NPM Package Metadata API

**NPM Package Metadata API** retrieves clean, structured metadata for npm packages from the public npm registry. Use it to monitor dependencies, compare packages, track release history, and feed developer data into analytics or AI workflows.

## Why use this NPM package metadata API?

npm packages change constantly. This actor gives you a simple way to pull package summaries, latest versions, maintainers, dependency counts, keywords, and project links without dealing with raw registry responses.

## Features

- Search one or more npm packages in a single run
- Return a clean record for each package requested
- Include a short README excerpt when available
- Capture latest version, maintainers, repository, homepage, and keywords
- Pay-per-event pricing tied to each returned package record

## Input

### Example: monitor common packages

```json
{

"packages": "react,express,typescript", "maxResults": 3, "includeReadmeExcerpt": true } ```

### Example: check a smaller dependency set

```json
{

"packages": "@apify/request-list,requests", "maxResults": 10, "includeReadmeExcerpt": false } ```

### Input fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `packages` | string | Comma-separated npm package names to fetch, such as `react,express,typescript`. |
| `maxResults` | integer | Maximum number of package records to return. Values above 100 are clamped. |
| `includeReadmeExcerpt` | boolean | Include a short README excerpt for each package when available. |

## Output

### Example record

```json
{

"packageName": "express", "latestVersion": "5.1.0", "description": "Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js", "homepageUrl": "https://expressjs.com/", "repositoryUrl": "https://github.com/expressjs/express", "license": "MIT", "keywords": [ "express", "framework", "web", "node" ], "maintainers": [ { "name": "expressjs", "email": "npm@expressjs.com" } ], "publishedAt": "2026-05-24T12:00:00Z", "versionCount": 123, "dependenciesCount": 18, "distTags": { "latest": "5.1.0" }, "readmeExcerpt": "Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework...", "packageUrl": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/express", "publisher": "expressjs", "isPrivate": false, "recordType": "package_metadata" } ```

## Limits and caveats

- Package metadata quality varies by project.
- Some packages have sparse README, dependency, or maintainer information.
- Very long README content is shortened for readability.
- The actor is optimized for package lookups and monitoring, not full dependency graph crawling.

## Pricing

This actor uses **Pay-Per-Event** pricing.

| Event | Price | Charged when |
|---|---:|---|
| `package-record-produced` | $0.50 / 1k | A package record is successfully produced |

## FAQ

**Do I need an npm API key?**  
No. The actor uses the public npm registry API.

**Can I monitor package updates over time?**  
Yes. Re-run the actor on a schedule and compare version or metadata changes.

**What if a package does not exist?**  
The actor returns an error record for that package instead of failing the whole run.

**Is the output useful for AI workflows?**  
Yes. The normalized fields are designed for enrichment, analysis, search, and RAG pipelines.