> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://waybackrevive.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Wayback Machine Data Powers Website Restoration

> We use Archive.org snapshots as the primary source for restoration. Learn what the archive stores, how snapshots vary, and how we select the best versions.

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is the foundation of every restoration we perform. It stores periodic snapshots of publicly accessible web pages, giving us a historical record to work from even when the original site is long gone.

## What Archive.org stores

Each snapshot may include:

* **HTML pages** — the rendered markup of each URL the crawler visited
* **Images** — photos, icons, and other image assets linked from those pages
* **CSS and JavaScript** — stylesheets and scripts loaded by the page
* **Other media** — PDFs, fonts, and downloadable files, depending on crawl depth

<Info>
  The archive is a snapshot, not a backup. It captures what the Wayback Machine's crawler could access at a given moment. Private pages, dynamically generated content, and assets blocked by `robots.txt` are typically absent.
</Info>

## How snapshot quality varies

Not every snapshot is equally complete. Coverage depends on:

* **Date** — earlier crawls may pre-date certain pages or assets
* **Crawl depth** — some snapshots only capture top-level pages, not every subpage
* **Asset availability** — linked files may have been missed or loaded from external CDNs that weren't archived
* **Crawl frequency** — popular sites were crawled more often, giving more snapshots to choose from

## Our restoration process

<Steps>
  <Step title="Identify the most complete snapshots">
    We review all available snapshots for your domain and shortlist the dates that offer the broadest and highest-quality coverage of pages and assets.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Extract files and content">
    We download HTML, images, CSS, JavaScript, and any other recoverable assets from the selected snapshots.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Rebuild the site structure">
    We reconstruct internal links and URL paths using the archived structure, so navigation works correctly on the restored site.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Remove archive-specific references">
    All Archive.org URLs, Wayback Machine banners, and snapshot tracking scripts are stripped out so the result is a standalone website.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  When multiple snapshots exist, we combine them to fill gaps. For example, if an image is missing from the best HTML snapshot, we may recover it from an earlier or later crawl.
</Note>