Developer Documentation

Welcome to the 1990 Web Archive developer portal. Our RESTful API provides programmatic access to over 4.2 million archived web pages, complete with metadata, rendering pipelines, and preservation tools. Designed for researchers, developers, and digital archivists.

ℹ️ This documentation covers API v2.4.0. Previous versions are available in the version archive.

Authentication

All API requests require authentication via Bearer token. Tokens can be generated in your Developer Dashboard. Never expose your secret keys in client-side code.

HTTP

GET /v1/archive/search?q=geocities&year=1997
Authorization: Bearer your_api_token_here
Accept: application/json

Header	Description
`Authorization`	Bearer token for authentication
`X-Archive-Version`	Optional. Target rendering engine (default: `netscape-3.0`)

API Reference: Search

GET /v1/archive/search

Query the archive for pages matching specific criteria. Supports full-text, era-based, and technology filters.

Query Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`q` Required	string	Search query (supports wildcards)
`year`	integer	Filter by capture year (1990-1999)
`format`	string	HTML, GIF, MIDI, MHTML
`limit`	integer	Results per page (max 100, default 20)

cURL

curl -X GET "https://api.1990archive.dev/v1/archive/search?q=under+construction&year=1998&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

API Reference: Preserve

POST /v1/archive/preserve

Submit a URL for immediate archiving. Returns a preservation ticket and estimated completion time.

JSON Body

{
  "url": "https://example.com/legacy",
  "render_engine": "netscape-3.0",
  "capture_assets": true,
  "priority": "standard"
}

Response

202 Accepted

{
  "ticket_id": "arc_7f9a2b1c",
  "status": "queued",
  "estimated_completion": "2024-05-12T14:30:00Z",
  "webhook_url": null
}

SDKs & Libraries

We provide official SDKs for popular languages. Community packages are also welcome and verified.

npm

npm install @1990archive/sdk

Python

pip install archive1990

Error Handling

The API uses standard HTTP status codes and returns structured JSON errors. All errors include a machine-readable code for programmatic handling.

Code	Status	Description
`rate_limit_exceeded`	429	Too many requests. Check `Retry-After` header.
`archive_not_found`	404	The requested ID does not exist in the index.
`render_failed`	503	Legacy rendering engine temporarily unavailable.
`invalid_token`	401	Authentication failed or token expired.