R-universe provides several APIs for programmatic access, requiring no authentication. Thanks to the APIs you can list universes, packages in an universe, get information on packages, perform searches.
You can interact with the API in two ways:universe R package available from rOpenSci’s R-universe.
This page demonstrates usage with {httr2} or {universe} directly.
Universe-specific APIs
API endpoints start with the universe URL.https://jeroen.r-universe.dev as an example, but you can replace it with any universe URL.
List of all universes
URL: https://r-universe.dev/api/everyone
Example using {httr2}:
<- httr2:: request ("https://r-universe.dev/api/everyone" ) |> :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (universes, max.level = 1 )
List of 2
$ universes :List of 11184
$ maintainers:List of 10835
head (universes[["universes" ]])
[[1]]
[1] "0011235813"
[[2]]
[1] "09dohkim"
[[3]]
[1] "0diraf"
[[4]]
[1] "1-0-go"
[[5]]
[1] "1001oreos"
[[6]]
[1] "16eagle"
head (universes[["maintainers" ]])
[[1]]
[1] "000100100110001"
[[2]]
[1] "0011235813"
[[3]]
[1] "09dohkim"
[[4]]
[1] "1-0-go"
[[5]]
[1] "1001oreos"
[[6]]
[1] "123caj"
Example using {universe}:
:: everyone () |> head ()
[1] "000100100110001" "0011235813" "09dohkim" "1-0-go"
[5] "1001oreos" "123caj"
:: everyone (type = "universes" ) |> head ()
[1] "0011235813" "09dohkim" "0diraf" "1-0-go" "1001oreos"
[6] "16eagle"
:: everyone (type = "maintainers" ) |> head ()
[1] "000100100110001" "0011235813" "09dohkim" "1-0-go"
[5] "1001oreos" "123caj"
List of packages in an universe
URL: https://<username>.r-universe.dev/api/ls
Example using {httr2}:
<- httr2:: request ("https://jeroen.r-universe.dev/api/ls" ) |> :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (packages)
List of 18
$ : chr "RAppArmor"
$ : chr "V8"
$ : chr "badgen"
$ : chr "base64"
$ : chr "bcrypt"
$ : chr "brotli"
$ : chr "curl"
$ : chr "js"
$ : chr "jsonlite"
$ : chr "maketools"
$ : chr "mongolite"
$ : chr "openssl"
$ : chr "protolite"
$ : chr "rjade"
$ : chr "sys"
$ : chr "unix"
$ : chr "webp"
$ : chr "webutils"
Example using {universe}:
<- universe:: universe_ls ("jeroen" )str (packages)
chr [1:18] "RAppArmor" "V8" "badgen" "base64" "bcrypt" "brotli" "curl" ...
Information on a single package in an universe
URL: https://<username>.r-universe.dev/api/packages/<package>
Fields that start with an underscore _, like _topics, are not present in the DESCRIPTION file. Note that some fields that do not start with an underscore (the fields Date/Publication, Repository, RemoteUrl, RemoteRef and RemoteSha) get automatically inserted in the DESCRIPTION file by our build system. These same fields would be added automatically if you install a package using for instance install_github(). The main purpose is that for instance the renv package will know where to find the source for the package, if it needs to pin an exact version.
