Packagist Package Metadata Scraper — PHP Package Intelligence

Extract comprehensive metadata for any PHP package on Packagist, the primary Composer package repository. This Actor fetches package details including version history, dependency requirements, maintainers, download statistics, and license information directly from the Packagist public API. No browser rendering required — fast, reliable, and cost-effective.

Use Cases

• Dependency Audit — Analyze the dependency tree and PHP version requirements of packages before adoption
• Package Research — Compare download counts, favorites, and maintainer activity across PHP libraries
• Security Scanning — Monitor package versions and requirements for outdated or vulnerable dependencies
• Market Intelligence — Track trending PHP packages by downloads and community favorites
• CI/CD Integration — Validate package metadata in automated build pipelines

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
packageNames	Array	Yes	List of Packagist package names in vendor/package format
includeVersions	Boolean	No	Include full version history for each package (default: false)
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	Proxy configuration for requests

Example Input

{
  "packageNames": ["laravel/framework", "symfony/symfony", "guzzlehttp/guzzle"],
  "includeVersions": false
}

Output

The Actor outputs a dataset with the following fields for each package:

{
  "name": "laravel/framework",
  "description": "The Laravel Framework.",
  "version": "12.x-dev",
  "license": ["MIT"],
  "homepage": "https://laravel.com",
  "repository": "https://github.com/laravel/framework",
  "author": "taylorotwell",
  "maintainers": ["taylorotwell"],
  "requires": {
    "php": "^8.2",
    "symfony/console": "^7.0"
  },
  "requiresDev": {
    "phpunit/phpunit": "^11.0"
  },
  "requiresPhp": "^8.2",
  "keywords": ["framework", "laravel"],
  "downloads": 524432143,
  "favers": 35171,
  "versionCount": 280,
  "time": "2026-05-06T14:04:09+00:00",
  "type": "library",
  "url": "https://packagist.org/packages/laravel/framework"
}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 USD per package extracted.

Limitations

• Package names must be in vendor/package format
• Download statistics reflect total historical downloads, not monthly
• Version history can be large for mature packages — use includeVersions sparingly
• Packagist API rate limits apply to very high volume usage

FAQ

Q: Can I search for packages by keyword? A: This Actor requires exact package names. Use the Packagist website search to find package names first.

Q: What if a package does not exist? A: The Actor logs a warning and continues processing the remaining packages.

Q: Is authentication required? A: No. Packagist provides a public API with no authentication needed.

Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release