Query npmjs registry via api

Question

I find I\'m often unsatisfied with the ordering and expressiveness of searches on https://www.npmjs.com/. I guess there should be a way to programmatically query the server

Answer 1

You can find the documentation for the official public NPM registry API at the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/npm/registry

The documentation for the search endpoint can be found here: https://github.com/npm/registry/blob/master/docs/REGISTRY-API.md#get-v1search

The following query parameters are accepted: text, size, quality, popularity, maintenance

curl -sL 'https://registry.npmjs.org/-/v1/search?text=react-native&size=5' | jq

Here we're using curl to make the API request, and jq to format the JSON response. The following output is returned:

{
  "objects": [
    {
      "package": {
        "name": "react-native",
        "scope": "unscoped",
        "version": "0.62.2",
        "description": "A framework for building native apps using React",
        "date": "2020-04-08T17:08:19.985Z",
        "links": {
          "npm": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native",
          "homepage": "https://github.com/facebook/react-native#readme",
          "repository": "https://github.com/facebook/react-native",
          "bugs": "https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "username": "react-native-bot",
          "email": "opensource+react-native-bot@fb.com"
        },
        "maintainers": [
          {
            "username": "cpojer",
            "email": "christoph.pojer@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "fb",
            "email": "opensource+npm@fb.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "grabbou",
            "email": "grabbou@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "hectorramos",
            "email": "hector@hectorramos.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "react-native-bot",
            "email": "opensource+react-native-bot@fb.com"
          }
        ]
      },
      "flags": {
        "unstable": true
      },
      "score": {
        "final": 0.4604636166574407,
        "detail": {
          "quality": 0.5886895871400879,
          "popularity": 0.47768592528213616,
          "maintenance": 0.3333333333333333
        }
      },
      "searchScore": 100000.47
    },
    {
      "package": {
        "name": "react-native-svg",
        "scope": "unscoped",
        "version": "12.1.0",
        "description": "SVG library for react-native",
        "keywords": [
          "react-component",
          "react-native",
          "ios",
          "android",
          "SVG",
          "ART",
          "VML",
          "gradient"
        ],
        "date": "2020-04-09T23:50:28.358Z",
        "links": {
          "npm": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-svg",
          "homepage": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-svg",
          "repository": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-svg",
          "bugs": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-svg/issues"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "username": "msand",
          "email": "msand@abo.fi"
        },
        "maintainers": [
          {
            "username": "brentvatne",
            "email": "brentvatne@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "dustin.savery",
            "email": "dustin.savery@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "magicismight",
            "email": "master@horcrux.cn"
          },
          {
            "username": "msand",
            "email": "msand@abo.fi"
          }
        ]
      },
      "score": {
        "final": 0.5244501419238121,
        "detail": {
          "quality": 0.9582364654638059,
          "popularity": 0.34375010176572474,
          "maintenance": 0.3333333333333333
        }
      },
      "searchScore": 0.031369504
    },
    {
      "package": {
        "name": "react-native-device-info",
        "scope": "unscoped",
        "version": "5.6.1",
        "description": "Get device information using react-native",
        "keywords": [
          "react-component",
          "react-native",
          "ios",
          "android",
          "windows",
          "device",
          "events",
          "cocoapod"
        ],
        "date": "2020-05-27T18:33:11.715Z",
        "links": {
          "npm": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-device-info",
          "homepage": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-device-info#readme",
          "repository": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-device-info",
          "bugs": "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-device-info/issues"
        },
        "author": {
          "name": "Rebecca Hughes",
          "email": "rebecca@learnium.net",
          "url": "https://github.com/rebeccahughes"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "username": "mikehardy",
          "email": "npmjs@mikehardy.net"
        },
        "maintainers": [
          {
            "username": "gantman",
            "email": "gantman+npm@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "jeroenbourgois",
            "email": "info@jeroenbourgois.be"
          },
          {
            "username": "lilach",
            "email": "i.am.red@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "machour",
            "email": "machour@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "rebeccahughes",
            "email": "rebeccahughes1@outlook.com"
          }
        ]
      },
      "score": {
        "final": 0.5102794746987024,
        "detail": {
          "quality": 0.9614895473985808,
          "popularity": 0.3004741251784613,
          "maintenance": 0.3333333333333333
        }
      },
      "searchScore": 0.016712856
    },
    {
      "package": {
        "name": "css-to-react-native",
        "scope": "unscoped",
        "version": "3.0.0",
        "description": "Convert CSS text to a React Native stylesheet object",
        "keywords": [
          "styled-components",
          "React",
          "ReactNative",
          "styles",
          "CSS"
        ],
        "date": "2019-10-10T17:46:00.297Z",
        "links": {
          "npm": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/css-to-react-native",
          "homepage": "https://github.com/styled-components/css-to-react-native#readme",
          "repository": "https://github.com/styled-components/css-to-react-native",
          "bugs": "https://github.com/styled-components/css-to-react-native/issues"
        },
        "author": {
          "name": "Jacob Parker"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "username": "jacobp100",
          "email": "jacobparker1992@gmail.com"
        },
        "maintainers": [
          {
            "username": "jacobp100",
            "email": "jacobparker1992@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "kristerkari",
            "email": "krister@sent.at"
          },
          {
            "username": "mxstbr",
            "email": "npm@mxstbr.com"
          }
        ]
      },
      "score": {
        "final": 0.4836548888489432,
        "detail": {
          "quality": 0.8524860977159072,
          "popularity": 0.39264581380833835,
          "maintenance": 0.25852292771786467
        }
      },
      "searchScore": 0.013077582
    },
    {
      "package": {
        "name": "react-native-elements",
        "scope": "unscoped",
        "version": "2.0.4",
        "description": "React Native Elements & UI Toolkit",
        "keywords": [
          "react-native",
          "reactjs",
          "reactnative",
          "bootstrap"
        ],
        "date": "2020-06-30T02:30:34.882Z",
        "links": {
          "npm": "https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-elements",
          "homepage": "https://react-native-elements.github.io/react-native-elements/",
          "repository": "https://github.com/react-native-elements/react-native-elements",
          "bugs": "https://github.com/react-native-elements/react-native-elements/issues"
        },
        "author": {
          "name": "Nader Dabit & Monte Thakkar"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "username": "flyingcircle",
          "email": "jeremyelijah@live.com"
        },
        "maintainers": [
          {
            "username": "dabit3",
            "email": "dabit3@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "iroachie",
            "email": "kroach.work@gmail.com"
          },
          {
            "username": "monte9",
            "email": "mthakkar@mail.sfsu.edu"
          }
        ]
      },
      "score": {
        "final": 0.4921277780507845,
        "detail": {
          "quality": 0.9218028296308819,
          "popularity": 0.28262932141386665,
          "maintenance": 0.3333333333333333
        }
      },
      "searchScore": 0.011005878
    }
  ],
  "total": 26290,
  "time": "Wed Jul 08 2020 05:02:14 GMT+0000 (UTC)"
}