Time Machine - Keenable

The Time Machine API is experimental and can change before general availability.

Examples and coverage verified against the production API on 2026-10-26. Search and read the web as Keenable captured it at a past moment, given by query_time. Every result is a version of the page captured at or before query_time, so nothing published or edited later can appear. Use it to backtest agents and forecasts, to research what was known on a given date, or to build training datasets that can’t see the future.

Endpoint	What it does
`GET` or `POST https://api.keenable.ai/v1/time_machine/search`	Searches the web as of `query_time`
`GET https://api.keenable.ai/v1/time_machine/fetch`	Reads one page as it was at `query_time`

Access

Send your API key in the X-API-Key header.
Time Machine must be turned on for your organization. If it isn’t, every call returns 403 with Feature not enabled. To turn it on, go to keenable.ai/time-machine or ask your Keenable contact.
Each search uses credits like a regular search, and each fetch like a regular fetch. If your organization has no credits left, calls return 402 with Insufficient credits.
Most responses carry an X-Request-Id header. Include its value when you report a problem.

Quick start

Set your API key in the environment, then run the examples below.

export KEENABLE_API_KEY=...   # your API key

Search: what was known about the WeWork IPO on 1 September 2019, a month before it was withdrawn.

curl -s --get "https://api.keenable.ai/v1/time_machine/search" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $KEENABLE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "query=WeWork IPO" \
  --data-urlencode "query_time=2019-09-01" \
  --data-urlencode "max_results=3" \
  --data-urlencode "snippet_max_length=200"

{
  "query": "WeWork IPO",
  "query_time": "2019-09-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "WeWork Takes Key Step Toward I.P.O., Citing Heady Growth and Huge Losses",
      "url": "https://nytimes.com/2019/08/14/business/dealbook/wework-ipo.html",
      "snippet": "WeWork would be the second-largest “unicorn” — a privately held start-up valued at $1 billion or more — to go public this year after Uber.\n\nThe offering is being led by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.",
      "published_at": "2019-08-14T00:00:00Z",
      "acquired_at": "2019-08-20T03:49:44Z"
    },
    {
      "title": "WeWork files for IPO amid investor skepticism over deep losses",
      "url": "https://theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/14/wework-files-for-ipo-amid-investor-skepticism-over-deep-losses",
      "snippet": "sleepy world of office rentals by adding a hipster aesthetic and beer taps to office life, became the latest Silicon Valley “unicorn” to file for an initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday,",
      "published_at": "2019-08-14T13:10:38Z",
      "acquired_at": "2019-08-21T14:33:06Z"
    }
  ]
}

(The response contains 3 results; only 2 are shown here.) Search with filters, sent as a POST with a JSON body:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.keenable.ai/v1/time_machine/search" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $KEENABLE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "Uber IPO", "query_time": "2019-06-01T00:00:00Z", "site": "techcrunch.com",
       "published_after": "2019-04-01", "max_results": 3, "snippet_max_length": 200}'

The response has the same shape as the GET search above. Fetch: one page as it was on 1 September 2019.

curl -s --get "https://api.keenable.ai/v1/time_machine/fetch" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $KEENABLE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ipo-we-company-history-founder-story-timeline-adam-neumann-2019-8" \
  --data-urlencode "query_time=2019-09-01" \
  --data-urlencode "max_chars=300"

{
  "url": "https://businessinsider.com/wework-ipo-we-company-history-founder-story-timeline-adam-neumann-2019-8",
  "query_time": "2019-09-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "acquired_at": "2019-08-23T12:47:36Z",
  "published_at": "2019-08-14T00:00:00Z",
  "title": "WeWork history, from Manhattan building to $47 billion valuation, IPO",
  "content": "WeWork’s $47 billion parent company, The We Company,  publicly filed its IPO paperwork on Wednesday. WeWork started as one office space in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Now it has nearly 800 locations open or coming soon in 124 cities around the world. The We Company is composed of WeWork\n\n..._This content has been truncated to stay below 300 characters_..."
}

Other query_time values return other versions of the same URL:

`query_time`	Result
`2019-06-01`	`404`: no version had been captured yet
`2019-09-01`	The version captured on 2019-08-23, shown above
`2019-11-01`	The version captured on 2019-09-20, titled “WeWork history, from single Manhattan building to global company, IPO”
`2026-10-01`	The version captured on 2026-09-16, titled “WeWork history, from single Manhattan building to pushing out its CEO”

`query_time`

Both endpoints require query_time. The response echoes it in UTC ISO 8601 form, for example 2019-09-01T00:00:00.000Z.

