Developer API

Access the complete 1990–1999 web archive programmatically. RESTful endpoints, JSON responses, and official SDKs for all major languages.

Base URL: https://api.1990archive.net/v1

Authentication

API Keys

All requests must include your API key in the Authorization header. Keys can be generated from your dashboard.

# Example Request Header
Authorization: Bearer ak_live_8f3a9c2d1e4b5f6g7h8i9j0k
            

Keys are scoped to environments (sandbox vs production). Never expose production keys in client-side code.

Core Endpoints

GET /archive/{url}

Retrieve a fully reconstructed snapshot of an archived webpage. Returns HTML, assets manifest, and metadata.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`url`	string	Yes	URL-encoded target address
`timestamp`	ISO8601	No	Specific snapshot date. Defaults to latest.
`format`	enum	No	`html`, `json`, or `render`

Response Example

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "url": "https://www.geocities.com/~/heartland/sunset/4821",
    "timestamp": "1998-06-12T14:22:00Z",
    "content": "<html>\n<body bgcolor=\"#000000\" text=\"#00FF00\">...",
    "assets": [
      { "type": "image/gif", "url": "https://cdn.1990archive.net/assets/a1b2c3.gif" },
      { "type": "audio/midi", "url": "https://cdn.1990archive.net/assets/x9y8z7.mid" }
    ]
  },
  "meta": { "cache": "HIT", "request_id": "req_7f3d9a" }
}
            

GET /search

Query the archive index across 4.2M+ pages. Supports era filtering, content matching, and asset type queries.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`	string	Yes	Search query (title, body, or URL match)
`era`	string	No	Year or range: `1995`, `1998-1999`
`has_asset`	enum	No	`gif`, `midi`, `frameset`, `webring`
`limit`	int	No	Max results (default: 20, max: 100)

POST /crawl/request

Submit a URL for asynchronous crawling and archival. Returns a job ID for status tracking.

Request Body

{
  "url": "https://legacy.example.com",
  "depth": 2,
  "preserve_midi": true,
  "callback": "https://your-app.com/webhooks/crawl"
}
            

Rate Limits & Tiers

Plan	Requests / min	Bandwidth / mo	Max Crawl Depth	Priority
`Free`	60	5 GB	1	Standard
`Pro`	600	100 GB	3	High
`Enterprise`	Unlimited	Unlimited	Custom	Dedicated

Rate limit headers are included in every response: X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset. Exceeding limits returns 429 Too Many Requests.

Official SDKs

Maintained packages for rapid integration. All support async/await and automatic pagination.

Node.js

TypeScript & CommonJS

npm i 1990-archive-sdk

Python

Asyncio & Type hints

pip install archive90

Go

Standard library only

go get archive.net/sdk

Rust

Tokio & Serde

cargo add archive90

Error Handling

API errors follow standard HTTP semantics. The response body always contains a structured error object:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "No snapshots found for the provided URL in the requested era.",
    "request_id": "req_4a8b2c",
    "docs": "https://docs.1990archive.net/errors/RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND"
  }
}
        