Meetup Archiver

A TypeScript CLI tool to archive all events from a Meetup.com group using the Meetup GraphQL API. Exports comprehensive event data including venue information, RSVPs, hosts, photos, and more to a well-formatted JSON file.

Features

✅ Fetches all historic events (past & upcoming) from any Meetup group
✅ Uses Meetup's official GraphQL API
✅ Automatic pagination to retrieve complete event history
✅ Comprehensive event data extraction:
- Event details (title, description, date, duration, URL)
- Venue information (name, address, coordinates)
- RSVP counts and attendee lists
- Event hosts
- Featured photos
- Event type (in-person, online, hybrid)
✅ Clean JSON output with metadata
✅ HTML rendering of archived events with formatted descriptions
✅ Rate limiting protection
✅ Progress indicators

Prerequisites

Node.js (v18 or higher)
npm
A Meetup.com account
Access token from Meetup.com

Installation

Clone or navigate to this directory:
```
cd meetup-archiver
```
Install dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Set up environment variables:
```
cp .env.example .env
```

Getting Your Access Token

You need an access token from Meetup.com to use this tool. Here's the easiest way to get it:

Method 1: Extract from Browser Cookies (Recommended)

Log in to Meetup.com:
- Visit https://www.meetup.com and log in to your account
Open Browser DevTools:
- Press F12 (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Option+I (Mac)
Find the Cookie:
- Go to the Application tab (Chrome) or Storage tab (Firefox)
- Navigate to Cookies → https://www.meetup.com
- Look for a cookie named: __meetup_auth_access_token
- Copy the Value of this cookie
Add to .env file:
- Open the .env file in your text editor
- Replace your_token_here with your copied token:
```
MEETUP_ACCESS_TOKEN=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...
```

Method 2: Extract from Network Request

Log in to Meetup.com:
- Visit https://www.meetup.com and log in
Open DevTools and go to Network tab:
- Press F12 and click the Network tab
Visit the API Playground:
- Go to https://www.meetup.com/api/playground/
Run any test query:
- Execute a simple query in the playground
Find the API request:
- In the Network tab, find a request to api.meetup.com/gql-ext
- Click on it and look at the Request Headers
- Find the Authorization header
- Copy the token after Bearer (everything after "Bearer ")
Add to .env file:
```
MEETUP_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_copied_token
```

Verify Your Token Works

Test your token with this PowerShell command:

$token = "YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"
$body = '{"query": "query { self { id name } }"}'
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.meetup.com/gql-ext" -Method Post -Headers @{"Authorization"="Bearer $token"; "Content-Type"="application/json"} -Body $body

If it works, you'll see your user ID and name. If it fails, you'll get an authentication error.

Usage

Basic Usage

Archive all events from a Meetup group:

npm run dev -- <group-urlname>

Or after building:

npm run build
npm start <group-urlname>

Render HTML from an existing JSON archive

Convert a generated archive JSON into a nicely formatted HTML report (most recent first):

# Example: render the OWASP Israel archive you just created
npm run render -- output/owasp-israel-2026-01-14T07-02-25-976Z.json

# Optional: specify a custom output path
npm run render -- output/owasp-israel-2026-01-14T07-02-25-976Z.json ./output-html/owasp-israel.html

The HTML will be written to output-html/<archive-name>.html by default.

Finding the Group URL Name

The group URL name is the identifier in the Meetup.com URL. For example:

URL: https://www.meetup.com/typescript-oslo/
Group URL name: typescript-oslo
URL: https://www.meetup.com/london-javascript-community/
Group URL name: london-javascript-community

Example

npm run dev -- typescript-oslo

This will:

Authenticate with Meetup.com
Fetch all past events for the group
Fetch all upcoming events for the group
Combine and sort them chronologically
Save to output/typescript-oslo-2026-01-14T12-30-45-123Z.json

Output

The tool creates a JSON file in the output/ directory with this structure:

