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/stats/everyone
Example using {httr2}:
<- httr2:: request ("https://r-universe.dev/stats/everyone" ) |> :: req_user_agent ("R-universe docs" ) |> :: req_perform () |> :: resp_body_json ()str (universes, max.level = 1 )
List of 2
$ universes :List of 9796
$ maintainers:List of 9605
head (universes[["universes" ]])
[[1]]
[1] "09dohkim"
[[2]]
[1] "16cile"
[[3]]
[1] "16eagle"
[[4]]
[1] "1802515849"
[[5]]
[1] "1vbutkus"
[[6]]
[1] "2005m"
head (universes[["maintainers" ]])
[[1]]
[1] "000100100110001"
[[2]]
[1] "09dohkim"
[[3]]
[1] "0umfhxcvx5j7joaohfss5mncnistjj6q"
[[4]]
[1] "123caj"
[[5]]
[1] "13479776"
[[6]]
[1] "16cile"
Example using {universe}:
:: everyone () |> head ()
[1] "000100100110001" "09dohkim"
[3] "0umfhxcvx5j7joaohfss5mncnistjj6q" "123caj"
[5] "13479776" "16cile"
:: everyone (type = "universes" ) |> head ()
[1] "09dohkim" "16cile" "16eagle" "1802515849" "1vbutkus"
[6] "2005m"
:: everyone (type = "maintainers" ) |> head ()
[1] "000100100110001" "09dohkim"
[3] "0umfhxcvx5j7joaohfss5mncnistjj6q" "123caj"
[5] "13479776" "16cile"
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 19
$ : chr "RAppArmor"
$ : chr "V8"
$ : chr "badgen"
$ : chr "base64"
$ : chr "bcrypt"
$ : chr "brotli"
$ : chr "curl"
$ : chr "gpg"
$ : 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 [1:19] "RAppArmor" "V8" "badgen" "base64" "bcrypt" "brotli" "curl" ...
Information on a single package in an universe
URL: https://<username>.r-universe.dev/api/packages/<package>
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 78
$ Package : chr "V8"
$ Type : chr "Package"
$ Title : chr "Embedded JavaScript and WebAssembly Engine for R"
$ Version : chr "6.0.0"
$ 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 "V8 engine version 6+ is needed for ES6 and WASM\nsupport. On Linux you can build against libv8-dev (Debian) or\"| __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"
$ RemoteUrl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ RemoteRef : chr "HEAD"
$ RemoteSha : chr "8d5312779708b6bc13970b199363296d0776fb86"
$ Packaged :List of 2
$ Author : chr "Jeroen Ooms [aut, cre] (<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-0289>),\nJan Marvin Garbuszus [ctb]"
$ Maintainer : chr "Jeroen Ooms <[email protected] >"
$ MD5sum : chr "7151441f43e851f9b8b77281748766e3"
$ _user : chr "jeroen"
$ _type : chr "src"
$ _file : chr "V8_6.0.0.tar.gz"
$ _fileid : chr "451031c78a376a40c1e4243db9c6089b54bb2eda47174d584b4be0af8a034b53"
$ _filesize : int 196468
$ _sha256 : chr "451031c78a376a40c1e4243db9c6089b54bb2eda47174d584b4be0af8a034b53"
$ _created : chr "2025-01-10T06:18:42.000Z"
$ _published : chr "2025-01-10T06:23:29.146Z"
$ _upstream : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _commit :List of 5
$ _maintainer :List of 7
$ _distro : chr "noble"
$ _host : chr "GitHub-Actions"
$ _status : chr "success"
$ _pkgdocs : chr "skipped"
$ _winbinary : chr "success"
$ _macbinary : chr "success"
$ _wasmbinary : chr "none"
$ _linuxdevel : chr "success"
$ _windevel : chr "success"
$ _buildurl : chr "https://github.com/r-universe/jeroen/actions/runs/12704342811"
$ _registered : logi TRUE
$ _dependencies :List of 8
$ _owner : chr "jeroen"
$ _selfowned : logi TRUE
$ _usedby : int 325
$ _updates :List of 11
$ _tags : list()
$ _topics :List of 5
$ _stars : int 201
$ _contributions :List of 10
$ _userbio :List of 4
$ _downloads :List of 2
$ _mentions : int 2
$ _devurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _searchresults : int 500
