0.8.4-rc
1. [Open an issue](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/new?assignees=&labels=changes%3A+behavior%2Cstatus%3A+idea+phase&template=feature_request.md&title=Feature+Request%3A+...) with your propsoed implementation (please link to the pages of any new external dependencies you plan on using)
2. Ensure any dependencies needed are easily installable via a package managers like `apt`, `brew`, `pip3`, `npm`
(Ideally, prefer to use external programs available via `pip3` or `npm`, however we do support using any binary installable via package manager that exposes a CLI/Python API and writes output to stdout or the filesystem.)
3. Create a new file in [`archivebox/extractors/EXTRACTOR.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/extractors) (copy an existing extractor like [`singlefile.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/extractors/singlefile.py) as a template)
4. Add config settings to enable/disable any new dependencies and the extractor as a whole, e.g. `USE_DEPENDENCYNAME`, `SAVE_EXTRACTORNAME`, `EXTRACTORNAME_SOMEOTHEROPTION` in [`archivebox/config.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/config.py)
5. Add a preview section to [`archivebox/templates/core/snapshot.html`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/templates/core/snapshot.html) to view the output, and a column to [`archivebox/templates/core/index_row.html`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/archivebox/templates/core/index_row.html) with an icon for your extractor
6. Add an integration test for your extractor in [`tests/test_extractors.py`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/tests/test_extractors.py)
7. [Submit your PR for review!](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/blob/dev/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md) 🎉
8. Once merged, please document it in these places and anywhere else you see info about other extractors:
- Find us on social media: [Twitter `@ArchiveBoxApp`](https://twitter.com/ArchiveBoxApp), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/archivebox/), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ArchiveBoxApp), [SaaSHub](https://www.saashub.com/archivebox), [Alternative.to](https://alternativeto.net/software/archivebox/about/), [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchiveBox/)
<sup><i>ArchiveBox operates as a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_sponsorship">FSP</a> (sponsored by <ahref="https://hackclub.com/hcb?ref=donation">HCB</a>), <ahref="https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/archivebox">direct donations</a> are tax-deductible.</i></sup>
<i>✨ Have spare CPU/disk/bandwidth after all your 网站存档爬 and want to help the world?<br/>Check out our <ahref="https://github.com/ArchiveBox/good-karma-kit">Good Karma Kit</a>...</i>
