CPAN Module Scraper

Scrape module and release data from CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) via the MetaCPAN public API. No authentication required.

What can it do?

• Search modules by keyword, returning the latest indexed version of each matching module
• Search releases by keyword, filtered to the latest stable release of each distribution
• Fetch specific modules by exact name (e.g. Moose, DBI, Catalyst)
• Returns rich metadata: version, author, license, repository URL, bug tracker, and download info

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	searchModules | searchReleases | getByName	Operation mode. Default: searchModules
searchQuery	string	Search query for modules or releases. Default: Moose
moduleNames	string[]	Exact module names for getByName mode (e.g. Moose, DBI)
maxItems	integer (1–500)	Maximum records to return. Default: 50

Mode descriptions

Mode	Description
searchModules	Full-text search across CPAN module index, latest versions only
searchReleases	Search releases (distributions) by name, latest stable only
getByName	Fetch one or more modules by their exact CPAN name

Example input — Search modules

{
  "mode": "searchModules",
  "searchQuery": "Moose",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — Search releases

{
  "mode": "searchReleases",
  "searchQuery": "Catalyst",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example input — Fetch by name

{
  "mode": "getByName",
  "moduleNames": ["Moose", "DBI", "Catalyst"]
}

Output

Each record in the dataset represents one CPAN module or release.

Field	Type	Description
moduleName	string	Main module name (.pm suffix removed)
distributionName	string	CPAN distribution name (e.g. Moose, DBIx-Class)
description	string	Module abstract / short description
version	string	Module version
author	string	CPAN author ID (PAUSE ID)
license	string[]	License identifiers (release mode only)
releaseDate	string	ISO timestamp of this release
status	string	Index status: latest, cpan, or backpan
mainModule	string	Primary module name of the distribution (release mode)
repositoryUrl	string	Source code repository URL
homepage	string	Project homepage URL
bugTracker	string	Bug tracker URL
downloadUrl	string	Direct download URL of the .tar.gz archive
sourceUrl	string	MetaCPAN distribution page URL
recordType	string	Always "module"
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp when record was scraped

Example output record

{
  "moduleName": "Moose",
  "distributionName": "Moose",
  "description": "A postmodern object system for Perl 5",
  "version": "2.4000",
  "author": "ETHER",
  "license": ["perl_5"],
  "releaseDate": "2025-07-04T21:24:15",
  "status": "latest",
  "mainModule": "Moose",
  "repositoryUrl": "https://github.com/moose/Moose",
  "homepage": "http://moose.perl.org/",
  "bugTracker": "https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Name=Moose",
  "downloadUrl": "https://cpan.metacpan.org/authors/id/E/ET/ETHER/Moose-2.4000.tar.gz",
  "sourceUrl": "https://metacpan.org/dist/Moose",
  "recordType": "module",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-05-30T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this require an API key? No. The MetaCPAN API is fully public and does not require authentication.

What is the difference between searchModules and searchReleases? searchModules searches at the individual Perl module level (.pm files). searchReleases searches at the distribution level — a distribution is a tarball that may contain many modules. For most use cases, searchReleases gives cleaner, one-record-per-package results.

Why does a search for "Moose" return modules from other distributions? CPAN modules can be bundled inside other distributions. For example, a distribution may vendor Moose as a dependency. The search index includes all indexed files.

What does status: backpan mean? BackPAN is the historical archive of CPAN — packages that have been removed from the active CPAN index but are still available for download.

How fresh is the data? Each run fetches live data from the MetaCPAN API. MetaCPAN indexes new uploads within minutes of upload to CPAN.

Can I fetch a specific version of a module? The getByName mode always returns the latest indexed version. To get older versions, use searchReleases and filter results by version.