Packagist Scraper

Search Packagist or list any vendor or the most popular packages, and get each PHP package's latest version, requirements, downloads, dependents and GitHub statistics as clean JSON.

Packagist is the main Composer repository, home to every public PHP library, framework and tool. This Actor scrapes PHP packages from Packagist by search term, package name, vendor, or search, package, vendor and popular URLs, and returns each package's latest version, description, license, type, keywords, authors, maintainers, homepage and repository links, PHP version requirement, required extensions and package dependencies, total, monthly and daily downloads, favers, dependents, suggesters, GitHub stars, watchers, forks and open issues, release dates, and whether the package is abandoned along with its suggested replacement. Search the way you would on Packagist, or paste the pages you already have. There is no login, no API key, and no proxy to configure. Built for developer-tool market research, open-source due diligence, dependency and license audits, lead generation among PHP maintainers, and PHP ecosystem tracking.

⚡ Quick start

{
  "searchTerms": ["web scraper"],
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://packagist.org/search/?query=http%20client&type=library" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 5
}

Or read packages by name, and every package of a vendor:

{
  "packageNames": ["guzzlehttp/guzzle", "monolog/monolog"],
  "vendors": ["spatie"],
  "maxItems": 20
}

🧩 Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	no	—	Searches to run on Packagist, one per line, for example web scraper or pdf.
packageNames	array	no	—	Packages in the vendor/name form Composer uses, one per line, such as guzzlehttp/guzzle.
vendors	array	no	—	Vendors whose packages to read, one per line, such as spatie or symfony. Packages come alphabetically.
startUrls	array	no	—	packagist.org URLs: a search with optional tag and type filters (/search/?query=pdf&tags=laravel&type=library), a package (/packages/guzzlehttp/guzzle), a vendor (/packages/spatie/) or the most popular packages (/explore/popular).
maxItems	integer	no	—	Maximum number of packages per search term, vendor or listing URL. The input form starts at 5; leave it empty to get every match. Package names and package URLs return one package each.
proxyConfiguration	object	no	{ "useApifyProxy": false }	Proxy configuration. Packagist needs no proxy.

Add search terms, package names, vendors, URLs, or any mix. Search results come in Packagist's relevance order; the popular list comes by downloads. A package URL can point at any of the package's tabs (/stats, /dependents, /suggesters); the package itself is returned.

📤 Output

Each package is one dataset row. Release-level fields (license, keywords, authors, homepage, requirements) describe the package's latest version: the highest stable release, else the highest pre-release, else the default branch for a package that has never tagged a release.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Package name, vendor/name.
vendor	string	Vendor, the part of the name before the slash.
description	string	Package description.
url	string	The package's page on Packagist.
repositoryUrl	string	Source repository.
homepage	string	Project homepage.
issuesUrl	string	Issue tracker.
type	string	Composer package type, such as library, project, symfony-bundle or wordpress-plugin.
latestVersion	string	Latest version: the highest stable release, else the highest pre-release, else the default branch.
license	string	License as an SPDX identifier; several licenses are joined with OR.
keywords	array	Keywords the authors tagged the package with.
authors	array	Authors as the package declares them: name, email, homepage and role.
maintainers	array	Packagist usernames of the accounts that maintain the package.
requirePhp	string	PHP versions the latest version supports, such as ^7.4 || ^8.0.
dependencies	object	Packages the latest version requires, with their version constraints.
dependenciesCount	number	Number of packages in dependencies.
requiredExtensions	array	PHP extensions the latest version requires, such as ext-json.
totalDownloads	number	All-time installs.
monthlyDownloads	number	Installs over the last 30 days.
dailyDownloads	number	Installs over the last day.
favers	number	Favers: GitHub stars plus Packagist favorites.
dependents	number	Number of packages that require this one.
suggesters	number	Number of packages that suggest this one.
githubStars	number	GitHub stars; null for packages not hosted on GitHub.
githubWatchers	number	GitHub watchers.
githubForks	number	GitHub forks.
githubOpenIssues	number	Open GitHub issues.
language	string	Main language of the repository.
versionsCount	number	Number of tagged releases (branches not counted).
createdAt	string	When the package was first submitted to Packagist (ISO 8601).
lastReleasedAt	string	When the version in latestVersion was released (ISO 8601).
abandoned	boolean	Whether the maintainers marked the package abandoned.
replacement	string	The package the maintainers suggest instead of an abandoned one; null otherwise.
searchQuery	string	The search that found the package; null for package names, vendors and the popular list.

💡 Use cases

• Developer-tool market research — size a PHP niche by downloads, dependents and stars, and see which packages lead it.
• Open-source due diligence — check how actively a package is released, by whom, which PHP versions it supports, and whether it was abandoned.
• Dependency and license audits — collect licenses, PHP requirements, extensions and dependencies across the packages you rely on.
• Ecosystem tracking — watch a vendor, a framework's tag, or the most popular packages, their releases and download trends over time.
• Lead generation — find the companies, agencies and maintainers behind the packages in your niche.

❓ FAQ

• Do I need a Packagist account or an API key? No. The Actor reads the same public package data anyone can see.
• Do I need a proxy? No. It runs without one by default.
• How many results can one search return? Packagist returns up to a few hundred packages for one search. Narrow it with tag and type filters, or split it into several searches, to reach more; vendors and the popular list have no such limit.
• Which version do the release-level fields describe? The latest version: the highest stable release, which is what Composer installs by default. Packages that only have pre-releases use the highest pre-release, and packages that never tagged a release use their default branch, such as dev-main.
• What does abandoned mean? The maintainers marked the package as no longer maintained. When they name a successor, it is in replacement.
• Why are the GitHub fields empty for some packages? They are only available for packages whose repository is on GitHub.
• How fresh are the download counts? Packagist refreshes package statistics periodically, so counts can lag by up to about half a day.

🔗 More scrapers by Anyx

• npm Package Scraper
• PyPI Scraper
• crates.io Scraper
• GitHub Trending Scraper

🤝 Anyx Solutions

We build custom scrapers and data-extraction pipelines.

• Email: tantosthor@gmail.com

🖼 Image credit

Image credit: packagist.org