Insights: Caching and performance

Insights requests — especially Lighthouse — are among the most expensive Microlink API calls. The fastest workflows are the ones that skip unnecessary analysis, cache aggressively, and avoid redundant metadata extraction.

Skip what you do not need

The single biggest speedup is running only the analysis you actually need:

The following examples show how to use the Microlink API with CLI, cURL, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP & Golang, targeting 'https://vercel.com' URL with 'insights' & 'meta' API parameters:

CLI Microlink API example

microlink https://vercel.com&insights.technologies

cURL Microlink API example

curl -G "https://api.microlink.io" \
  -d "url=https://vercel.com" \
  -d "insights.technologies=true" \
  -d "insights.lighthouse=false" \
  -d "meta=false"

JavaScript Microlink API example

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient()

const technologies = await microlink.technologies('https://vercel.com')

Python Microlink API example

import requests

url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

querystring = {
    "url": "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies": "true",
    "insights.lighthouse": "false",
    "meta": "false"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=querystring)

print(response.json())

Ruby Microlink API example

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

base_url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

params = {
  url: "https://vercel.com",
  insights.technologies: "true",
  insights.lighthouse: "false",
  meta: "false"
}

uri = URI(base_url)
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(params)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
response = http.request(request)

puts response.body

PHP Microlink API example

<?php

$baseUrl = "https://api.microlink.io/";

$params = [
    "url" => "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies" => "true",
    "insights.lighthouse" => "false",
    "meta" => "false"
];

$query = http_build_query($params);
$url = $baseUrl . '?' . $query;

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => $url,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET"
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #: " . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}

Golang Microlink API example

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "io"
)

func main() {
    baseURL := "https://api.microlink.io"

    u, err := url.Parse(baseURL)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    q := u.Query()
    q.Set("url", "https://vercel.com")
    q.Set("insights.technologies", "true")
    q.Set("insights.lighthouse", "false")
    q.Set("meta", "false")
    u.RawQuery = q.Encode()

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", u.String(), nil)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient()

const technologies = await microlink.technologies('https://vercel.com')

Technology detection alone is much faster than a full Insights run with Lighthouse.

Three flags that reduce work immediately:

Flag	Effect
`insights: { lighthouse: false }`	Skip Lighthouse entirely — technology detection is lightweight
`meta: false`	Skip normalized metadata extraction
`filter: 'insights'`	Return only the Insights payload, stripping unrelated fields

Combining all three gives you the leanest possible Insights request.

Cache expensive runs
PRO

Lighthouse reports rarely change minute-to-minute. Use ttl to cache the result and staleTtl to serve the cached copy while a background refresh runs:

The following examples show how to use the Microlink API with CLI, cURL, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP & Golang, targeting 'https://vercel.com' URL with 'insights', 'meta', 'ttl', 'staleTtl' & 'apiKey' API parameters:

CLI Microlink API example

microlink https://vercel.com&insights.lighthouse&ttl=1d&staleTtl=0 --api-key YOUR_API_TOKEN

cURL Microlink API example

curl -G "https://pro.microlink.io" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -d "url=https://vercel.com" \
  -d "insights.technologies=false" \
  -d "insights.lighthouse=true" \
  -d "meta=false" \
  -d "ttl=1d" \
  -d "staleTtl=0"

JavaScript Microlink API example

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_TOKEN" })

const report = await microlink.lighthouse('https://vercel.com', {
  ttl: "1d",
  staleTtl: 0
})

Python Microlink API example

import requests

url = "https://pro.microlink.io/"

querystring = {
    "url": "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies": "false",
    "insights.lighthouse": "true",
    "meta": "false",
    "ttl": "1d",
    "staleTtl": "0"
}

headers = {
    "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=querystring, headers=headers)

print(response.json())

Ruby Microlink API example

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

base_url = "https://pro.microlink.io/"

params = {
  url: "https://vercel.com",
  insights.technologies: "false",
  insights.lighthouse: "true",
  meta: "false",
  ttl: "1d",
  staleTtl: "0"
}

uri = URI(base_url)
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(params)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
request['x-api-key'] = "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
response = http.request(request)

puts response.body

PHP Microlink API example

<?php

$baseUrl = "https://pro.microlink.io/";

$params = [
    "url" => "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies" => "false",
    "insights.lighthouse" => "true",
    "meta" => "false",
    "ttl" => "1d",
    "staleTtl" => "0"
];

$query = http_build_query($params);
$url = $baseUrl . '?' . $query;