Example using {httr2}:
<- httr2:: request ("https://jeroen.r-universe.dev/api/packages/V8" ) |> :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (v8, max.level = 1 )
List of 77
$ _id : chr "6a2a57b47b7a29ca600399ac"
$ Package : chr "V8"
$ Type : chr "Package"
$ Title : chr "Embedded JavaScript and WebAssembly Engine for R"
$ Version : chr "8.2.0"
$ Authors@R : chr "c(\nperson(\"Jeroen\", \"Ooms\", role = c(\"aut\", \"cre\"), email = \"[email protected] \",\ncomment = c(ORC"| __truncated__
$ Description : chr "An R interface to V8 <https://v8.dev>: Google's open\nsource JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. This package ca"| __truncated__
$ License : chr "MIT + file LICENSE"
$ URL : chr "https://jeroen.r-universe.dev/V8"
$ BugReports : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/issues"
$ SystemRequirements: chr "On Linux you can build against libv8-dev (Debian)\nor v8-devel (Fedora). We also provide static libv8 binaries "| __truncated__
$ NeedsCompilation : chr "yes"
$ VignetteBuilder : chr "knitr"
$ RoxygenNote : chr "7.3.1"
$ Roxygen : chr "list(load = \"installed\", markdown = TRUE)"
$ Language : chr "en-US"
$ Encoding : chr "UTF-8"
$ Biarch : chr "true"
$ Config/pak/sysreqs: chr "libnode-dev"
$ Repository : chr "https://jeroen.r-universe.dev"
$ Date/Publication : chr "2026-05-12 18:07:22 UTC"
$ RemoteUrl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ RemoteRef : chr "HEAD"
$ RemoteSha : chr "6d4c1cb9d24074df1a6522f368c768ed84440146"
$ Packaged :List of 2
$ Author : chr "Jeroen Ooms [aut, cre] (ORCID: <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-0289>),\nGeorge Stagg [ctb] (ORCID: <https://o"| __truncated__
$ Maintainer : chr "Jeroen Ooms <[email protected] >"
$ MD5sum : chr "c32e7cba25883ac271b1486f92850ab3"
$ _user : chr "jeroen"
$ _type : chr "src"
$ _file : chr "V8_8.2.0.tar.gz"
$ _fileid : chr "12a6c2c9d298f16add6065c33e567171e0dae52e6002dcd0d8585c9c44e291dd"
$ _filesize : int 202712
$ _sha256 : chr "12a6c2c9d298f16add6065c33e567171e0dae52e6002dcd0d8585c9c44e291dd"
$ _created : chr "2026-06-11T06:32:14.000Z"
$ _published : chr "2026-06-11T06:37:40.926Z"
$ _distro : chr "noble"
$ _jobs :List of 13
$ _buildurl : chr "https://github.com/r-universe/jeroen/actions/runs/27328357759"
$ _status : chr "success"
$ _host : chr "GitHub-Actions"
$ _upstream : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _commit :List of 5
$ _maintainer :List of 8
$ _registered : logi TRUE
$ _dependencies :List of 8
$ _owner : chr "jeroen"
$ _selfowned : logi TRUE
$ _usedby : int 443
$ _updates :List of 18
$ _tags :List of 1
$ _topics :List of 4
$ _stars : int 207
$ _contributors :List of 11
$ _userbio :List of 4
$ _downloads :List of 2
$ _mentions : int 2
$ _devurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _searchresults : int 616
$ _rbuild : chr "4.6.0"
$ _assets :List of 11
$ _homeurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _realowner : chr "jeroen"
$ _cranurl : logi TRUE
$ _releases :List of 61
$ _exports :List of 6
$ _help :List of 3
$ _pkglogo : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/man/figures/logo.svg"
$ _readme : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/README.md"
$ _rundeps :List of 3
$ _sysdeps :List of 1
$ _vignettes :List of 2
$ _score : num 16.4
$ _indexed : logi TRUE
$ _nocasepkg : chr "v8"
$ _universes :List of 1
$ _binaries :List of 12
Example using {universe}:
<- universe:: universe_one_package ("jeroen" , "V8" )# The result is a list str (V8, max.level = 1 )
List of 77
$ _id : chr "6a2a57b47b7a29ca600399ac"
$ Package : chr "V8"
$ Type : chr "Package"
$ Title : chr "Embedded JavaScript and WebAssembly Engine for R"
