Importing from Pinboard

Cowpin can import your entire Pinboard library, keeping every tag and your privacy settings. There are two ways to do it; pick whichever you prefer.

Option A — one-click with your API token (fastest)

1. On pinboard.in, go to Settings → Password and copy your API token. It looks like yourname:A1B2C3….
2. In Cowpin, go to Settings → Bookmarks → Import from Pinboard, paste the token, and start the import.

Cowpin talks to Pinboard's API directly and pulls every bookmark. Your token is used once for the import and is never stored.

Option B — from an export file (no token needed)

1. On pinboard.in, go to Settings → Backup and download your bookmarks as either HTML or JSON — Cowpin takes both, so grab whichever you have.
2. In Cowpin, go to Settings → Bookmarks → Import bookmarks and upload that file.

Cowpin reads the file to work out which format it is, so the extension doesn't matter. The HTML export is the standard Netscape bookmark format, so this same path also works for exports from Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Delicious.

Very large libraries: the JSON export is uploaded in pieces, so there's no size limit on it — you'll see a running "imported X of Y" count. A very large HTML export can be too big to send in one request; if that happens Cowpin says so and points you at the JSON export or the token import above, both of which handle libraries of any size.

What comes across

• Every bookmark — URL, title, and description.
• All your tags, exactly as you had them. A library with thousands of bookmarks and hundreds of tags comes over with its tag structure intact.
• Privacy. Private bookmarks stay private. New imports default to private unless you choose otherwise.
• Read-later state, where the export provides it.

Good to know

• Duplicates are skipped by URL, so re-running an import is safe — it won't create copies.
• Large libraries import in the background; you can keep using Cowpin while it runs.
• Nothing is deleted on Pinboard. Importing only reads from it, so your Pinboard account is untouched.

After importing

• Open the Tags page to see your tag cloud and confirm everything landed.
• Point any Pinboard scripts at Cowpin's Pinboard-compatible API if you automate saving.
• Want a safety copy? You can export back to Pinboard-compatible JSON at any time from Settings → Bookmarks.

If an import looks off — a missing tag, a wrong privacy flag — that's a bug we want to know about. Tell us and we'll make it right.