Ecosystem adoption measures how widely a package is actually installed, using the package registries themselves — npm, PyPI, Packagist, crates.io, RubyGems, Hex, and the other supported ecosystems. Real download volume beats GitHub stars as adoption evidence: downloads measure use, stars measure attention.
- Category: Community & Adoption (25% within category)
- Weight in overall index: 4.5%
- Metric key:
ecosystem_adoption - Applies to: repositories that publish at least one package; otherwise
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How the value is computed
| Component | Weight | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly downloads | 80 | summed across the repository's packages, log-scaled — ~1,000,000/month saturates |
| Total downloads | 80 | fallback when a registry publishes no monthly figure (e.g. RubyGems); log-scaled, ~50,000,000 all-time saturates |
| Registry dependents | 20 | log-scaled; reported by some ecosystems only, excluded elsewhere |
The download component uses the monthly figure where available and the lifetime total otherwise — whichever the registry provides, so no ecosystem is structurally disadvantaged.
Fairness rules
- Non-publishing repositories are not penalized. Applications and infrastructure projects that ship nothing to a registry get
nullhere, and Community & Adoption renormalizes onto its other metrics. - Packages must point back. A registry package only counts when its metadata verifiably references the inspected repository; mismatched packages are listed in the report but excluded from the computation.
- Log scaling keeps the metric meaningful across the whole range — a package going from 1,000 to 10,000 monthly downloads moves as much as one going from 100,000 to 1,000,000.
Reading the result
- Within its category, this is the strongest adoption evidence available — stronger than popularity, which is why a heavily downloaded but modestly starred package can outread a famous one.
- Download figures vary by registry in meaning (mirrors, CI traffic); the log scale absorbs most of that noise, and the exact inputs are echoed in every report for inspection.
Improving the value
- Publish the package to its ecosystem's registry and keep the repository link in the package metadata accurate.
- Beyond that, downloads follow genuine use — the honest lever is the project's usefulness and discoverability, not the metric.
Related: package maintenance · supported ecosystems