Caching and performance

The fastest metadata requests are the ones that detect only the fields you need, avoid unnecessary browser work, and reuse cache whenever possible.

Metadata-specific speedups

If you only need a few metadata fields, request only those:

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

CLI Microlink API example

microlink https://github.com/microlinkhq&meta.title&meta.description

cURL Microlink API example

curl -G "https://api.microlink.io" \
  -d "url=https://github.com/microlinkhq" \
  -d "meta.title=true" \
  -d "meta.description=true"

JavaScript Microlink API example

import mql from '@microlink/mql'

const { data } = await mql('https://github.com/microlinkhq', {
  meta: {
    title: true,
    description: true
  }
})

Python Microlink API example

import requests

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

querystring = {
    "url": "https://github.com/microlinkhq",
    "meta.title": "true",
    "meta.description": "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://github.com/microlinkhq",
  meta.title: "true",
  meta.description: "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://github.com/microlinkhq",
    "meta.title" => "true",
    "meta.description" => "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://github.com/microlinkhq")
    q.Set("meta.title", "true")
    q.Set("meta.description", "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 mql from '@microlink/mql'

const { data } = await mql('https://github.com/microlinkhq', {
  meta: {
    title: true,
    description: true
  }
})

Selective metadata detection is usually the biggest speed and payload win for metadata workflows.

The most effective metadata-specific optimizations are:

Use a meta object to request only the fields you need.
Skip enrichments — avoid palette, iframe, insights, or custom data fields unless they matter.
Use prerender: false when the initial HTML already contains the metadata.
Prefer waitForSelector over waitForTimeout.
Disable javascript when the page does not need it.

Cache strategy

For the cache controls that apply to all workflows — ttl, staleTtl, force, and how to verify caching through response headers — see caching patterns.

A recommended production setup for metadata:

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