NPM Trending Scraper

Discover trending, popular, and newly published NPM packages. Search by keyword, browse trending repositories, or monitor recently published packages with full metadata including quality, popularity, and maintenance scores. No API key required.

This actor uses the NPM registry and GitHub APIs to fetch package data across three modes. Each result includes version, description, author, keywords, repository links, and npm quality scores. Optionally fetch full README content and weekly download counts for deeper analysis. Export to JSON, CSV, or via API.

Features

• Three modes: trending (popular packages), keyword (search by keyword), and new (recently published)
• NPM quality, popularity, and maintenance scores per package
• Optional README extraction (up to 5000 characters) and weekly download counts
• Package metadata: name, version, description, author, keywords, homepage, repository links
• Keyword-based search across the entire NPM registry
• No API key or authentication required

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	String	trending	Scrape mode: trending, keyword, or new
keyword	String	""	Search keyword (used in trending and keyword modes)
maxItems	Integer	50	Maximum number of packages to return
includeReadme	Boolean	false	Fetch README content and weekly download counts for each package (up to 10 packages)

Example input

{
    "mode": "keyword",
    "keyword": "state management react",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "includeReadme": false
}

Output

Keyword / trending mode output

{
    "name": "zustand",
    "version": "4.5.0",
    "description": "Bear necessities for state management in React",
    "url": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/zustand",
    "repository": "https://github.com/pmndrs/zustand",
    "homepage": "https://zustand-demo.pmnd.rs",
    "author": "pmndrs",
    "date": "2026-06-15T10:00:00.000Z",
    "keywords": ["react", "state", "state-management"],
    "searchScore": 15.72,
    "score": 0.89,
    "qualityScore": 0.92,
    "popularityScore": 0.85,
    "maintenanceScore": 0.90,
    "type": "npm_package"
}

New packages mode output

{
    "name": "new-package-name",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "A brand new package",
    "url": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/new-package-name",
    "author": "developer",
    "keywords": ["utility"],
    "license": "MIT",
    "repository": "https://github.com/user/repo",
    "date": "2026-07-04T09:00:00.000Z",
    "type": "new_package"
}

Use cases

• Package discovery — find the best libraries for a specific task before starting a project
• Technology scouting — monitor new NPM packages to spot emerging trends in the JavaScript ecosystem
• Dependency monitoring — track recently published packages in your technology stack
• Market research — analyze package popularity and quality scores to understand ecosystem dynamics
• Content creation — find trending packages to feature in newsletters, blog posts, or roundups
• Security — monitor newly published packages for potential typosquatting or supply chain risks
• Evaluating alternatives — compare quality, popularity, and maintenance scores across similar packages

How to use

1. Open the actor on the Apify Store.
2. Choose a mode: trending, keyword, or new.
3. Enter a keyword (required for keyword mode, optional for trending).
4. Optionally enable includeReadme for README content and download counts.
5. Click Start and export results to JSON, CSV, or via API.

Schedule recurring runs to monitor new packages and build a time-series dataset of NPM ecosystem trends.