$ Version : chr "8.2.0"
$ Authors@R : chr "c(\nperson(\"Jeroen\", \"Ooms\", role = c(\"aut\", \"cre\"), email = \"[email protected] \",\ncomment = c(ORC"| __truncated__
$ Description : chr "An R interface to V8 <https://v8.dev>: Google's open\nsource JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. This package ca"| __truncated__
$ License : chr "MIT + file LICENSE"
$ URL : chr "https://jeroen.r-universe.dev/V8"
$ BugReports : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/issues"
$ SystemRequirements: chr "On Linux you can build against libv8-dev (Debian)\nor v8-devel (Fedora). We also provide static libv8 binaries "| __truncated__
$ NeedsCompilation : chr "yes"
$ VignetteBuilder : chr "knitr"
$ RoxygenNote : chr "7.3.1"
$ Roxygen : chr "list(load = \"installed\", markdown = TRUE)"
$ Language : chr "en-US"
$ Encoding : chr "UTF-8"
$ Biarch : chr "true"
$ Config/pak/sysreqs: chr "libnode-dev"
$ Repository : chr "https://jeroen.r-universe.dev"
$ Date/Publication : chr "2026-05-12 18:07:22 UTC"
$ RemoteUrl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ RemoteRef : chr "HEAD"
$ RemoteSha : chr "6d4c1cb9d24074df1a6522f368c768ed84440146"
$ Packaged :List of 2
$ Author : chr "Jeroen Ooms [aut, cre] (ORCID: <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-0289>),\nGeorge Stagg [ctb] (ORCID: <https://o"| __truncated__
$ Maintainer : chr "Jeroen Ooms <[email protected] >"
$ MD5sum : chr "c32e7cba25883ac271b1486f92850ab3"
$ _user : chr "jeroen"
$ _type : chr "src"
$ _file : chr "V8_8.2.0.tar.gz"
$ _fileid : chr "12a6c2c9d298f16add6065c33e567171e0dae52e6002dcd0d8585c9c44e291dd"
$ _filesize : int 202712
$ _sha256 : chr "12a6c2c9d298f16add6065c33e567171e0dae52e6002dcd0d8585c9c44e291dd"
$ _created : chr "2026-06-11T06:32:14.000Z"
$ _published : chr "2026-06-11T06:37:40.926Z"
$ _distro : chr "noble"
$ _jobs :List of 13
$ _buildurl : chr "https://github.com/r-universe/jeroen/actions/runs/27328357759"
$ _status : chr "success"
$ _host : chr "GitHub-Actions"
$ _upstream : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _commit :List of 5
$ _maintainer :List of 8
$ _registered : logi TRUE
$ _dependencies :List of 8
$ _owner : chr "jeroen"
$ _selfowned : logi TRUE
$ _usedby : int 443
$ _updates :List of 18
$ _tags :List of 1
$ _topics :List of 4
$ _stars : int 207
$ _contributors :List of 11
$ _userbio :List of 4
$ _downloads :List of 2
$ _mentions : int 2
$ _devurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _searchresults : int 616
$ _rbuild : chr "4.6.0"
$ _assets :List of 11
$ _homeurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _realowner : chr "jeroen"
$ _cranurl : logi TRUE
$ _releases :List of 61
$ _exports :List of 6
$ _help :List of 3
$ _pkglogo : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/man/figures/logo.svg"
$ _readme : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/README.md"
$ _rundeps :List of 3
$ _sysdeps :List of 1
$ _vignettes :List of 2
$ _score : num 16.4
$ _indexed : logi TRUE
$ _nocasepkg : chr "v8"
$ _universes :List of 1
$ _binaries :List of 12
Database dump
URL: https://<username>.r-universe.dev/api/dbdump
This API endpoint is not supported by the universe package yet.
<- mongolite:: read_bson ('https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/api/dbdump' )
Search in an universe
URL: https://<username>.r-universe.dev/api/search Parameters:
q: Query string (supports advanced fields ).
limit: Maximum number of results (default: 100). To retrieve all results:
Perform an initial query to get the value of the total field.
Perform a second query with limit=total.
Using {httr2}:
How many packages in the rOpenSci universe depend on httr2?
