Kinda new plugin: Wayback-Archiver - automatically archive links in notes to prevent link rot

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Disclaimer

Is this project open source? Yes
Is this project completely free? Yes
Is this project vibe-coded beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No
Community Directory: [Link](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/wayback-archiver)

Hi everyone. This is my first post here, and I’d like to introduce my plugin I released a year ago because it’s been stable for a while.

When a note contains a link, Wayback Archiver submits it to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and inserts the resulting archive link after the original.

What it does

Wayback Archiver supports:

  • Markdown links
  • HTML links
  • Plain http:// and https:// links
  • Image links such as Markdown images and HTML image elements
  • Processing the current note, selected text, or the entire vault
  • Standard archiving and force re-archiving
  • Atomic note updates that reduce the risk of overwriting edits made during archiving
  • Detection of existing nearby archive links to avoid duplicates
  • Archive freshness rules for replacing old archive links
  • Configurable archive link text and date formats

For example:

[Example Site](https://example.com) → [Example Site](https://example.com) [(Archived on 2026-05-10)](https://web.archive.org/web/2026051022560/https://example.com)

Archive providers

The primary provider is the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, using its SPN API v2.

There are also fallback and helper integrations for:

archive.today

  • Resolve existing snapshots
  • Optional experimental background submission
  • Manual browser-based fallback when CAPTCHA or rate limits interfere

Web Gyotaku / Megalodon.jp

  • Resolve existing snapshots
  • Manual browser-based fallback
  • No automatic submission, since there’s no API for it

You can configure provider order and per-URL policies such as:

^https://x\\.com/ => archiveToday:auto

example\\.com => wayback, archiveToday

Filtering and URL handling

Archiving can be controlled with:

  • Ignore URL patterns
  • Include URL patterns
  • File path patterns
  • Note word or phrase patterns
  • URL substitution rules
  • Regular-expression substitutions
  • Per-URL provider policies

Path and word filters can be used for vault-wide processing or current-note processing when no text is selected. URL filters apply to individual links across all commands.

Substitution rules are useful for normalizing URLs before they are sent to an archive provider. Rules are applied in order.

Failed archive management

Failed attempts are recorded with useful details such as:

  • URL
  • Note path
  • Error message
  • Retry count
  • Failure stage
  • Target URL
  • Suggested manual providers where applicable

You can:

  • Retry failed archives
  • Retry with force replacement
  • Export failures as JSON or CSV
  • Clear the internal failed archive list
  • Open failed URLs in batches for manual handling

Exported logs are stored in the plugin’s failed log folder under your vault configuration directory.

Profiles and settings

The plugin supports multiple settings profiles. Each profile can have its own:

  • Filtering rules
  • Substitution rules
  • Archive providers
  • Per-URL policies
  • Retry and freshness settings
  • Archive link formatting
  • SPN API options

https://archive.org/account/s3.php API keys are shared globally across profiles.

Additional settings include:

  • API request delay
  • Maximum status-check retries
  • Archive freshness period
  • Automatic clearing of successfully retried failures
  • Screenshot capture
  • Capture all resources
  • JavaScript behavior timeout
  • Force GET requests
  • Outlink capture
  • archive.today submission delay
  • Pending queue interval and batch size
  • Pending queue timeout and maximum size
  • Manual browser batch size

Available commands

The command palette includes commands for:

  • Archiving links in the current note
  • Archiving all links in the vault
  • Force re-archiving the current note
  • Force re-archiving the entire vault
  • Retrying failed archive attempts
  • Retrying failed attempts with force replacement
  • Exporting the failed archive log
  • Clearing the failed archive log
  • Submitting current-note links to archive.today
  • Inserting the latest archive.today snapshot
  • Inserting the latest Web Gyotaku snapshot
  • Checking pending archive.today submissions
  • Opening failed URLs in archive.today
  • Opening failed URLs in Web Gyotaku

A ribbon icon is also available for archiving links in the current note.

Installation

Install Wayback Archiver from:

Settings → Community plugins → Browse

Then:

1. Enable the plugin.

2. Add your [Archive.org](https://archive.org/account/s3.php) SPN access and secret keys.

3. Configure your preferred providers and filters.

4. Run an archive command from the command palette.

The plugin repository is here:

https://github.com/IshizuEitaro/obsidian-wayback-archiver

Important limitations

  • Archive.org captures can fail, time out, or be rate-limited.

  • archive.today automatic submission is experimental and best-effort.

  • archive.today may require manual browser handling because of CAPTCHA or anti-bot protections.

  • Web Gyotaku support resolves existing snapshots only.

  • Existing archive links are detected within a limited nearby range after the original link.

  • Archive results may take time to become available after an archive.today submission.

I’d appreciate feedbacks and reports for any archive formats or note structures that are not handled correctly :slight_smile:

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