docs / internet-archive

Internet Archive API

base /internet-archive/v16 endpoints

post/internet-archive/v1/search1 credit

Search archive.org's catalogue. Filter by mediatype (texts/audio/movies/software/image/etree…), collection, creator, subject, language and year range; sort and paginate. Returns items with identifier, title, mediatype, creator, year, downloads, rating, collections and thumbnail/details URLs.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
query	optional	—	Free-text search across titles, descriptions, creators and subjects. Accepts Lucene syntax (e.g. 'title:moon AND year:[1960 TO 1970]'). Optional if you pass a mediatype/collection/creator filter instead.
mediatype	optional	texts · audio · movies · software · image · etree · data · web · collection · account	Filter to one archive.org media bucket: texts, audio, movies, software, image, etree (concerts), data, web, collection.
collection	optional	—	Restrict to items in a named collection (its identifier, e.g. 'nasa', 'librivoxaudio', 'prelinger', 'GratefulDead').
creator	optional	—	Restrict to items by a creator/author/artist name.
subject	optional	—	Restrict to items tagged with a subject/topic keyword.
language	optional	—	Restrict to a language (e.g. 'English', 'French', 'Spanish').
year_from	optional	—	Only items from this year onward.
year_to	optional	—	Only items up to and including this year.
sort	optional	downloads desc · downloads asc · week desc · publicdate desc · publicdate asc · date desc · date asc · avg_rating desc · titleSorter asc · titleSorter desc	Result ordering. Defaults to most-downloaded.
rows = 25	optional	1–100	Results per page (1-100, default 25); clamped.
page = 1	optional	1–1000	Page number (1-based). Page until meta.has_more is false.

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post/internet-archive/v1/item1 credit

Full metadata for one archive.org item by identifier: title, creator, description, date, publisher, language, subjects, collections, license, rating — plus the COMPLETE file list (name, format, size, duration, source) with direct download URLs, and the item's reviews. Set include_files=false / include_reviews=false to slim the payload.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
identifier	required	—	The archive.org item identifier (the slug in archive.org/details/<identifier>). From a search result's 'identifier'.
include_files = true	optional	—	Include the full file list with download URLs (default true).
include_reviews = true	optional	—	Include the item's reviews (default true).
files_limit = 200	optional	1–2000	Cap on files returned (1-2000, default 200); clamped.

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post/internet-archive/v1/collection1 credit

Browse the items inside an archive.org collection by its identifier (e.g. 'nasa', 'librivoxaudio', 'prelinger', 'GratefulDead'). Same rich item rows as search, paginated and sortable; optionally narrow by mediatype within the collection.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
collection	required	—	The collection identifier to browse (from a search result's 'collections', or a known name).
mediatype	optional	texts · audio · movies · software · image · etree · data · web · collection · account	Filter to one archive.org media bucket: texts, audio, movies, software, image, etree (concerts), data, web, collection.
query	optional	—	Free-text search across titles, descriptions, creators and subjects. Accepts Lucene syntax (e.g. 'title:moon AND year:[1960 TO 1970]'). Optional if you pass a mediatype/collection/creator filter instead.
sort	optional	downloads desc · downloads asc · week desc · publicdate desc · publicdate asc · date desc · date asc · avg_rating desc · titleSorter asc · titleSorter desc	Result ordering. Defaults to most-downloaded.
rows = 25	optional	1–100	Results per page (1-100, default 25); clamped.
page = 1	optional	1–1000	Page number (1-based). Page until meta.has_more is false.

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post/internet-archive/v1/reviews1 credit

All public reviews and star ratings for one archive.org item: reviewer handle, star rating (0-5), review title, body and date. Reviews are embedded in the item record, so this returns every review in one call (no pagination needed).

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
identifier	required	—	The archive.org item identifier (the slug in archive.org/details/<identifier>). From a search result's 'identifier'.

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post/internet-archive/v1/files1 credit

Just the downloadable files for one archive.org item (no heavy metadata/reviews): name, format, size, duration, source and a direct download URL for each. Useful for fetching the actual book PDF / MP3 / video / ZIP.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
identifier	required	—	The archive.org item identifier (the slug in archive.org/details/<identifier>). From a search result's 'identifier'.
format	optional	—	Optional case-insensitive substring filter on the file format (e.g. 'PDF', 'MP3', 'MPEG4', 'EPUB').
files_limit = 500	optional	1–5000	Cap on files returned (1-5000, default 500); clamped.

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post/internet-archive/v1/search_inside1 credit

Full-text 'search inside' one digitized book on archive.org: find a phrase within the book's OCR text and get the matching snippets with page numbers. The item must be a texts/book item with OCR (most scanned books are).

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
identifier	required	—	The archive.org item identifier (the slug in archive.org/details/<identifier>). From a search result's 'identifier'.
query	required	—	The phrase to find inside the book's text.

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Example request · search

curl -X POST https://api.reefapi.com/internet-archive/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $REEF_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"apollo 11"}'

Response shape

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": { /* the result */ },
  "meta": {
    "latency_ms": 240,
    "record_count": 12,
    "completeness_pct": 100
  },
  "error": null
}