Hex.pm Package Scraper

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Scrape package data from Hex.pm — the package manager for the Erlang ecosystem (Elixir, Erlang, Gleam, and more). This actor uses the official public Hex.pm REST API with no authentication required.

What can it do?

• Search packages by keyword with configurable sort order (recent downloads, total downloads, alphabetical, etc.)
• Fetch specific packages by exact name (e.g. phoenix, ecto, jason)
• Returns rich metadata: download statistics, versions, owners, licenses, repository links, and more

Input

Sort options

Example input — Search

{
"mode":"searchPackages",
"searchQuery":"phoenix",
"sort":"recent_downloads",
"maxItems":50
}

Example input — Fetch by name

{
"mode":"getByName",
"packageNames":["phoenix","ecto","jason"]
}

Output

Each record in the dataset represents one Hex.pm package.

Example output record

{
"packageName":"phoenix",
"description":"Peace of mind from prototype to production",
"licenses":["MIT"],
"links":{
"GitHub":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix",
"Changelog":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md"
},
"totalDownloads":156000000,
"recentDownloads":4200000,
"weeklyDownloads":380000,
"insertedAt":"2014-01-30T00:00:00Z",
"updatedAt":"2025-05-01T12:00:00Z",
"latestVersion":"1.7.14",
"owners":["chrismccord"],
"repositoryUrl":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix",
"sourceUrl":"https://hex.pm/packages/phoenix",
"recordType":"package",
"scrapedAt":"2025-05-30T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this require an API key? No. The Hex.pm API is fully public and does not require authentication.

Can I get all packages on Hex.pm? Yes — leave searchQuery empty and use sort=recent_downloads with a high maxItems. The API paginates automatically.

What is the difference between recent_downloads and total_downloads? recent_downloads covers the last 90 days; total_downloads is the all-time count. Both are available in the output.

What ecosystems does Hex.pm cover? Hex.pm hosts packages for Elixir, Erlang, and Gleam — all languages that run on the BEAM virtual machine.

How often is the data updated? Hex.pm data is live — each run fetches real-time data from the official API.

Can I search for multiple queries in one run? Each run supports one search query. To scrape multiple queries, run the actor multiple times or use getByName mode with a list of package names.