Internet Archive Upload Action

This action was originally forked from palewire/internet-archive-upload.
It allows you to upload files or directories to the Internet Archive (archive.org) and set metadata for the uploaded items.
The action supports uploading single files, multiple files, or entire directories, and it can handle various metadata fields to describe the content being uploaded.

Inputs: (Required)

These 4 fields, MUST be present in your action configuration.
Missing any 1 of these will cause the upload to fail.

Input Name	Description
`access-key`	Your archive.org access key
`secret-key`	Your archive.org secret key
`identifier`	The unique identifier of the archive.org item where the file will be stored
`files`	File or folder path(s) to upload. Supports a single path, a glob pattern, or a comma-separated list of paths

Additional Non-Metadata Optional Inputs

Input Name	Description
`log-level`	Log verbosity level for the uploader. Allowed values: `DEBUG`, `INFO`, `WARNING`, `ERROR`, `CRITICAL`. Defaults to `INFO`.

Outputs

Output Name	Description
`item-url`	Archive.org details page URL for the target identifier, e.g. `https://archive.org/details/<identifier>`

Supported Metadata Fields Inputs: (Optional)

All of the following fields are optional.
They are used to define additional metadata on your uploads according to the Archive.org Metadata Schema.
Please refer to the metadata docs above if you have any questions about uploading specific metadata.

Input Name	Description	Example
`adaptive_ocr`	Allows deriver to skip a page that would otherwise disrupt OCR	true
`aspect_ratio`	Ratio of the pixel width and height of a video stream (e.g. 4:3, 16:9)	4:3
`betterpdf`	Indicates that the derive module should create a higher quality PDF derivative	true
`bookreader-defaults`	Bookreader display mode (e.g. mode/1up, mode/2up, mode/thumb)	mode/1up
`bwocr`	Allows deriver to OCR specific pages as B&W if color is causing failure	001
`call_number`	Contributing library’s local call number	6675707, NC 285.1 P9287m
`ccnum`	Closed Captioning Number	cc5
`closed_captioning`	Indicates whether item contains closed captioning files (yes/no)	yes
`color`	Indicates whether media is in color or black and white (`color` or `black and white`)	color
`condition`	Condition of media (e.g. Good, Fair, Poor)	Good
`condition-visual`	Condition of artwork or printed materials	Good
`contributor`	Comma-separated list of contributors	Robarts - University of Toronto
`coverage`	Comma-separated list of geographic or subject areas covered by item	GB-LND
`creator`	Comma-separated list of creators	Austen, Jane, 1775-1817, Ralph Burns
`creator-alt-script`	Creator in alternate script	[alternate script]
`date`	Date of publication (YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD)	1965, 2013-05-25, [n.d.]
`description`	Describes the media stored in the item	Cinemascope homage to the city of San Francisco made by amateur filmmaker and inventor Tullio Pellegrini.
`external-identifier`	Comma-separated list of URLs or identifiers to outside resources	urn:publisher_catalog_id:88697 03614 2
`fixed-ppi`	To change the ppi to a specific resolution	300
`isbn`	Comma-separated list of ISBN-10 or ISBN-13	3540212507, 031294716X
`issn`	Comma-separated list of ISSN identifiers	2528-7788, 1943-345X
`lccn`	Comma-separated list of Library of Congress Call Numbers	2004045278
`language`	Comma-separated list of languages	eng, Italian, None
`licenseurl`	URL of the copyright license	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
`notes`	Additional notes about the item	[any string]
`oclc-id`	Comma-separated list of OCLC identifiers	37432884
`openlibrary`	Deprecated. Open Library edition identifier	OL2769393M
`openlibrary_author`	Comma-separated list of Open Library authors	OL52922A
`openlibrary_edition`	Open Library edition identifier	OL2769393M
`openlibrary_subject`	Comma-separated list of Open Library subjects	openlibrary_staff_picks
`openlibrary_work`	Open Library work identifier	OL675783W
`page-progression`	Determines direction pages will be “turned” in a book (lr/rl)	lr
`possible-copyright-status`	Information relevant to copyright status	The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Library is unaware of any copyright restrictions for this item.
`ppi`	Pixels per inch	300
`publisher`	Publisher of the media	New York : R.R. Bowker Co.
`related-external-id`	Comma-separated list of related external identifiers	urn:isbn:0671038303
`rights`	Rights statement	Permission is granted under the Wikimedia Foundation’s …
`scandate`	Date and time the media was captured	20170329201345
`scanner`	Machinery used to digitize or collect the media	scribe2.nj.archive.org
`size`	Size of physical item digitized	10.0
`sound`	Indicates whether media has sound or is silent (`sound` or `silent`)	sound
`source`	Source of media	folio, Comcast Cable, CD
`sponsor`	The person or organization that funded the digitization or collection	Kahle-Austin Foundation
`subject`	Comma-separated list of subjects/topics for the item	France
`title`	The human-readable title for the item	San Francisco (1955 Cinemascope film)
`title-alt-script`	Title in alternate script	[alternate script]
`volume`	Volume number or name	15
`year`	Year of publication (deprecated, use date)	1996