Form	Example	Meaning
ISO 8601 with a time zone	`2019-09-01T12:00:00Z`, `2019-09-01T08:00:00-04:00`	That instant
ISO 8601 without a time zone	`2019-09-01T12:00`	That instant, in UTC
Date	`2019-09-01`	Midnight UTC at the start of that day
Unix epoch	`1567296000` (seconds) or `1567296000000` (milliseconds)	That instant
Relative	`30d`	30 days before now. Units: `min`, `h`, `d`, `w`, `mo` (30 days), `y` (365 days)

query_time must not be in the future, and now is not accepted. For current results, use the regular search API.
In a JSON body, query_time must be a string, so quote epochs: "1567296000".
In a GET query string, encode the + of a time zone offset as %2B. curl’s --data-urlencode does this for you.

Search

GET or POST /v1/time_machine/search. GET takes the parameters in the query string. POST takes the same parameters as a JSON body.

Request

string

required

What to search for, in words. A URL is rejected; to read a URL, use fetch.

string

required

See query_time.

string

Only results from this domain, e.g. techcrunch.com. A leading www. is optional.

string

Only pages published after this date. Accepts a date, an ISO 8601 timestamp, a Unix epoch, or a relative offset counted back from query_time (7d means 7 days before query_time).

string

Only pages published before this date. Same formats as published_after.

integer

default:"10"

How many results to return, from 1 to 50.

integer

Maximum snippet length in characters, 180–10,000. Without it, snippets are typically 500–3,500 characters.

string

Your own ID for grouping related requests. You can send it as the X-Keenable-Session-Id header instead.

Any other parameter returns 400 with Unknown parameter(s) and the list of supported parameters. The site: operator inside query also works. The acquired_after: and acquired_before: operators are rejected. The published_after: and published_before: operators inside query take only absolute dates. A relative one, such as published_after:7d, is rejected, because there it would count back from now; use the published_after parameter, which counts back from query_time.

Response

string

Your query.

string

The query_time used, in UTC ISO 8601.

array

Results, most relevant first.

Show result

string

The page’s title, from the captured version.

string

The page’s URL, normalized (for example, without www.).

string

A relevant passage from the captured version.

string

The page’s publication date in UTC ISO 8601. Absent when unknown.

string

When Keenable captured the version this result shows, in UTC ISO 8601. Always at or before query_time.

string

Present only when the API adjusted your query. For example, a query made only of site: operators is searched with the site’s name as the search term.

object

What this call was billed: sku (search.time_machine), amount (1), credits (credits charged) and paid (true when the credits came from your purchased balance, false when they came from your plan’s free credits).

Fetch

GET /v1/time_machine/fetch, GET only. Returns the latest version of the page that Keenable stored at or before query_time. It never fetches the live page. Keenable doesn’t have every older version of every page.

Request

string

required

The page’s URL. www. and non-www. forms return the same page, but http:// and https:// are different URLs.

string

required

See query_time.

integer

default:"50000"

Maximum content length, as a positive integer. Longer content is cut to max_chars characters, and a truncation note of about 70 characters is appended.

string

Your own ID for grouping related requests. You can send it as the X-Keenable-Session-Id header instead.

Response

string

The page’s URL, normalized.

string

The query_time used, in UTC ISO 8601.

string

When Keenable captured this version, in UTC ISO 8601.

string

The page’s publication date in this version, in UTC ISO 8601. Absent when unknown.

string

The page’s title in this version. Absent when unknown.

string

The page’s text in this version.

object

What this call was billed: sku (fetch.time_machine), amount (1), credits and paid, as in search.

If no version was captured at or before query_time, fetch returns 404 and the response suggests trying a later query_time.

Errors

Errors are JSON: {"error": "<title>", "message": "<details>"}. message is sometimes absent. A call that returns an error is not billed, and its response carries no usage.

Status	`error`	When
400	`Missing required parameter`	`query`, `url` or `query_time` is missing, or `query_time` is `now`.
400	`Invalid parameter`	`query_time` is malformed, in the future, or not a string; a value is out of range; or `query` contains a rejected operator.
400	`Bad request`	An unknown parameter, a URL as a search query, an unparseable fetch URL, or a malformed `published_after` or `published_before`.
401	`Missing authentication` or `Authentication failed`	The API key is missing or invalid.
402	`Insufficient credits`	Your organization has no credits left.
403	`Feature not enabled`	Time Machine is not enabled for your organization.
403	`Upstream forbidden`	Fetch: the stored version is a bot-check page, not the page itself.
404	`Not found`	Fetch: no version was captured at or before `query_time`. Also returned for `POST` to fetch.
422	`Unprocessable entity`	Fetch: the stored version has no usable text, for example an empty page or a login wall.
429	`Rate limit exceeded`	Your organization’s requests-per-second limit was exceeded.
5xx	Varies	A transient failure. Retry with backoff.

​Access

​Quick start

​query_time

​Search

​Request

​Response

​Fetch

​Request

​Response

​Errors

Access

Quick start

`query_time`

Search

Request

Response

Fetch

Request

Response

Errors