Deployment¶

Deployment Options¶

archivebox-api supports local stdio, a loopback-only development listener, a least-privilege stdio container, and a remote authenticated HTTPS boundary. Provider endpoint, credential, selector, identity, and trust material are supplied at runtime through AgentConfig; none is stored in this repository.

Installed stdio process¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox": {
      "command": "archivebox-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"MCP_TOOL_MODE": "intent"}
    }
  }
}

Loopback development listener¶

archivebox-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Do not expose this listener beyond loopback. Network deployments require direct TLS or an explicitly trusted TLS-terminating ingress, configured authentication, exact MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS, and an exact trusted-proxy CIDR policy.

Least-privilege local container¶

docker run -i --rm \
  --read-only \
  --cap-drop=ALL \
  --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
  --pids-limit=256 \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=64m \
  -e TRANSPORT=stdio \
  registry.example.invalid/archivebox-api@sha256:<digest> archivebox-mcp

The operator projects the selected AgentConfig profile into the process at runtime; the image remains immutable and contains no environment connection profile.

Remote authenticated HTTPS endpoint¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox": {"url": "https://service.example.invalid/mcp"}
  }
}

Store the real remote URL, outbound identity reference, and TLS-profile reference in AgentConfig, not in MCP client JSON or documentation.

This page covers running archivebox-api as a long-lived service: the transports, a Docker Compose stack, the optional agent server, putting it behind a Caddy reverse proxy, and giving it a DNS name with Technitium. To provision the ArchiveBox instance it connects to, see Backing Platform.

archivebox-api ships both an MCP server (console script archivebox-mcp) and an A2A agent server (console script archivebox-agent). The MCP server is the typed, deterministic tool surface; the agent server wraps it behind a Pydantic-AI graph agent and the Agent Web UI.

Run the MCP server¶

The transport is selected with --transport (or the TRANSPORT env var):

stdio (default)streamable-httpsse

archivebox-mcp

For IDE / desktop MCP clients that launch the server as a subprocess.

archivebox-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

A network server with a /health endpoint and /mcp route.

archivebox-mcp --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Health check (HTTP transports):

curl -s http://localhost:8000/health        # {"status":"OK"}

Configuration (environment)¶

archivebox-api is configured entirely from the environment. The required set:

Var	Default	Meaning
`ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL`	`http://localhost:8000`	ArchiveBox API base URL
`ARCHIVEBOX_URL`	`http://localhost:8000`	Fallback alias for `ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL`
`ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME`	(unset)	Username for authentication
`ARCHIVEBOX_PASSWORD`	(unset)	Password for authentication
`ARCHIVEBOX_API_KEY`	(unset)	API key for header authentication
`ARCHIVEBOX_TOKEN`	(unset)	Pre-configured authentication token
`ARCHIVEBOX_TLS_PROFILE`	(unset)	Named runtime TLS profile
`ARCHIVEBOX_TLS_PROFILE_REF`	(unset)	Secret reference for private PKI, mTLS, or proxy policy
`AUTHENTICATIONTOOL`	`True`	Register the authentication tool set
`CORETOOL`	`True`	Register the core catalog tool set
`CLITOOL`	`True`	Register the CLI tool set

Plus HOST / PORT / TRANSPORT for HTTP transports, and the optional telemetry (ENABLE_OTEL, OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_*) and access-governance (EUNOMIA_TYPE, EUNOMIA_POLICY_FILE) settings. The full set is documented in .env.example. Copy it to .env and populate only what you use; the client remains inactive against endpoints whose credentials are absent.

Docker Compose¶

The repo ships docker/mcp.compose.yml. It reads a sibling .env and publishes the HTTP server on :8000:

services:
  archivebox-api-mcp:
    image: example/archivebox-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: archivebox-api-mcp
    hostname: archivebox-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

cp .env.example .env          # then edit ARCHIVEBOX_* values
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml logs -f

Agent server¶

For conversational and A2A operation, archivebox-api ships a Pydantic-AI graph agent (console script archivebox-agent). It connects to the MCP server over MCP_URL and exposes its own HTTP surface, including the Agent Web UI, on :9013.

export MCP_URL=http://localhost:8000/mcp
export PROVIDER=openai
export MODEL_ID=gpt-4o
archivebox-agent --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9013

The repo ships docker/agent.compose.yml, which deploys the MCP server and the agent together and wires the agent to the MCP server by container name:

  archivebox-api-agent:
    image: example/archivebox-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: archivebox-api-agent
    hostname: archivebox-api-agent
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - archivebox-api-mcp
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    command: [ "archivebox-agent" ]
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9013
      - MCP_URL=http://archivebox-api-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
    ports:
      - "9013:9013"

docker compose -f docker/agent.compose.yml up -d

Behind a Caddy reverse proxy¶

Expose the HTTP server on a hostname with automatic TLS. Add to your Caddyfile:

# Internal (self-signed) — homelab .example.invalid zone
archivebox-api.example.invalid {
    tls internal
    reverse_proxy archivebox-api-mcp:8000
}

# Public — automatic Let's Encrypt
archivebox-api.example.com {
    reverse_proxy archivebox-api-mcp:8000
}

Reload Caddy:

docker compose -f services/caddy/compose.yml exec caddy caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

DNS with Technitium¶

Point the hostname at the host running Caddy. Via the Technitium API:

curl -s "http://technitium.example.invalid:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=archivebox-api.example.invalid" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=192.0.2.10" \
  --data-urlencode "ttl=3600"

…or add an A record archivebox-api.example.invalid → <caddy-host-ip> in the Technitium web console (http://technitium.example.invalid:5380). The ecosystem technitium-dns-mcp automates this as a tool.

Register with an MCP client¶

Add to your client's mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-api": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--package", "archivebox-api", "archivebox-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL": "http://your-archivebox:8000",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME": "admin",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a remote HTTP server, point the client at http://archivebox-api.example.invalid/mcp instead.