Conda-Forge Scraper

Scrape conda-forge — the community-led conda channel with 25,000+ packages for scientific Python, R, Julia, and more. Get package metadata including versions, platforms, download counts, maintainers, and documentation links via the Anaconda.org public API.

What you get

• Package search — find conda-forge packages by name keyword with full metadata
• Package details — download counts, all versions, platform availability, maintainers, license, home/doc/dev URLs
• Maintainer listings — discover all packages contributed by a specific maintainer
• Platform filtering — filter results to specific CPU/OS targets (linux-64, win-64, osx-arm64, etc.)
• No API key required — uses the public Anaconda.org REST API

Data source

All data is sourced from Anaconda.org (api.anaconda.org) which hosts the conda-forge channel. Data is publicly accessible without authentication.

Use cases

• Scientific Python ecosystem research and package discovery
• Dependency auditing and license compliance checks
• Monitoring package update frequency and download popularity
• Finding alternative packages in the conda-forge ecosystem
• Building package registries and developer tooling
• Tracking maintainer contributions across conda-forge

Modes

Mode	Description	Required input
search	Search conda-forge packages by name keyword	query
byPackage	Get full metadata for a specific package	packageName
byMaintainer	List packages by a conda-forge maintainer	maintainerUsername

Input

Field	Type	Description	Example
mode	select	What to fetch	search
query	string	Name keyword to search (mode=search)	numpy
packageName	string	Exact package name (mode=byPackage)	scipy
maintainerUsername	string	Anaconda.org username (mode=byMaintainer)	jakirkham
platform	select	Filter by platform (optional)	linux-64
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to return (1–500)	20

Platform options

Value	Platform
linux-64	Linux 64-bit (x86_64)
linux-aarch64	Linux ARM64
linux-ppc64le	Linux PowerPC 64 LE
win-64	Windows 64-bit
win-32	Windows 32-bit
osx-64	macOS Intel
osx-arm64	macOS Apple Silicon
noarch	Platform-independent

Output

Each package record contains:

Field	Description
name	Package name
channel	Always conda-forge
summary	Short description
description	Full description (when available)
version	Latest version
versions	All available versions (newest first, capped at 50)
license	License identifier (e.g. BSD-3-Clause, MIT)
licenseUrl	URL to license text
condaPlatforms	Supported platforms (e.g. linux-64, win-64)
downloads	Total download count
homeUrl	Project homepage
devUrl	Source code repository URL
docUrl	Documentation URL
anacondaUrl	Direct link to the Anaconda.org package page
maintainers	List of maintainer usernames (byPackage mode)
watchers	Number of watchers on Anaconda.org (byPackage mode)
createdAt	Package creation timestamp
modifiedAt	Last modification timestamp
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp when the record was scraped

Popular packages to try

Package	Description
numpy	Fundamental array computing
pandas	Data manipulation and analysis
scipy	Scientific computing algorithms
matplotlib	Plotting and visualization
scikit-learn	Machine learning
pytorch	Deep learning framework
tensorflow	ML/deep learning
r-base	R statistical computing
jupyterlab	Interactive notebooks

FAQs

Is an API key required? No. The Anaconda.org public API is freely accessible without registration or authentication.

What is conda-forge? conda-forge is a community-maintained collection of conda package recipes and build infrastructure. It provides over 25,000 packages for the conda package manager, covering scientific computing, data science, machine learning, and many other domains.

How current is the data? The data reflects real-time metadata from Anaconda.org. Package information is updated whenever maintainers publish new releases.

How do I find packages for a specific platform? Set the platform field to filter results (e.g. osx-arm64 for Apple Silicon Macs).

What is the byMaintainer mode useful for? It lets you discover all packages a specific contributor maintains in conda-forge. Useful for auditing maintainer activity or finding related packages from trusted authors.

What is the daily test run prefill? The default prefill {"mode": "search", "query": "numpy", "maxItems": 5} reliably returns multiple conda-forge package records and is used for daily automated health checks.