Feature Request: Separate local work storage from final archive storage
Author: IkariDevGITCreated Aug 1, 2026Updated Aug 1, 2026
What type of suggestion are you making?
Modification of existing behavior
What is the problem that your feature request solves?
ArchiveBox performs browser and extractor I/O directly inside /data/archive.
When that directory is hosted on NFS or a NAS, Chromium profiles, extension data, downloads, logs, and extractor output cause a huge amount of slow small-file I/O. On my setup, archiving a single page can take around 30 minutes despite sufficient CPU and memory.
What is your proposed solution?
Add a supported local work directory separate from the final archive directory.
Browser profiles, downloads, extractor working files, and other runtime data should use local storage, while completed archive output is stored in the configured archive directory.
What hacks or alternative solutions have you tried to solve the problem?
TMP_DIR does not cover the browser profiles, downloads, plugin output, and snapshot working directories.
Bind-mounting individual internal directories onto local storage would depend on ArchiveBox's internal layout and would be fragile across updates.
Share the entire output of the archivebox version command for the current version you are using.
0.9.35rc190
ArchiveBox v0.9.35rc190 COMMIT_HASH=c825cdb BUILD_TIME=2026-07-31 07:28:15 1785482895
IN_DOCKER=True IN_QEMU=False ARCH=x86_64 OS=Linux PLATFORM=Linux-6.12.100+deb13-amd64-x86_64-with-glibc2.41 PYTHON=Cpython (venv)
EUID=911:911 UID=911:911 ARCHIVEBOX_USER=911:911 FS_UID=911:911 FS_PERMS=644 FS_ATOMIC=True FS_REMOTE=True
DEBUG=False IS_TTY=True SUDO=False ID=809d91e0:8dd43803 SEARCH_BACKEND=sonic LDAP=False
Binary Dependencies:
Binary Dependencies
Binary Plugin Status Version Provider Path
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archivewebpage archivewebpage ✅ 0.16.2 chromewe ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/chromewebstore/extensions/archivewebpage.extension.json
node chrome ✅ 24.18.0 env /opt/node/bin/node
abxbus chrome ✅ 2.5.9 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/abxbus/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/abxbus/dist/cj…
browsers chrome ✅ 3.0.6 env ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/puppeteer/node_modules/.bin/browsers
chromium chrome ✅ 153.0.7983 puppetee ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/puppeteer/bin/chromium
defuddle defuddle ✅ 0.19.2 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/defuddle/node_modules/.bin/defuddle
forum-dl forumdl ✅ 0.3.0 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/forum-dl/venv/bin/forum-dl
gallery-dl gallerydl ✅ 1.32.7 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/gallery-dl/venv/bin/gallery-dl
git git ✅ 2.47.3 env /usr/bin/git
istilldontcareaboutcookies istilldontcareaboutcook… ✅ 1.1.9 chromewe ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/chromewebstore/extensions/istilldontcareaboutcookies.extension.json
lit liteparse ✅ 2.8.1 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/liteparse/node_modules/.bin/lit
tesseract liteparse ✅ 5.5.0 env /usr/bin/tesseract
convert liteparse ✅ 7.1.1 env /usr/bin/magick-im7.q16
postlight-parser mercury ✅ 2.2.3 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/mercury/node_modules/.bin/postlight-parser
npm opencode disabled 11.16.0 env /opt/node/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js
papers-dl papersdl ✅ 0.0.25 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/papers-dl/venv/bin/papers-dl
feedparser parse_rss_urls ✅ 6.0.12 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/parse_rss_urls/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/feedparser/__init__…
readability-extractor readability ✅ 0.0.6 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/readability/node_modules/.bin/readability-extractor
rg search_backend_ripgrep ✅ 14.1.1 env /usr/bin/rg
sonic search_backend_sonic ✅ 1.4.9 env /usr/local/bin/sonic
single-file singlefile ✅ 1.1.54 pnpm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/pnpm/packages/singlefile/node_modules/.bin/single-file
singlefile singlefile ✅ 1.22.98 chromewe ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/chromewebstore/extensions/singlefile.extension.json
trafilatura trafilatura ✅ 2.1.0 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/trafilatura/venv/bin/trafilatura
twocaptcha twocaptcha disabled 3.7.4 chromewe ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/chromewebstore/extensions/twocaptcha.extension.json
ublock ublock ✅ 2026.729.1529 chromewe ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/chromewebstore/extensions/ublock.extension.json
wget wget ✅ 1.25.0 env /usr/bin/wget
yt-dlp ytdlp ✅ 2026.7.4 uv ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/uv/packages/yt-dlp/venv/bin/yt-dlp
ffmpeg ytdlp ✅ 7.1.5 env /usr/bin/ffmpeg
apt-get (database) ✅ 3.0.3 env /usr/bin/apt-get
archivebox (database) ✅ 0.9.35 env /venv/bin/archivebox
daphne (database) ✅ 4.2.3 env /venv/bin/daphne
dpkg (database) ✅ 1.22.22 env /usr/bin/dpkg
dpkg-query (database) ✅ 1.22.22 env /usr/bin/dpkg-query
find (database) ✅ 4.10.0 env /usr/bin/find
pip (database) ✅ 26.2.0 env /venv/bin/pip
pmap (database) ✅ 4.0.4 env /usr/bin/pmap
pnpm (database) ✅ 10.19.0 npm ABXPKG_LIB_DIR/npm/packages/pnpm/node_modules/pnpm/bin/pnpm.cjs
python (database) ✅ 3.13.12 env /opt/uv/python/cpython-3.13.12-linux-x86_64-gnu/bin/python3.13
python3 (database) ✅ 3.13.12 env /opt/uv/python/cpython-3.13.12-linux-x86_64-gnu/bin/python3.13
supervisord (database) ✅ 4.3.0 env /venv/bin/supervisord
unzip (database) ✅ 6.0.0 env /usr/bin/unzip
uv (database) ✅ 0.10.6 env /usr/bin/uv
Code locations:
√ PACKAGE_DIR 23 files valid /venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/archivebox
√ TEMPLATES_DIR 5 files valid /venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/archivebox/templates
- CUSTOM_TEMPLATES_DIR missing unused ./custom_templates
- USER_PLUGINS_DIR missing unused ./custom_plugins
√ ABXPKG_LIB_DIR 11 files valid /opt/archivebox/lib
Data locations:
√ DATA_DIR 11 files @ valid /data
√ CONFIG_FILE 81.0 Bytes valid ./ArchiveBox.conf
√ SQL_INDEX valid postgresql://archivebox@postgres:5432/archivebox
√ ARCHIVE_DIR 4 files @ valid ./archive
√ USERS_DIR 2 files valid ./archive/users
√ SOURCES_DIR 0 files valid ./sources
√ PERSONAS_DIR 1 files valid ./personas
√ LOGS_DIR 6 files valid ./logs
√ TMP_DIR 0 files valid /tmp/archiveboxHow badly do you want this new feature?
- It's an urgent deal-breaker, I can't live without it
- It's important to add it in the near-mid term future
- It would be nice to have eventually
- I'm willing to start a PR to develop this myself
- I have donated money to go towards fixing this issue
Mini Survey
- I like ArchiveBox so far / would recommend it to a friend
- I've had a lot of difficulty getting ArchiveBox set up
- I would pay $10/mo for a hosted version of ArchiveBox if it had this feature
Source: ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox