GitHub Wayback Recovery

Purpose: Recover deleted GitHub content (README files, issues, PRs, wiki pages, repository metadata) from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine when content is no longer available on GitHub.

When to Use This Skill

• Repository has been deleted and you need README, wiki, or metadata
• Issues or PRs were deleted by author, maintainer, or moderation
• Need to recover file contents that may have been archived
• Investigating historical state of a repository
• Finding forks of deleted repositories via archived network pages
• Recovering release notes or documentation from deleted projects

Complementary Skills:

• github-archive: For structured event data (who did what, when) - always check first
• github-commit-recovery: For accessing commits when you have SHAs
• github-wayback-recovery (this skill): For web page snapshots when content is fully deleted

Core Principles

Wayback Machine Archives Web Pages, Not Git Repositories:

• Cannot git clone from archived content
• Cannot reconstruct full commit history
• Recovery success depends on whether specific URLs were crawled

What CAN Be Recovered:

• README files and repository descriptions
• Issue titles, bodies, and comments (Archive Team prioritizes these)
• PR conversations and descriptions (Files Changed tab often fails)
• Wiki pages (especially wiki home)
• Release notes and descriptions
• Repository metadata (stars, language, license visible on homepage)
• Commit SHAs from archived commit list pages (use with github-commit-recovery skill to access actual content)

What CANNOT Be Recovered:

• Private repository content (never crawled)
• Complete git history or repository clone
• Content behind authentication

Quick Start

Check if a repository page was archived:

curl -s "https://archive.org/wayback/available?url=github.com/owner/repo" | jq

Search for all archived URLs under a repository:

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/*&output=json&collapse=urlkey" | head -50

Access an archived snapshot:

https://web.archive.org/web/{TIMESTAMP}/https://github.com/owner/repo

GitHub URL Patterns for Archive Searches

Understanding GitHub's URL structure is essential for constructing archive queries.

Repository-Level URLs

Content Type	URL Pattern
Homepage	github.com/{owner}/{repo}
Commits list	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{branch}
Individual commit	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commit/{full-sha}
Fork network	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/network/members

File and Directory URLs

Content Type	URL Pattern
File view	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{branch}/{path/to/file}
Directory view	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/tree/{branch}/{directory}
File history	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{branch}/{path/to/file}
Raw file	raw.githubusercontent.com/{owner}/{repo}/{branch}/{path}

Note: blob = files, tree = directories. Raw URLs are rarely archived compared to rendered views.

Collaboration Artifacts

Content Type	URL Pattern
Pull request	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/pull/{number}
PR files	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/pull/{number}/files
PR commits	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/pull/{number}/commits
Issue	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{number}
Wiki page	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/wiki/{page-name}
Release	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/releases/tag/{tag-name}
All PRs	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/pulls?state=all
All issues	github.com/{owner}/{repo}/issues?state=all

CDX API Reference

The Capture Index (CDX) API provides structured search across all archived URLs.

Basic Query Structure

https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url={URL}&output=json

Essential Parameters

Parameter	Effect	Example
matchType=exact	Exact URL only (default)	Single page
matchType=prefix	All URLs starting with path	All repo content
url=.../*	Wildcard (same as prefix)	github.com/owner/repo/*
from=YYYY	Start date filter	from=2023
to=YYYY	End date filter	to=2024
filter=statuscode:200	Only successful captures	Skip redirects/errors
collapse=timestamp:8	One capture per day	Reduce duplicates
collapse=urlkey	Unique URLs only	List all archived pages
limit=N	Limit results	limit=100
output=json	JSON format	Machine-readable

Query Examples

Find all archived pages under a repository:

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/facebook/react/*&matchType=prefix&output=json&collapse=urlkey"

Find archived issues for a specific repository:

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/issues/*&output=json&collapse=urlkey&filter=statuscode:200"

Find archived snapshots of a specific file:

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/blob/*/path/to/file&output=json"

Check for archived snapshots near a specific date:

curl -s "https://archive.org/wayback/available?url=github.com/owner/repo&timestamp=20230615"

CDX Response Format

[
  ["urlkey", "timestamp", "original", "mimetype", "statuscode", "digest", "length"],
  ["com,github)/owner/repo", "20230615142311", "https://github.com/owner/repo", "text/html", "200", "ABC123...", "12345"]
]

Investigation Patterns

Recovering Deleted File Contents

Scenario: Repository or file has been deleted, need to recover file contents.

Step 1: Search for blob URLs

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/blob/*/README.md&output=json"

Step 2: Construct archive URL from timestamp

https://web.archive.org/web/20230615142311/https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/README.md

Step 3: Extract content manually or use waybackpack

pip install waybackpack
waybackpack "https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/README.md" -d output_dir

Forensic Value: Recover documentation, configuration files, or evidence that existed at specific points in time.

Recovering Deleted Issue/PR Content

Scenario: Issue or PR was deleted and you need the original content.

Step 1: Query for issue page snapshots

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/issues/123*&output=json"

Step 2: Access archived page

https://web.archive.org/web/{TIMESTAMP}/https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123

Step 3: If issue number unknown, search PR/issue listing

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/issues?state=all&output=json"

Note: Archive Team actively crawls GitHub issues and PRs since 2020. Issue content has higher recovery success than file contents.

Finding Forks of Deleted Repositories

Scenario: Repository is deleted, but forks may contain the full git history.

Step 1: Search for archived fork network page

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/network/members&output=json"

Step 2: Access archived network page

https://web.archive.org/web/{TIMESTAMP}/https://github.com/owner/repo/network/members

Step 3: Extract fork usernames from archived page, check if forks still exist

# Check if fork exists
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://github.com/forker/repo

Forensic Value: Active forks contain complete git history including all commits. This often yields better results than trying to recover individual files.