<- httr2:: request ("https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/api/search" ) |> :: req_url_query (q = 'needs:httr2' ) |> # packages depending on {httr2} :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (deps, max.level = 1 )
List of 5
$ results:List of 47
$ query :List of 2
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 47
Using {universe}:
<- universe:: universe_search ("ropensci" , query = 'needs:httr2' )# The result is a list of packages str (deps, max.level = 1 )
List of 5
$ results:List of 47
$ query :List of 2
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 47
Search all universes
URL: https://r-universe.dev/api/search Parameters:
q: the query string. You can use the advanced fields .
limit: the number of results to return, by default a maximum of 100 but you can
do a first request to determine the total number of hits N, returned in the response as the total field,
then do a second request using limit=N.
Example using {httr2}:
<- httr2:: request ("https://r-universe.dev/api/search" ) |> :: req_url_query (q = '"weather data"' ) |> :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (packages, max.level = 1 )
List of 5
$ results:List of 92
$ query :List of 1
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 92
str (packages$ results[[1 ]])
List of 15
$ _id : chr "6a32bdfc3efcd9bda43934f6"
$ Package : chr "PEcAn.data.atmosphere"
$ Title : chr "PEcAn Functions Used for Managing Climate Driver Data"
$ Description : chr "The Predictive Ecosystem Carbon Analyzer (PEcAn) is a\nscientific workflow management tool that is designed to\"| __truncated__
$ _user : chr "pecanproject"
$ _usedby : int 14
$ _searchresults: int 75
$ _score : num 11.9
$ _uuid : int 2879854
$ maintainer :List of 6
..$ name : chr "David LeBauer"
..$ email : chr "[email protected] "
..$ login : chr "dlebauer"
..$ linkedin : chr "in/dlebauer"
..$ description: chr ""
..$ uuid : int 464871
$ updated : int 1781703335
$ stars : int 236
$ topics :List of 13
..$ : chr "climate-data"
..$ : chr "data-standardization"
..$ : chr "bayesian"
..$ : chr "cyberinfrastructure"
..$ : chr "data-assimilation"
..$ : chr "data-science"
..$ : chr "ecosystem-model"
..$ : chr "ecosystem-science"
..$ : chr "forecasting"
..$ : chr "meta-analysis"
..$ : chr "national-science-foundation"
..$ : chr "pecan"
..$ : chr "plants"
$ match : num 126
$ rank : num 1501
Example using {universe}:
<- universe:: global_search (query = '"weather data"' , limit = 100 L)str (packages, max.level = 1 )
List of 5
$ results:List of 92
$ query :List of 1
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 92
str (packages$ results[[1 ]])
List of 15
$ _id : chr "6a32bdfc3efcd9bda43934f6"
$ Package : chr "PEcAn.data.atmosphere"
$ Title : chr "PEcAn Functions Used for Managing Climate Driver Data"
$ Description : chr "The Predictive Ecosystem Carbon Analyzer (PEcAn) is a\nscientific workflow management tool that is designed to\"| __truncated__
$ _user : chr "pecanproject"
$ _usedby : int 14
$ _searchresults: int 75
$ _score : num 11.9
$ _uuid : int 2879854
$ maintainer :List of 6
..$ name : chr "David LeBauer"
..$ email : chr "[email protected] "
..$ login : chr "dlebauer"
..$ linkedin : chr "in/dlebauer"
..$ description: chr ""
..$ uuid : int 464871
$ updated : int 1781703335
$ stars : int 236
$ topics :List of 13
..$ : chr "climate-data"
..$ : chr "data-standardization"
..$ : chr "bayesian"
..$ : chr "cyberinfrastructure"
..$ : chr "data-assimilation"
..$ : chr "data-science"
..$ : chr "ecosystem-model"
..$ : chr "ecosystem-science"
..$ : chr "forecasting"
..$ : chr "meta-analysis"
..$ : chr "national-science-foundation"
..$ : chr "pecan"
..$ : chr "plants"
$ match : num 126
$ rank : num 1501
Note that searching globally only returns “indexed” packages: if a package is included in several universes, it still shows up only once in search results because of our deduplication efforts .
Database dump (all universes)
URL: https://r-universe.dev/api/dbdump
This API endpoint is not supported by the universe package yet.
<- mongolite:: read_bson ('https://r-universe.dev/api/dbdump' )