RubyGems Metadata Scraper — Extract Package Data from RubyGems.org

The RubyGems Metadata Scraper extracts comprehensive package information from RubyGems.org, the official Ruby package registry. This Actor retrieves version details, download statistics, dependency trees, authorship, licensing, and source code links for any Ruby gem — ideal for dependency analysis, security auditing, market research, and compliance reporting.

Use Cases

• Dependency Analysis — Map out full dependency trees for Ruby projects to identify transitive dependencies and version constraints.
• Security Auditing — Track gem versions and checksums (SHA) to verify package integrity and detect outdated or vulnerable dependencies.
• Market Research — Analyze download trends and author ecosystems to identify popular gems and emerging libraries.
• License Compliance — Extract license information from gems to ensure compliance with open-source policies.
• Portfolio Tracking — Monitor version updates and download growth for gems your organization depends on.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
gemNames	Array	Yes	List of Ruby gem names to scrape (e.g., rails, sinatra, devise)
maxItems	Number	No	Maximum gems to process (default: 100)
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	Proxy settings (optional)

Output

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

{
  "name": "rails",
  "version": "8.1.3",
  "downloads": 735455152,
  "versionDownloads": 2112129,
  "authors": "David Heinemeier Hansson",
  "info": "Ruby on Rails is a full-stack web framework...",
  "licenses": ["MIT"],
  "homepageUri": "https://rubyonrails.org",
  "sourceCodeUri": "https://github.com/rails/rails/tree/v8.1.3",
  "bugTrackerUri": "https://github.com/rails/rails/issues",
  "documentationUri": "https://api.rubyonrails.org/v8.1.3/",
  "dependencies": ["actioncable (= 8.1.3)", "actionmailbox (= 8.1.3)", ...],
  "platform": "ruby",
  "sha": "6d017ba5348c98fc909753a8169b21d44de14d2a...",
  "projectUri": "https://rubygems.org/gems/rails",
  "gemUri": "https://rubygems.org/gems/rails-8.1.3.gem",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-23T16:00:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 per gem scraped. No minimum fees. Proxy usage is optional — the RubyGems API is publicly accessible and does not require proxy rotation for typical usage.

Limitations

• Only publicly available gems on RubyGems.org can be scraped.
• Gems that have been yanked or removed may return errors.
• Rate limiting may apply for very large batches — the Actor includes automatic retry logic.
• Dependency information includes only runtime and development dependencies as declared by the gem author.

FAQ

Q: Do I need a proxy? A: No. The RubyGems API is publicly accessible and typically does not block datacenter IPs. Proxy configuration is available as an optional setting.

Q: Can I scrape private gems? A: No. This Actor only accesses publicly published gems on RubyGems.org.

Q: What happens if a gem name does not exist? A: The Actor logs the error and continues processing the remaining gems. Failed lookups are recorded in the run statistics.

Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release with full metadata extraction, dependency parsing, and PPE charging.