Ebook Tools Directory/Open-Access Research Tools/Internet Archive CLI
Open-Access Research ToolsVerified Authentic ReleaseAGPL-3.0

Internet Archive CLI

Official Python client and CLI for downloading, querying metadata, and researching Archive.org.

1,932 Stars261 ForksPythonRelease: v5.12.1

Tool Overview

The `internetarchive` Python library and `ia` command-line tool provide official programmatic access to the millions of open-access public books, academic texts, historical scans, and metadata records housed in the Internet Archive digital library.

System Requirements: Python 3.7+

Key Capabilities & Features

Command-line tool `ia` for rapid search, bulk download, and metadata queries
Direct filtering by collection (e.g. `americana`, `gutenberg`, `biodiversity`)
Batch download public domain book scans in PDF, EPUB, and DJVU formats
Query deep catalog metadata including MARC records, publisher, and scan dates
Resume partial or interrupted multi-gigabyte document downloads seamlessly

Package Manager & CLI Installation

Install and update Internet Archive CLI using your preferred operating system package manager or container runtime:

$ pip install internetarchive

Verified Official Release Downloads

v5.12.1

All binaries are sourced directly from the official developer release assets without re-packaging or modifications.

Generic BinaryVerified
ia-5.12.1-py3-none-any.pex
Size: 1.68 MBDownloads: 47
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Checksum / SignatureVerified
ia-pex.sha256
Size: 0.0 MBDownloads: 13
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Source Code ZIPVerified
internetarchive-v5.12.1-source.zip
Size: GitHub Archive
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Client-Side SHA-256 Binary Integrity Verifier

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Computes SHA-256 hash in real-time to guarantee file authenticity against developer releases.

Security Verification Status: Verified Official Internet Archive Tool

Downloads link directly to the official GitHub releases hosted by jjjake/internetarchive. Files are checked for authentic digital developer signatures and verified against open-source repository tags.

Latest Release Changelog (v5.12.1)

**Security** - The published `ia` pex binary for 5.12.0 bundled certifi 2026.7.22, which still trusts the emSign root CAs whose intermediate keys were compromised (GHSA-6q48-6c7w-9gw2). This release rebuilds the binary with certifi 2026.10.19. `certifi>=2026.10.19` is now also a declared dependency, so `pip install -U internetarchive` carries the fix into existing environments. - Development and CI dependencies updated past their open advisories: urllib3 2.8.0 (CVE-2026-97687, CVE-2026-97688, CVE-2026-97689) and virtualenv 21.14.12 (sixteen activation-script and seed-wheel advisories). - `ia --insecure` now prints a warning to stderr on every invocation that the request, including S3 keys and cookies, goes over unencrypted HTTP, and its `--help` text says the same. A `SECURITY.md` documents how to report vulnerabilities privately. - The `ia` pex binary is now built from the versions pinned in `uv.lock`, with every bundled wheel verified against the lockfile's sha256, instead of from a hand-maintained list of version floors that took whatever PyPI served on build day. The build fails if any dependency lacks a universal wheel, so the binary stays platform-