Playground & Replay

URL model

The snapshotId is the stable handle for replay, Highlights, citation links, and follow-up inspection.

All precise evidence links use the same snapshot-scoped ?id=<evidenceId> contract. Playground may use internal hash state while synchronizing its panes, but that state is not the public citation URL.

Replay vs Playground

Replay

Replay opens the captured page from the snapshot archive. Use it to see the page state Fetch captured.

Browser replay is backed by the snapshot's WACZ archive. Adding ?id=<evidenceId> opens an evidence-specific view: depending on the evidence kind, that may render as a source-hunk in replay or open State JSON evidence as JSON instead of browser replay.

Playground

Playground pairs the generated Markdown with the replayed page so you can inspect how output maps back to the source.

The left pane shows Markdown (raw or rendered); the right pane shows the replay iframe. Hovering or clicking a source block links it to the matching region in the replay. Public citation links use /s/<snapshotId>?id=<evidenceId>.

Citation links

Citations are not just footnotes. A citation link should let a human inspect the exact captured evidence behind an agent's claim.

Each Highlights snippet can expose a canonical public Evidence ID in location.evidenceId:

How each surface exposes the link:

• raw API snippets expose location, so you build the URL yourself;
• CLI text output prints citation links above each snippet;
• MCP results add a citationUrl field;
• SDK helpers can build citation URLs from location;
• if no precise location exists, link to the whole snapshot at /s/<snapshotId>.

A Markdown or Appendix citation:

A State JSON citation:

State JSON citation links use the same location.evidenceId contract as Markdown and Appendix. Internal source-object indexes are not public citation targets.

Inspect State JSON

State JSON citations open the structured evidence object that matched the answer, not just the rendered page.

statejson remains the snippet source name. evidenceId is the only public target identity and is accepted by ?id=. Internal State JSON source indexes are not exposed.

Fetch snapshot content

Snapshot links are useful for humans and machines. Browsers get replay; non-HTML clients can request Markdown or JSON evidence.

• GET /s/<snapshotId> can return full Markdown for non-HTML clients via content negotiation.
• GET /s/<snapshotId>/content?id=<id> can return source-hunk Markdown or State JSON evidence, depending on the evidence and the Accept header.
• invalid or missing evidence IDs return not-found behavior.

For the exact content-negotiation contract, see the API Reference.

WACZ archive

Replay is backed by a WACZ archive: the captured page, assets, metadata, Markdown, evidence, and State JSON needed to replay and inspect the snapshot.

The WACZ is public for the snapshot and powers replay loading. It is not the primary integration surface for most users, and its internal format is not owned by this page. Snapshot-land does not publicly serve screenshot or bundle artifacts; screenshots are returned by the Fetch API when you request them through Include Options.

Embed evidence in your product

If you build a deep research agent, return citation links with the answer. Your users should be able to click a claim and inspect the captured source behind it.

A useful citation payload pairs the claim with everything needed to render and open it:

Rendered as a citation card in your product:

Implementation guidance:

• store snapshotId with the research result;
• store snippet source, text, location, and citationUrl when available;
• for API-only integrations, build links from location or use SDK helpers;
• for MCP integrations, pass through citationUrl verbatim;
• for CLI text workflows, preserve the printed citation link;
• render citation links in your product UI, not only in logs.

This is an example product UI for teams building on Expand, not a promise that Playground renders citation cards or copy/share controls. Recommend linking to Playground first; product teams can then open or embed those links according to their own UX constraints.

Shareability, privacy, and indexing

Snapshot links are designed to be shareable evidence links. Treat them like public links to captured source material.

• snapshot URLs are public in the snapshot service;
• snapshot pages use non-indexable and no-referrer page metadata;
• this is not an auth boundary, and that metadata may not apply as HTTP headers to non-HTML responses such as /content or archive.wacz;
• the links are still shareable by anyone who has them;
• avoid fetching sensitive private pages if you do not want public evidence links;
• do not include secrets, tokens, or private customer data in pages intended for citation sharing.

If auth, TTL, retention, or access controls are added later, this page must be updated.

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