Recovering Wiki Content

Scenario: Repository wiki has been deleted or made private.

Step 1: Search for wiki pages

curl -s "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=github.com/owner/repo/wiki*&output=json&collapse=urlkey"

Step 2: Access wiki home or specific pages

https://web.archive.org/web/{TIMESTAMP}/https://github.com/owner/repo/wiki
https://web.archive.org/web/{TIMESTAMP}/https://github.com/owner/repo/wiki/Page-Name

Python Implementation

import requests
import json
from typing import Optional, List, Dict
from time import sleep

class WaybackGitHubRecovery:
    CDX_API = "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx"
    AVAILABILITY_API = "https://archive.org/wayback/available"
    ARCHIVE_URL = "https://web.archive.org/web"

    def check_availability(self, url: str, timestamp: Optional[str] = None) -> Optional[Dict]:
        """Check if URL has any archived snapshots."""
        params = {"url": url}
        if timestamp:
            params["timestamp"] = timestamp

        resp = requests.get(self.AVAILABILITY_API, params=params)
        data = resp.json()

        if data.get("archived_snapshots", {}).get("closest"):
            return data["archived_snapshots"]["closest"]
        return None

    def search_cdx(self, url: str, match_type: str = "prefix",
                   collapse: str = "urlkey", limit: int = 1000) -> List[Dict]:
        """Search CDX API for archived URLs."""
        params = {
            "url": url,
            "output": "json",
            "matchType": match_type,
            "collapse": collapse,
            "filter": "statuscode:200",
            "limit": limit
        }

        resp = requests.get(self.CDX_API, params=params)
        data = resp.json()

        if len(data) <= 1:  # Only header row
            return []

        headers = data[0]
        results = []
        for row in data[1:]:
            results.append(dict(zip(headers, row)))

        return results

    def find_repository_content(self, owner: str, repo: str) -> Dict[str, List]:
        """Find all archived content for a repository."""
        base_url = f"github.com/{owner}/{repo}"

        results = {
            "homepage": self.search_cdx(base_url, match_type="exact"),
            "issues": self.search_cdx(f"{base_url}/issues/*"),
            "pulls": self.search_cdx(f"{base_url}/pull/*"),
            "wiki": self.search_cdx(f"{base_url}/wiki*"),
            "files": self.search_cdx(f"{base_url}/blob/*"),
            "network": self.search_cdx(f"{base_url}/network/members", match_type="exact"),
        }

        return results

    def get_archived_page(self, url: str, timestamp: str) -> Optional[str]:
        """Retrieve archived page content."""
        archive_url = f"{self.ARCHIVE_URL}/{timestamp}/{url}"
        resp = requests.get(archive_url)

        if resp.status_code == 200:
            return resp.text
        return None

    def find_forks(self, owner: str, repo: str) -> List[str]:
        """Find potential forks from archived network page."""
        network_results = self.search_cdx(
            f"github.com/{owner}/{repo}/network/members",
            match_type="exact"
        )

        forks = []
        if network_results:
            # Get most recent snapshot
            latest = network_results[-1]
            content = self.get_archived_page(
                f"https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/network/members",
                latest["timestamp"]
            )
            if content:
                # Extract fork usernames (simplified - would need HTML parsing)
                # Look for patterns like href="/username/repo"
                import re
                pattern = rf'href="/([^/]+)/{repo}"'
                matches = re.findall(pattern, content)
                forks = list(set(matches) - {owner})

        return forks


# Usage Example
recovery = WaybackGitHubRecovery()

# Check if repository homepage was archived
snapshot = recovery.check_availability("https://github.com/deleted-user/deleted-repo")
if snapshot:
    print(f"Archived at: {snapshot['url']}")
    print(f"Timestamp: {snapshot['timestamp']}")

# Find all archived content
content = recovery.find_repository_content("deleted-user", "deleted-repo")
print(f"Found {len(content['issues'])} archived issue pages")
print(f"Found {len(content['files'])} archived file pages")

# Find potential forks
forks = recovery.find_forks("deleted-user", "deleted-repo")
for fork in forks:
    print(f"Potential fork: github.com/{fork}/deleted-repo")

Limitations and Considerations

Technical Limitations

• JavaScript-rendered content: GitHub's modern interface uses AJAX; archived pages may have broken file trees, blame views, and navigation
• Raw file downloads: raw.githubusercontent.com URLs are rarely archived
• Binary assets: Release binaries and attachments typically fail to archive

Rate Limiting

Archive.org has undocumented rate limits:

• Sustainable rate: ~100 requests/minute
• Implement exponential backoff if you receive 429 responses
• Use collapse parameters to reduce result count
• Cache results locally for repeated analysis

Troubleshooting

No archived snapshots found:

• Repository may be too new or obscure for crawling
• Try searching with wildcards: github.com/owner/repo/*
• Check if repo was ever public (private repos not crawled)

Archived page shows broken layout:

• Normal for JavaScript-heavy pages
• Try "View Source" to extract text content
• Use older timestamps (pre-2020 GitHub had simpler rendering)

CDX API returns empty results:

• Verify URL format (no trailing slashes, correct case)
• Try matchType=prefix instead of exact
• Remove filter=statuscode:200 to see all captures

Rate limited by Archive.org:

• Implement delays between requests (1-2 seconds)
• Use collapse=timestamp:8 to reduce duplicates
• Download during off-peak hours

Learn More

• Wayback Machine CDX API: https://github.com/internetarchive/wayback/tree/master/wayback-cdx-server
• Archive Team GitHub Project: https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/GitHub
• Internet Archive Python Library: https://archive.org/services/docs/api/internetarchive/
• waybackpy Documentation: https://pypi.org/project/waybackpy/