{
  "metadata": {
    "archivedAt": "2026-01-14T12:30:45.123Z",
    "groupUrlname": "typescript-oslo",
    "groupId": "12345678",
    "groupName": "TypeScript Oslo",
    "totalEvents": 150,
    "pastEvents": 145,
    "upcomingEvents": 5
  },
  "events": [
    {
      "id": "276754274",
      "title": "TypeScript Workshop",
      "description": "Learn TypeScript basics...",
      "dateTime": "2025-03-15T18:00:00+01:00",
      "duration": "PT2H",
      "eventUrl": "https://www.meetup.com/typescript-oslo/events/276754274/",
      "eventType": "IN_PERSON",
      "going": 45,
      "maxTickets": 50,
      "venue": {
        "name": "Tech Hub Oslo",
        "address": "123 Main St",
        "city": "Oslo",
        "state": "Oslo",
        "country": "NO",
        "lat": 59.9139,
        "lng": 10.7522
      },
      "featuredEventPhoto": {
        "id": "495693322",
        "baseUrl": "https://secure-content.meetupstatic.com/images/classic-events/"
      },
      "eventHosts": [
        {
          "memberId": "123456",
          "name": "John Doe"
        }
      ],
      "rsvps": {
        "totalCount": 45,
        "edges": [
          {
            "node": {
              "id": "rsvp_123",
              "member": {
                "id": "789012",
                "name": "Jane Smith"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Project Structure

meetup-archiver/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts          # Main CLI entry point
│   ├── meetupClient.ts   # GraphQL API client with pagination
│   ├── queries.ts        # GraphQL query definitions
│   ├── renderHtml.ts     # HTML rendering for archived events
│   ├── types.ts          # TypeScript type definitions
│   ├── utils.ts          # File operations and utilities
│   └── __tests__/        # Unit and integration tests
│       ├── meetupClient.test.ts
│       ├── renderHtml.test.ts
│       └── utils.test.ts
├── output/               # Generated JSON files (created automatically)
├── output-html/          # Generated HTML files (created automatically)
├── .env                  # Your access token (DO NOT COMMIT)
├── .env.example          # Template for .env
├── .gitignore           # Git ignore rules
├── jest.config.js       # Jest configuration
├── package.json         # Project dependencies
├── tsconfig.json        # TypeScript configuration
└── README.md            # This file

API Rate Limiting

The Meetup API has rate limits:

500 points per 60 seconds
The tool includes basic rate limit protection and will wait if approaching limits

Troubleshooting

"Authentication failed"

Check that your MEETUP_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env is correct
Try getting a fresh token from your browser
Make sure you're logged into Meetup.com in your browser

"Group not found"

Verify the group URL name is correct
Check that the group is public (private groups may not be accessible)
Ensure you have permission to view the group

Token Expiration

Access tokens from cookies may expire
If you get authentication errors, get a fresh token from your browser
Some tokens expire after a few hours, others last longer

Development

Build the project:

npm run build

Run in development mode:

npm run dev -- <group-urlname>

Run compiled version:

npm start <group-urlname>

Running Tests

This project includes comprehensive unit tests to ensure functionality works correctly.

Run all tests:

npm test

Run tests in watch mode (for development):

npm run test:watch

The test suite includes:

Unit tests for utility functions (file operations, formatting, metadata)
Integration tests for the Meetup API client (with mocked requests)
Tests for HTML rendering and sanitization

Continuous Integration

The project uses GitHub Actions to automatically run tests on:

Every push to main or develop branches
Every pull request targeting main or develop branches

Tests run on multiple Node.js versions (18.x and 20.x) to ensure compatibility.

Technologies Used

TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript
Node.js - Runtime environment
Axios - HTTP client for GraphQL requests
Meetup GraphQL API - Official Meetup API
dotenv - Environment variable management
marked - Markdown parser for rendering event descriptions
sanitize-html - HTML sanitization for secure rendering
Jest - Testing framework
ts-jest - TypeScript support for Jest
ts-jest - TypeScript support for Jest

License

MIT

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests!

Notes

The tool fetches all available event data from the Meetup API
Events are sorted chronologically in the output
RSVP lists may be truncated for very large events (API limitation)
The tool respects Meetup's API rate limits

Support

For issues with:

This tool: Open an issue in this repository
Meetup API: Visit https://www.meetup.com/api/support/
Getting your token: See "Getting Your Access Token" section above

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 12 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
src		src
.env.example		.env.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
jest.config.js		jest.config.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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