Arch AUR Packages Scraper

Scrape the Arch User Repository (AUR) for package metadata — version, votes, popularity, maintainer, out-of-date status, and submission/modification dates. Search by term or fetch specific packages by name. Clean JSON output, no API key, datacenter-proxy friendly (works without proxies).

Built for Linux developers, packagers, and security researchers who need structured AUR data at scale.

What it does

The AUR is Arch Linux's community-driven package repository with 90,000+ packages. This actor talks to the official AUR RPC v5 endpoints and returns a clean, stable, fully-nullable schema for every package.

• Search mode — full-text search across package name + description (by=name-desc).
• Packages mode — fetch exact packages by name (batched multiinfo, up to 50 per request).

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	select	search (by term) or packages (by exact name).
term	string	Search term for search mode. Prefilled with yay.
packageNames	array	Exact package names for packages mode, e.g. ["yay","paru"].
maxItems	integer	Max packages to return. Default 100, max 1000.

Example input

{
  "mode": "search",
  "term": "yay",
  "maxItems": 100
}

{
  "mode": "packages",
  "packageNames": ["yay", "paru"]
}

Output

Each dataset item:

{
  "id": 1908988,
  "name": "paru",
  "version": "2.1.0-2",
  "description": "Feature packed AUR helper",
  "upstream_url": "https://github.com/morganamilo/paru",
  "maintainer": "Morganamilo",
  "votes": 1237,
  "popularity": 35.457389,
  "out_of_date": null,
  "first_submitted": "2020-10-19T00:43:50Z",
  "last_modified": "2025-12-12T04:63:03Z",
  "url": "https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/paru",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-18T08:00:00Z"
}

All epoch timestamps (OutOfDate, FirstSubmitted, LastModified) are converted to ISO-8601 UTC. Every field is nullable.

Pricing

Roughly $1 per 1,000 packages on the Apify platform (usage-based; datacenter-friendly so no residential-proxy surcharge). Actual cost depends on your plan and result volume.

Use cases

• Linux development — track versions and update cadence of AUR helpers and tools.
• Package research — rank alternatives by votes and popularity before choosing a dependency.
• Security intelligence — flag out-of-date and orphaned (unmaintained) packages in your stack.
• Developer intelligence — monitor a competitor's or your own AUR footprint over time.

Comparison

	Arch AUR Packages Scraper	Manual RPC scripting	Scraping the AUR web UI
Setup	Zero — paste input	Write + host code	Parse fragile HTML
Output	Clean, stable JSON	Raw, unnormalized	Brittle
Dates	ISO-8601	Raw epochs	Strings
Scheduling	Built-in	DIY	DIY
Proxy	Datacenter-friendly	DIY	Often blocked

Related actors

• Homebrew Scraper
• npm Package Scraper
• PyPI Scraper
• F-Droid Scraper

Keywords

arch linux, aur, arch user repository, package scraper, pacman, yay, paru, aur helper, linux packages, package metadata, version tracking, package popularity, developer tools, package intelligence, open source

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Not affiliated with or endorsed by Arch Linux. Data comes from the public AUR RPC interface; respect the AUR terms of use.