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Go · Code recipe

Get a page's metadata and Open Graph tags in Go

Read the title, description and share image of any page, in Go 1.21+ with net/http from the standard library. Every program on this page runs as it stands — each one was run against a stub of the API before it was published.

By · Last updated: September 2026

TL;DR

To read a page's title, description, Open Graph image and other metadata in Go, POST its URL to https://urlpipe.dev/meta with sync set to true and parse the JSON with json.Unmarshal into a struct. It answers with the same keys for every page — null where the page declares nothing — for 1 credit, the same as a page fetch.

Free plan, no credit card. 1,000 credits a month.

One POST to /meta renders the page and returns what it says about itself, with the same keys on every page: title, description, site name, language, authors, publication and update dates, share image, favicon, feeds and more. URLs come back absolute, resolved against the page.

It reads every place a page declares its metadata — Open Graph, Twitter cards, JSON-LD, plain tags — and settles conflicts by a fixed order: og:title, then twitter:title, then <title>, then the <h1>. A field the page never declares is null, never a guess, and it costs 1 credit, the same as a page fetch. In Go, json.Unmarshal into a struct gives you the fields; the Open Graph guide covers which tags each platform reads.

Setup

Before you start

Nothing to fetch: every import is standard library, so each program runs with go run as a single file. Put your API key in the environment.

Terminal
go version   # go1.21 or later
export URLPIPE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

The request

Print the title, description and main image

"sync": true keeps the request open until the result is ready. http.Client has no timeout unless you set one, and res.Body is a stream: io.ReadAll turns it into bytes, and defer res.Body.Close() hands the connection back. Pointer fields tell a null apart from an empty string: any field can be null.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	payload, err := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
		"url":  "https://example.com",
		"sync": true,
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "https://urlpipe.dev/meta", bytes.NewReader(payload))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	// A sync call can take up to 60 s; the zero-value client would wait forever.
	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 90 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	// The body is the result or the error, so read all of it first.
	body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", res.StatusCode, body)
	}

	var meta struct {
		Title       *string `json:"title"`
		Description *string `json:"description"`
		Image       *struct {
			URL string `json:"url"`
		} `json:"image"`
	}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &meta); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	orNone := func(s *string) string {
		if s == nil {
			return "none"
		}
		return *s
	}
	fmt.Println("Title:", orNone(meta.Title))
	fmt.Println("Description:", orNone(meta.Description))
	image := "none"
	if meta.Image != nil {
		image = meta.Image.URL
	}
	fmt.Println("Image:", image)
}

Run it: go run main.go

Given the example response on the docs page, it prints:

Output
Title: Example Domain
Description: Illustrative examples in documents.
Image: https://example.com/cover.jpg

Async

The async variant: a token, a webhook and a poll

Leave out sync and the answer is a token, straight away. Decode only the field you need into an anonymous struct; switch on the status covers the four answers GET /result/:token can give.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"time"
)

const api = "https://urlpipe.dev"

var client = &http.Client{Timeout: 30 * time.Second}

// send makes one request to the API and returns the status and the body.
func send(method, path string, payload any) (int, []byte) {
	var reader io.Reader
	if payload != nil {
		data, err := json.Marshal(payload)
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}
		reader = bytes.NewReader(data)
	}
	req, err := http.NewRequest(method, api+path, reader)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	return res.StatusCode, body
}

// poll collects a result by token. The result is POSTed to report_to when it is
// ready; polling is the other way to collect it, and a backup for the webhook.
func poll(token string) []byte {
	for attempt := 0; attempt < 60; attempt++ {
		status, body := send(http.MethodGet, "/result/"+token, nil)
		switch status {
		case http.StatusOK:
			return body
		case http.StatusAccepted: // still processing
			time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
		case http.StatusUnprocessableEntity:
			log.Fatalf("The analysis failed: %s", body)
		case http.StatusGone:
			log.Fatal("The result is past the 30-day window; send the request again.")
		default:
			log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", status, body)
		}
	}
	log.Fatal("Still processing after two minutes; try the token again later.")
	return nil
}

func main() {
	// No "sync": the request is accepted at once and the work carries on without you.
	status, body := send(http.MethodPost, "/meta", map[string]any{
		"url":       "https://example.com",
		"report_to": "https://your-app.com/webhooks/urlpipe",
		"labels":    map[string]any{"customer": "acme"},
	})
	if status != http.StatusOK {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", status, body)
	}
	var accepted struct {
		Token string `json:"token"`
	}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &accepted); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println("Accepted", accepted.Token)

	body = poll(accepted.Token)
	var meta struct {
		Title       *string `json:"title"`
		Description *string `json:"description"`
		Image       *struct {
			URL string `json:"url"`
		} `json:"image"`
	}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &meta); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	orNone := func(s *string) string {
		if s == nil {
			return "none"
		}
		return *s
	}
	fmt.Println("Title:", orNone(meta.Title))
	fmt.Println("Description:", orNone(meta.Description))
	image := "none"
	if meta.Image != nil {
		image = meta.Image.URL
	}
	fmt.Println("Image:", image)
}

