Agent skill · marketing growth · mvanhorn
pp-archive-is
Use this skill whenever the user wants to archive a URL, bypass a paywall, look up an existing archive, view a cached version of a webpage, pull article text from archive.today or the Wayback Machine, or batch-archive a list of URLs. archive.today + Wayback Machine CLI with lookup-before-submit, automatic fallback when one backend is down, and agent-friendly output. No API key required. Triggers on phrasings like 'archive this article', 'bypass the paywall on this link', 'grab the cached text', 'save this url to archive.today', 'check if this was already archived', 'bulk archive these 20 URLs'.
Why this skill is useful
Adds unique commands for archiving URLs and bypassing paywalls that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires archive-is-pp-cli installed locally. About 7k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 1,890 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
archive.today — Printing Press CLI Prerequisites: Install the CLI This skill drives the archive-is-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first: 1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows: 2. Verify: archive-is-pp-cli --version 3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill. If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer): If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds. When to Use This CLI Reach for this whenever a user wants to archive a URL, read a paywalled article, check whether something was previously archived, or batch-capture a list of URLs for research. Specifically good when: A user sends a paywalled link and asks "can you read this" → read fetches text via archive They want to preserve a URL that might change → save forces a fresh capture They want historical versions → history lists all known snapshots They have 20+ URLs to archive → bulk runs rate-limited batch archival Don't reach for this if the URL is trivially scrapeable without archive services (no paywall, robots-allowed, direct HTTP works), or if the user wants the original source rather than a cached version. Unique Capabilities The whole CLI is unique — archive.today has no official API. But within this CLI, certain commands are the differentiators. The hero commands read <url> — Find or create an archive for a URL. Looks up existing snapshots first (Memento timegate → CDX fallback); submits a fresh capture only if nothing exists. The "always do the right thing" command. This is how 90% of agent calls should start. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills mvanhorn/archive-is