Usage Examples

[!TIP] For supply-chain security, pin this action to a full commit SHA instead of a mutable tag such as latest. The latest SHA for this repo is:
1cdb640f1bd8b06c29ef86a7d323d8c2e51eda89
Use it as: nick2bad4u/internet-archive-upload@1cdb640f1bd8b06c29ef86a7d323d8c2e51eda89

[!NOTE] Set log-level: DEBUG in action inputs for verbose troubleshooting output (or override via IA_LOG_LEVEL).

[!IMPORTANT] Best practice for this action is to rely on the step exit code for success/failure. It intentionally does not expose status/message outputs, because those are redundant with normal GitHub Actions failure handling and are less reliable when a step fails fast.

[!NOTE] The action does expose one useful output: item-url, which is the expected Internet Archive details URL derived from the target identifier.

Upload a single file with metadata

name: Upload a file to archive.org with metadata
jobs:

  job:
    name: Upload a file
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Upload file to archive.org
        id: ia_upload
        uses: nick2bad4u/internet-archive-upload@1cdb640f1bd8b06c29ef86a7d323d8c2e51eda89
        with:
            # Required fields
            access-key: $
            secret-key: $
            identifier: your-item
            files: your-file.jpg

            # Optional metadata fields
            title: "My Archive Title"
            creator: "Jane Doe,John Smith"
            subject: "example,archive,upload"
            date: "2025-05-29"
            language: "English"
            betterpdf: true

      - name: Print uploaded item URL
        run: echo "Item URL: $"

Upload a directory of files

name: Upload a directory of files to archive.org with metadata
jobs:

  job:
    name: Upload directory
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Upload directory to archive.org
        uses: nick2bad4u/internet-archive-upload@1cdb640f1bd8b06c29ef86a7d323d8c2e51eda89
        with:
          # Required fields
          access-key: $
          secret-key: $
          identifier: your-item
          files: your-files/

          # Optional metadata fields
          title: "My Archive Title"
          creator: "Jane Doe,John Smith"
          subject: "example,archive,upload"
          date: "2025-05-29"
          language: "English"
          betterpdf: true

Example of a real-world usage in a GitHub Actions workflow

Action is located here in the repo here: .github/workflows/internet-archive-upload.yml
Check workflow run logs here: Upload Releases to Archive.org - Logs

name: Upload Releases to Archive.org

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:

concurrency:
  group: IA-$
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  upload-windows:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:

      - name: Download release tarball + zip
        id: download_zip
        uses: robinraju/release-downloader@daf26c55d821e836577a15f77d86ddc078948b05 # v1.12
        with:
          repository: Nick2bad4u/internet-archive-upload
          latest: true
          tarBall: true
          zipBall: true
          token: $

      - name: Upload tarball + zip to archive.org
        uses: Nick2bad4u/internet-archive-upload@1cdb640f1bd8b06c29ef86a7d323d8c2e51eda89 # main
        with:
          access-key: $
          secret-key: $
          identifier: Github-Action-IA-Archiver-$
          files: ./
        continue-on-error: true
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: $

Issues

If you encounter any issues or have feature requests, please open an issue in the GitHub repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

If you want to contribute to this project, please fork the repository and submit a pull request. Contributions are welcome!

Acknowledgements

This action was originally created by Ben Welsh. It has been forked and maintained by Nick2bad4u.

Internet Archive Upload W/ Metadata Support

Internet Archive Upload Action with Metadata Support for GitHub Actions