Publishing Your Archive

There are two ways to publish your archive: using the archivebox server or by exporting and hosting it as static HTML.

1. Use the built-in web server

# start the webserver
archivebox server 0.0.0.0:8000

Open http://admin.archivebox.localhost:8000/admin/ in a browser to create the first admin and finish web setup. To create additional accounts from the CLI, use archivebox manage createsuperuser.

This server is enabled out-of-the-box if you’re using docker-compose to run ArchiveBox. If BASE_URL is not configured yet, complete the first-run wizard before exposing ArchiveBox. It guides you through choosing a security mode and shows the settings to enter in Cloudflare, Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy, Traefik, Tailscale, or your hosting platform’s ingress UI. Configure HTTPS there, then open the canonical URL you chose in the wizard. Existing BASE_URL and security settings are trusted, so configured servers skip this wizard.

After ingress is working, set the permissions depending on how public you want the archive to be:

archivebox config --set PUBLIC_INDEX=True
archivebox config --set PUBLIC_ADD_VIEW=True
archivebox config --set PERMISSIONS=public

[!TIP] Advanced: You can use nginx to serve a static export directly from the filesystem. Do not proxy live replay paths back onto the admin origin; use ArchiveBox’s security-mode routing.

2. Export and host it as static HTML

archivebox list --html --with-headers > index.html
archivebox list --json --with-headers > index.json

# then upload the entire output folder containing index.html and archive/ somewhere
# e.g. github pages or another static hosting provider

# you can also serve it with the simple python HTTP server
python3 -m http.server --bind 0.0.0.0 --directory . 8000
open http://127.0.0.1:8000

Here’s a sample nginx configuration that works to serve your static archive folder:

location / {
    alias       /path/to/your/ArchiveBox/data/;
    index       index.html;
    autoindex   on;
    try_files   $uri $uri/ =404;
}

Make sure you’re not running any content as CGI or PHP, you only want to serve static files!

Legacy timestamp URLs remain available through compatibility symlinks, for example: https://demo.archivebox.io/archive/1493350273/wget/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dining_philosophers_problem.html

Security Concerns

[!CAUTION] Re-hosting untrusted archived content on the same origin as an authenticated application can compromise that application.

Make sure you understand the dangers of hosting untrusted HTML/JS/CSS. The default SERVER_SECURITY_MODE=auto uses isolated subdomains with full replay on *.localhost, and a one-domain no-JS replay policy on ordinary public or LAN hostnames. Choose safe-subdomains-fullreplay only when wildcard DNS and TLS for *.archive.example.com are configured; it separates the admin, web, and API control planes from replay content and gives each Snapshot its own replay subdomain.

Do not serve ArchiveBox from a shared subdirectory such as myapps.example.com/archivebox/; it cannot provide the required origin isolation. If you do not need JavaScript-capable replay, you can also disable the relevant extractors with WGET_ENABLED=False and DOM_ENABLED=False.

More info:

Copyright Concerns

[!WARNING] Be aware that some sites you archive may not allow you to rehost their content publicly for copyright reasons, it’s up to you to host responsibly and respond to takedown requests appropriately based on the laws in your jurisdiction.

Archiving for personal backups, research, and some other use-cases are covered by fair use copyright exemptions in the USA, but if your archive can deprive the original author of revenue (e.g. if you rehost it for profit), then your use case might no longer be covered and you have to respond to DMCA takedown notices.

As a general rule of thumb:

Copies cannot be made for commercial purposes
The copying cannot be systematic (e.g., to replace subscriptions)
All copies made must include a notice stating that the materials may be protected under copyright.

Please modify the FOOTER_INFO config variable to add your contact info to the footer of your index.

Note: ArchiveBox prevents search engines from indexing your archives using /robots.txt by default. It is not recommended to override this file in the collection’s fixed custom_templates/ directory, as public indexing often leads to automated takedown requests and abuse reports.

Keep in mind individuals, companies, schools, and libraries all have different copyright exemptions in different countries. Double check the specific laws for your situation in your own jurisdiction!

Publishing Your Archive

1. Use the built-in web server

2. Export and host it as static HTML

Security Concerns

Copyright Concerns

Further Reading: USA Copyright Law & Fair Use Exemptions