Run it: go run main.go

Errors

Handle errors and retries

Errors are values: urlpipe() returns one for every refusal it will not retry, and main decides what to do with it. A 401 answers in plain text, so it is handled before the JSON decode; max is a builtin from Go 1.21.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"strconv"
	"time"
)

var client = &http.Client{Timeout: 90 * time.Second}

// urlpipe POSTs a sync request and returns the result body. It retries the two
// 429s that clear by themselves and returns an error for everything else.
func urlpipe(path string, payload map[string]any) ([]byte, error) {
	payload["sync"] = true
	data, err := json.Marshal(payload)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	const attempts = 5
	for attempt := 0; attempt < attempts; attempt++ {
		req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "https://urlpipe.dev"+path, bytes.NewReader(data))
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
		req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

		res, err := client.Do(req)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
		res.Body.Close()
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

		switch res.StatusCode {
		case http.StatusOK:
			return body, nil
		case http.StatusUnauthorized:
			return nil, errors.New("401: the API key is missing or wrong, check URLPIPE_API_KEY")
		}

		var e struct {
			Code    string `json:"error"`
			Message string `json:"message"`
			Token   string `json:"token"`
		}
		_ = json.Unmarshal(body, &e) // a body that is not JSON leaves e empty
		detail := e.Code
		if e.Message != "" {
			detail = e.Code + ": " + e.Message
		}

		switch {
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusTooManyRequests && e.Code == "rate_limited":
			// Sending too fast: Retry-After says how long the window has left.
			seconds, _ := strconv.Atoi(res.Header.Get("Retry-After"))
			time.Sleep(time.Duration(max(seconds, 1)) * time.Second)
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusTooManyRequests && e.Code == "concurrency_limit":
			// Every parallel slot on your plan is busy with your own requests.
			time.Sleep(time.Duration(1<<attempt) * time.Second)
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusGatewayTimeout:
			// Still running on our side; the token collects it from GET /result/:token.
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("504 processing_timeout: collect it later with token %s", e.Token)
		default:
			// 403 email_unverified, 422 (a bad parameter, or a page that would not load),
			// 429 quota_exceeded: sending the same request again gets the same answer.
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%d: %s", res.StatusCode, detail)
		}
	}
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("429: still refused after %d attempts", attempts)
}

func main() {
	body, err := urlpipe("/meta", map[string]any{
		"url": "https://example.com",
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe: %v", err)
	}

	var meta struct {
		Title       *string `json:"title"`
		Description *string `json:"description"`
		Image       *struct {
			URL string `json:"url"`
		} `json:"image"`
	}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &meta); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	orNone := func(s *string) string {
		if s == nil {
			return "none"
		}
		return *s
	}
	fmt.Println("Title:", orNone(meta.Title))
	fmt.Println("Description:", orNone(meta.Description))
	image := "none"
	if meta.Image != nil {
		image = meta.Image.URL
	}
	fmt.Println("Image:", image)
}

Run it: go run main.go

Details

What to know about /meta

  • Any field can be null when the page does not have it — code for that, as the program does.
  • There is no canonical field; the nine fields are the whole response.
  • Image and favicon URLs that are data URIs come back as null rather than as a blob.
  • Pages over 10 MB of HTML are refused before the model sees them.

Client library

Or use the official Go client

The same call in one line, with retries that never bill twice, typed errors, long analyses waited out for you and webhook verification. Go 1.21+, standard library only.

github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go
// go get github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go

client, err := urlpipe.NewClient() // reads URLPIPE_API_KEY
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal(err)
}

page, err := client.Markdown(context.Background(), "https://example.com", nil)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(page.Data)

Other languages

Get a page's metadata and Open Graph tags in another language

More Go: every Go recipe

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which fields does /meta return?
title, description, site_name, type, language, locale, authors, published_at, modified_at, image, video, favicon_url, icons, logo_url, feeds, keywords, canonical_url, robots, alternates and more, plus the raw open_graph and twitter tags. Every key is always there; a value the page doesn't declare is null or an empty list.
How much does it cost?
1 credit per page, the same as /html: the page's own declarations are read without a model. A result reused within max_age is free.
Do I need an SDK to call URLpipe from Go?
No module is needed: net/http and encoding/json are in the standard library, and the API is one POST per job. If you'd rather use one, the official client installs with go get github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go and adds retries that never bill twice, typed errors and webhook verification.

Get a key and run it.

Free plan, no card. Paste your key into URLPIPE_API_KEY and every program on this page runs as it is.