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => $url,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "x-api-key: YOUR_API_TOKEN"
    ]
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #: " . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}

Golang Microlink API example

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "io"
)

func main() {
    baseURL := "https://pro.microlink.io"

    u, err := url.Parse(baseURL)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    q := u.Query()
    q.Set("url", "https://vercel.com")
    q.Set("insights.technologies", "false")
    q.Set("insights.lighthouse", "true")
    q.Set("meta", "false")
    q.Set("ttl", "1d")
    q.Set("staleTtl", "0")
    u.RawQuery = q.Encode()

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", u.String(), nil)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_TOKEN")

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_TOKEN" })

const report = await microlink.lighthouse('https://vercel.com', {
  ttl: "1d",
  staleTtl: 0
})

Cache the Lighthouse report for a day. staleTtl: 0 means the next request after expiration immediately returns the stale copy while refreshing in the background.

Pattern	TTL	staleTtl	Best for
Daily monitoring dashboard	`'1d'`	`0`	Scheduled checks that tolerate day-old data
Weekly audit reports	`'7d'`	`'1d'`	Low-frequency reporting
On-demand one-off checks	omit	omit	Fresh results every time

See the ttl and staleTtl references for all supported formats.

Bypass cache when needed

Use force: true to invalidate the cache and generate a fresh analysis:

The following examples show how to use the Microlink API with CLI, cURL, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP & Golang, targeting 'https://vercel.com' URL with 'insights', 'meta' & 'force' API parameters:

CLI Microlink API example

microlink https://vercel.com&insights.technologies&force

cURL Microlink API example

curl -G "https://api.microlink.io" \
  -d "url=https://vercel.com" \
  -d "insights.technologies=true" \
  -d "insights.lighthouse=false" \
  -d "meta=false" \
  -d "force=true"

JavaScript Microlink API example

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient()

const technologies = await microlink.technologies('https://vercel.com', {
  force: true
})

Python Microlink API example

import requests

url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

querystring = {
    "url": "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies": "true",
    "insights.lighthouse": "false",
    "meta": "false",
    "force": "true"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=querystring)

print(response.json())

Ruby Microlink API example

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

base_url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

params = {
  url: "https://vercel.com",
  insights.technologies: "true",
  insights.lighthouse: "false",
  meta: "false",
  force: "true"
}

uri = URI(base_url)
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(params)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
response = http.request(request)

puts response.body

PHP Microlink API example

<?php

$baseUrl = "https://api.microlink.io/";

$params = [
    "url" => "https://vercel.com",
    "insights.technologies" => "true",
    "insights.lighthouse" => "false",
    "meta" => "false",
    "force" => "true"
];

$query = http_build_query($params);
$url = $baseUrl . '?' . $query;

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => $url,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET"
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #: " . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}

Golang Microlink API example

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "io"
)

func main() {
    baseURL := "https://api.microlink.io"

    u, err := url.Parse(baseURL)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    q := u.Query()
    q.Set("url", "https://vercel.com")
    q.Set("insights.technologies", "true")
    q.Set("insights.lighthouse", "false")
    q.Set("meta", "false")
    q.Set("force", "true")
    u.RawQuery = q.Encode()

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", u.String(), nil)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient()

const technologies = await microlink.technologies('https://vercel.com', {
  force: true
})

Use force after a deployment or site change when you need a guaranteed fresh result.

Verify what happened

Check these response headers to confirm the request behaved as expected:

Header	What it tells you
`x-cache-status`	`HIT` (served from cache), `MISS` (fresh), or `BYPASS` (force)
`x-cache-ttl`	The effective cache lifetime in milliseconds
`x-fetch-mode`	Whether the request was fetched, prerendered, or proxy-backed
`x-response-time`	The total request duration

Next step

If Insights results are missing, slow, or wrong, continue with troubleshooting.

Insights: Caching and performance

Skip what you do not need

CLI Microlink API example

cURL Microlink API example

JavaScript Microlink API example

Python Microlink API example

Ruby Microlink API example

PHP Microlink API example

Golang Microlink API example

Cache expensive runs PRO

CLI Microlink API example

cURL Microlink API example

JavaScript Microlink API example

Python Microlink API example

Ruby Microlink API example

PHP Microlink API example

Golang Microlink API example

Bypass cache when needed

CLI Microlink API example

cURL Microlink API example

JavaScript Microlink API example

Python Microlink API example

Ruby Microlink API example

PHP Microlink API example

Golang Microlink API example

Verify what happened

Next step

Cache expensive runs
PRO