CLI Overview

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Command Structure

archivebox [command] [options] [arguments]

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Docker Usage

# Docker Compose (interactive)
docker compose run archivebox [command] [options]

# Docker Compose (non-interactive, for scripts)
docker compose run -T archivebox [command] [options]

# Docker (standalone)
docker run -v $PWD:/data -it archivebox/archivebox [command] [options]

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Command Categories

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Setup Commands

• init - Initialize a new ArchiveBox collection
• install - Install dependencies and browser binaries

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Core Archive Commands

• add - Add new URLs to archive
• remove - Remove URLs from the archive
• update - Update and migrate existing snapshots
• search - Search and list snapshots (alias: list)
• status - Show archive statistics and health

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Server & Automation

• server - Run the web UI server
• schedule - Schedule periodic archiving with cron

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Advanced Commands

• config - Get and set configuration values
• shell - Enter interactive Python/Django shell
• manage - Run Django management commands

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Model Commands (CRUD operations)

• crawl - Manage crawl records
• snapshot - Manage snapshot records
• archiveresult - Manage archive results
• tag - Manage tags
• binary - Manage binary dependencies

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Common Options

• --help, -h - Show help for the command
• --version, -v - Show ArchiveBox version
• --debug - Enable debug mode with verbose output

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Working Directory

# Initialize in desired location
mkdir ~/my-archive
cd ~/my-archive
archivebox init

# All subsequent commands run from this directory
archivebox add 'https://example.com'
archivebox server

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Exit Codes

• 0 - Success
• 1 - General error or no results found
• 2 - Invalid usage or configuration error

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Command Aliases

• import → add
• archive → add
• setup → install
• orchestrator → run
• extract → archiveresult

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Output Formats

• Plain text - Default human-readable output
• JSON - Machine-readable with --json
• CSV - Spreadsheet-compatible with --csv=fields
• HTML - Static HTML with --html

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Common Patterns

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Piping URLs

# From a file
archivebox add < urls.txt

# From stdin
echo "https://example.com" | archivebox add

# From a command
curl https://example.com/feed.rss | archivebox add

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Filtering Snapshots

# By exact URL
archivebox remove --filter-type=exact 'https://example.com'

# By domain
archivebox update --filter-type=domain 'example.com'

# By substring
archivebox search --filter-type=substring 'blog'

# By regex
archivebox search --filter-type=regex '^https://.*\.pdf$'

# By tag
archivebox search --filter-type=tag 'important'

# By timestamp
archivebox update --after=1609459200 --before=1640995200

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Background Processing

# Queue URLs for background processing
archivebox add --bg 'https://example.com'

# Run the server to process queue
archivebox server

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Getting Help

# General help
archivebox help

# Command-specific help  
archivebox [command] --help

# Examples
archivebox add --help
archivebox config --help

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Environment Variables

• DATA_DIR - Override the data directory location
• DEBUG - Enable debug mode (True/False)
• IN_DOCKER - Indicates running in Docker container

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Next Steps