How it works
When you save a link, Backpocket automatically triggers a snapshot — an asynchronous process that:- Fetches the page content
- Extracts the article using Mozilla Readability
- Sanitizes the HTML for safe rendering
- Stores both HTML and plain text versions
- Deduplicates content using SHA-256 hashing
Snapshots are processed in the background. Most complete within a few seconds of saving. You can monitor the status on the save detail view.
Snapshot status
Each snapshot progresses through a status flow:| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Queued for processing |
| Processing | Currently fetching and extracting content |
| Ready | Content extracted successfully — reader mode available |
| Failed | Extraction failed (will retry automatically) |
| Blocked | Page cannot be snapshotted (see reasons below) |
Blocked reasons
Some pages can’t be snapshotted:| Reason | Description |
|---|---|
noarchive | Page has a noarchive meta tag |
forbidden | Server returned 403 |
not_html | Content is not HTML (PDF, image, etc.) |
too_large | Page content exceeds size limit |
Domain-specific extractors
For certain websites, standard Readability extraction doesn’t capture the best content. Backpocket includes custom extractors for these domains:| Domain | Extraction method | What it captures |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X | oEmbed API | Full tweet content, author, media, and engagement |
| HTML scraping | Post title, body, comments summary, subreddit | |
| OG meta extraction | Caption, author, image, content type (post/reel/story) |
More extractors are planned for YouTube, GitHub, Hacker News, TikTok, and more. See the roadmap for the full list.
Snapshot versioning
Backpocket keeps a version history of snapshots for each save:- Each new snapshot gets a sequential version number (v1, v2, v3…)
- The active version is displayed by default in reader mode
- You can view all versions and restore any previous version
- If a re-snapshot produces identical content, the duplicate is discarded automatically
Re-snapshotting
You can manually request a new snapshot at any time:- Open the save detail view
- Click Re-snapshot (or equivalent action)
- A new version is created if the content has changed
Content storage
Backpocket uses content-addressable storage for efficient deduplication:- Content is hashed with SHA-256
- Identical content across different saves is stored only once
- Reference counting ensures content is cleaned up when no longer needed
Viewing reader mode
- Web
- Mobile
Click the reader mode icon on any save to open the clean reading view. The article renders with proper typography, headings, images, and code blocks.