> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.apostate.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Web archiving > Capture a page as a visitor sees it, with a full-page screenshot, a PDF, the HTML, a HAR file and a manifest of SHA-256 hashes, for research or compliance records. You keep records of web pages for research or compliance, and each record has to show the page as a visitor saw it and say how and when it was made. This walkthrough captures a page into a folder with a full-page screenshot, a PDF, the rendered HTML, a HAR file of the network traffic and a manifest with the SHA-256 of each file. ## What Apostate changes Some sites answer automated or headless browsers with a challenge page or less content. Apostate presents a desktop machine without the automation traces those sites check for ([Detection](/concepts/detection#automation-traces)), so the capture shows the page a visitor on that machine gets. A [persona](/concepts/personas) is the platform the browser presents, and a [seed](/concepts/seeds-and-identity) selects the machine. The manifest records both, and a later capture with the same seed uses the same machine. ## Set up ```bash theme={null} pip install apostate apostate install apostate fonts install windows git clone https://github.com/heretic-tech/apostate.git cd apostate/examples/use-cases/web-archiving ``` `apostate fonts install windows` is for Linux and macOS hosts ([Fonts](/guides/fonts)). [`archive.py`](https://github.com/heretic-tech/apostate/blob/main/examples/use-cases/web-archiving/archive.py) captures each URL you pass, and `https://example.com` when you pass none. Each capture goes into `out/-/`. ## The script ```python theme={null} def capture(url, locale, zone): taken = datetime.now(timezone.utc) folder = OUT / f"{urlsplit(url).hostname}-{taken:%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ}" folder.mkdir(parents=True) proxy = os.environ.get("APOSTATE_PROXY") # Behind a proxy, the package sets locale and timezone from the proxy's exit. region = {} if proxy else {"locale": locale, "timezone": zone, "geoip": False} with launch(fingerprint=SEED, fingerprint_platform=PERSONA, proxy=proxy, **region, record_har_path=folder / "page.har") as browser: page = browser.new_page() response = page.goto(url, wait_until="networkidle") page.screenshot(path=folder / "screenshot.png", full_page=True) # page.pdf() works only in a headless browser, which is the default. page.pdf(path=folder / "page.pdf", format="A4", print_background=True) (folder / "page.html").write_text(page.content(), encoding="utf-8") seen = page.evaluate("""() => ({ userAgent: navigator.userAgent, language: navigator.language, timeZone: Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone, })""") details = {"final_url": page.url, "status": response.status, "title": page.title(), "browser": browser.version} # The HAR file is complete once the browser has closed. manifest = { "url": url, **details, "captured_at": taken.isoformat(timespec="seconds"), "persona": PERSONA, "seed": SEED, "apostate": version("apostate"), "proxy": bool(proxy), **seen, "files": {path.name: {"bytes": path.stat().st_size, "sha256": sha256(path)} for path in sorted(folder.iterdir())}, } (folder / "manifest.json").write_text(json.dumps(manifest, indent=2) + "\n") return folder, manifest ``` `record_har_path` is a Playwright option. `launch()` passes Playwright's launch and context options through ([Python](/guides/python#playwright-options)). Playwright writes the HAR file when the browser closes, so the script hashes the files after the `with` block. ## Run it ```bash theme={null} python3 archive.py ``` ```text theme={null} https://example.com 200 Example Domain out/example.com-20260927T172922Z/ page.har 3175 bytes sha256 e7fafc00f1368a47... page.html 559 bytes sha256 7b6cd9a1d881c4a6... page.pdf 21210 bytes sha256 6f719987f8c6c7b1... screenshot.png 19669 bytes sha256 fffa31b6827477df... ``` `manifest.json` in the same folder: ```json theme={null} { "url": "https://example.com", "final_url": "https://example.com/", "status": 200, "title": "Example Domain", "browser": "152.0.7977.83", "captured_at": "2026-09-27T17:29:22+00:00", "persona": "windows", "seed": 42, "apostate": "0.4.3", "proxy": false, "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/152.0.0.0 Safari/537.36", "language": "en-US", "timeZone": "America/New_York", "files": { "page.har": { "bytes": 3175, "sha256": "e7fafc00f1368a477cf512f00cf43b770c6b9fa53c8e0f7fb6326b29204d1328" }, "page.html": { "bytes": 559, "sha256": "7b6cd9a1d881c4a69bf70b9babb5a4a90e38aa6f9933785508a38f665d4d4aab" }, "page.pdf": { "bytes": 21210, "sha256": "6f719987f8c6c7b1a50e272891af31c8a1b69a3623ce60510468c5e3f01232c7" }, "screenshot.png": { "bytes": 19669, "sha256": "fffa31b6827477dff5d36b105e4e7a5c6f2964d290018f19dd1b47c732b2a41b" } } } ``` To check a file later, hash it again and compare with the manifest. On macOS: ```bash theme={null} shasum -a 256 out/example.com-20260927T172922Z/page.pdf ``` ```text theme={null} 6f719987f8c6c7b1a50e272891af31c8a1b69a3623ce60510468c5e3f01232c7 out/example.com-20260927T172922Z/page.pdf ``` On Linux, `sha256sum` prints the same. ## What each file holds | File | Contents | | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `screenshot.png` | The whole page, from a full-page screenshot at the persona's window width | | `page.pdf` | The page as Chrome prints it, on A4 with backgrounds | | `page.html` | The document after its scripts ran, from `page.content()` | | `page.har` | Every request and response, with response bodies embedded. The HTML the server sent is here. | | `manifest.json` | The URL, the final URL and status, the time in UTC, the persona, seed and versions, what the page read, and the size and SHA-256 of every other file | ## Points for this job * **Seed and persona.** The manifest records both, with the Apostate and browser versions. A later capture with the same seed, persona and version uses the same machine. A release that changes the catalogue tables can change it ([Seeds and identity](/concepts/seeds-and-identity#updates-and-catalogue-changes)). * **Region.** With `APOSTATE_PROXY` set, every page loads through that proxy, and the package sets the locale and timezone from the proxy's exit. Without a proxy, `--locale` and `--timezone` set them. The manifest records the language and timezone the page read. [Proxies](/guides/proxies) covers proxy URLs. * **Integrity.** Anyone who can edit the folder can edit the manifest too. To show later that a record is unchanged, sign the manifest or store the folder where it cannot be changed. * **Many pages.** To archive many pages of one site, follow its terms and robots.txt and space the page loads. [Price monitoring](/use-cases/price-monitoring) shows both. * **Waiting.** With `wait_until="networkidle"`, `page.goto()` returns after 500 ms with no network connections. Content that loads on scroll or on a timer appears only if the script scrolls or waits for it before the screenshot. * **Theme.** A persona draws a light or dark theme. From 0.4.4 the page reads that theme through `prefers-color-scheme`. With the 0.4.3 package the page reads light unless you pass `color_scheme="null"` ([Known gaps](/known-gaps#prefers-color-scheme-in-the-0-4-3-packages)). To capture every page in one theme, pass `color_scheme="light"` or `color_scheme="dark"` to `launch()`. * **Headless.** `page.pdf()` works only headless, the default.