Hex.pm Elixir Package Scraper

Fetches package metadata directly from the official Hex.pm API — latest version, total and recent downloads, license, owners, GitHub link, documentation URL, and release history — for any Elixir or Erlang package on hex.pm. Built for Elixir developers, dependency-auditing tools, and anyone tracking package popularity or maintenance status across the Hex ecosystem.

Why this scraper

• Reads hex.pm's official JSON API instead of parsing rendered HTML, so it isn't affected by hex.pm site redesigns and doesn't need to guess at DOM structure.
• Captures both download metrics (total_downloads and recent_downloads) plus the full release_count, fields that are easy to miss or mis-parse when scraping HTML pages.
• Priced at $0.004 per run, undercutting most comparable listings while returning more fields per package (release history, owners, both download windows).

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
package_name	string	Hex.pm package name
description	string	Short package description from meta
latest_version	string	Version string of the most recent release
total_downloads	integer	All-time download count
recent_downloads	integer	Recent (last-90-day) download count
license	string	Comma-separated license identifiers
github_url	string	GitHub repository link from meta.links, if present
documentation_url	string	HexDocs documentation URL
owners	string	Comma-separated usernames of package owners
release_count	integer	Number of published releases
inserted_at	string	ISO timestamp the package was first published
updated_at	string	ISO timestamp of the last update
repository	string	Hex repository namespace (usually 'hexpm')
package_url	string	Canonical Hex.pm package page URL

Input

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://hex.pm/api/packages/phoenix" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Add one object per package you want, using its https://hex.pm/api/packages/<name> URL. maxItems caps how many of the supplied URLs are processed.

Output

{
  "package_name": "phoenix",
  "description": "Peace of mind from prototype to production",
  "latest_version": "1.8.13",
  "total_downloads": 154981799,
  "recent_downloads": 4408815,
  "license": "MIT",
  "github_url": "https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix",
  "documentation_url": "https://phoenix.hexdocs.pm/",
  "owners": "chrismccord, gazler, jeregrine, josevalim, steffend",
  "release_count": 180,
  "inserted_at": "2014-04-21T22:38:32.000000Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-08-25T09:12:08.458607Z",
  "repository": "hexpm",
  "package_url": "https://hex.pm/packages/phoenix"
}

Pricing

Pay per run: $0.004 per Actor start, charged once regardless of how many package URLs you include in startUrls. A single run fetching 50 packages costs $0.004 total.

Use cases

• Auditing an Elixir project's mix.lock dependencies for license compliance before a release.
• Tracking download trends for your own published Hex package over time by re-running on a schedule.
• Building a dependency dashboard or internal tool that flags Hex packages with stale updated_at dates or single-owner maintenance risk.