Deployment

Deployment Options

archivebox-api exposes its MCP server (console script archivebox-mcp) four ways. Pick the row that matches where the server runs relative to your MCP client, then copy the matching mcp_config.json below. Replace the <your-…> placeholders with the values from the Configuration / Environment Variables section.

#	Option	Transport	Where it runs	mcp_config.json key
1	stdio	stdio	client launches a subprocess	command
2	Streamable-HTTP (local)	streamable-http	a local network port	command or url
3	Local container / uv	stdio or streamable-http	Docker / Podman / uv on this host	command or url
4	Remote URL	streamable-http	a remote host behind Caddy	url

1. stdio (local subprocess)

The client launches the server over stdio via uvx — best for local IDEs (Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "archivebox-api", "archivebox-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL": "<your-archivebox_base_url>",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_URL": "<your-archivebox_url>",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME": "<your-archivebox_username>"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Streamable-HTTP (local process)

Run the server as a long-lived HTTP process:

uvx --from archivebox-api archivebox-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000
curl -s http://localhost:8000/health        # {"status":"OK"}

Then either let the client launch it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "archivebox-api", "archivebox-mcp", "--transport", "streamable-http", "--port", "8000"],
      "env": {
        "TRANSPORT": "streamable-http",
        "HOST": "0.0.0.0",
        "PORT": "8000",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL": "<your-archivebox_base_url>",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_URL": "<your-archivebox_url>",
        "ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME": "<your-archivebox_username>"
      }
    }
  }
}

…or connect to the already-running process by URL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": { "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp" }
  }
}

3. Local container / uv

(a) Launch a container directly from mcp_config.json (stdio over the container — no ports to manage). Swap docker for podman for a daemonless runtime:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "TRANSPORT=stdio",
        "-e", "ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL=<your-archivebox_base_url>",
        "-e", "ARCHIVEBOX_URL=<your-archivebox_url>",
        "-e", "ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME=<your-archivebox_username>",
        "knucklessg1/archivebox-api:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

(b) Run a local streamable-http container, then connect by URL:

docker run -d --name archivebox-mcp -p 8000:8000 \
  -e TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  -e PORT=8000 \
  -e ARCHIVEBOX_BASE_URL="<your-archivebox_base_url>" \
  -e ARCHIVEBOX_URL="<your-archivebox_url>" \
  -e ARCHIVEBOX_USERNAME="<your-archivebox_username>" \
  knucklessg1/archivebox-api:latest
# or, from a clone of this repo:
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": { "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp" }
  }
}

(c) From a local checkout with uv:

uv run archivebox-mcp --transport streamable-http --port 8000

4. Remote URL (deployed behind Caddy)

When the server is deployed remotely (e.g. as a Docker service) and published through Caddy on the internal *.arpa zone, connect with the "url" key — no local process or image required:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "archivebox-mcp": { "url": "http://archivebox-mcp.arpa/mcp" }
  }
}

Caddy reverse-proxies http://archivebox-mcp.arpa to the container's :8000 streamable-http listener; http://archivebox-mcp.arpa/health returns {"status":"OK"} when the service is live.

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_SSL_VERIFY	False	Verify TLS (self-signed homelab)
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: knucklessg1/archivebox-api:latest
    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: knucklessg1/archivebox-api:latest
    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 .arpa zone
archivebox-api.arpa {
    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.arpa:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=archivebox-api.arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=10.0.0.10" \
  --data-urlencode "ttl=3600"

…or add an A record archivebox-api.arpa → <caddy-host-ip> in the Technitium web console (http://technitium.arpa: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.arpa/mcp instead.