$ _assets :List of 11
$ _homeurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _realowner : chr "jeroen"
$ _cranurl : logi TRUE
$ _releases :List of 50
$ _exports :List of 6
$ _help :List of 3
$ _readme : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/README.md"
$ _rundeps :List of 3
$ _sysdeps :List of 2
$ _vignettes :List of 2
$ _score : num 15.7
$ _indexed : logi TRUE
$ _nocasepkg : chr "v8"
$ _universes :List of 1
$ _binaries :List of 9
Example using {universe}:
<- universe:: universe_one_package ("jeroen" , "V8" )# The result is a list of packages str (V8, max.level = 1 )
List of 78
$ Package : chr "V8"
$ Type : chr "Package"
$ Title : chr "Embedded JavaScript and WebAssembly Engine for R"
$ Version : chr "6.0.0"
$ 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 "V8 engine version 6+ is needed for ES6 and WASM\nsupport. On Linux you can build against libv8-dev (Debian) or\"| __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"
$ RemoteUrl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ RemoteRef : chr "HEAD"
$ RemoteSha : chr "8d5312779708b6bc13970b199363296d0776fb86"
$ Packaged :List of 2
$ Author : chr "Jeroen Ooms [aut, cre] (<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-0289>),\nJan Marvin Garbuszus [ctb]"
$ Maintainer : chr "Jeroen Ooms <[email protected] >"
$ MD5sum : chr "7151441f43e851f9b8b77281748766e3"
$ _user : chr "jeroen"
$ _type : chr "src"
$ _file : chr "V8_6.0.0.tar.gz"
$ _fileid : chr "451031c78a376a40c1e4243db9c6089b54bb2eda47174d584b4be0af8a034b53"
$ _filesize : int 196468
$ _sha256 : chr "451031c78a376a40c1e4243db9c6089b54bb2eda47174d584b4be0af8a034b53"
$ _created : chr "2025-01-10T06:18:42.000Z"
$ _published : chr "2025-01-10T06:23:29.146Z"
$ _upstream : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _commit :List of 5
$ _maintainer :List of 7
$ _distro : chr "noble"
$ _host : chr "GitHub-Actions"
$ _status : chr "success"
$ _pkgdocs : chr "skipped"
$ _winbinary : chr "success"
$ _macbinary : chr "success"
$ _wasmbinary : chr "none"
$ _linuxdevel : chr "success"
$ _windevel : chr "success"
$ _buildurl : chr "https://github.com/r-universe/jeroen/actions/runs/12704342811"
$ _registered : logi TRUE
$ _dependencies :List of 8
$ _owner : chr "jeroen"
$ _selfowned : logi TRUE
$ _usedby : int 325
$ _updates :List of 11
$ _tags : list()
$ _topics :List of 5
$ _stars : int 201
$ _contributions :List of 10
$ _userbio :List of 4
$ _downloads :List of 2
$ _mentions : int 2
$ _devurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _searchresults : int 500
$ _assets :List of 11
$ _homeurl : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8"
$ _realowner : chr "jeroen"
$ _cranurl : logi TRUE
$ _releases :List of 50
$ _exports :List of 6
$ _help :List of 3
$ _readme : chr "https://github.com/jeroen/v8/raw/HEAD/README.md"
$ _rundeps :List of 3
$ _sysdeps :List of 2
$ _vignettes :List of 2
$ _score : num 15.7
$ _indexed : logi TRUE
$ _nocasepkg : chr "v8"
$ _universes :List of 1
$ _binaries :List of 9
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 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 31
$ query :List of 2
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 31
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 31
$ query :List of 2
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 31
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 75
$ query :List of 1
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 75
str (packages$ results[[1 ]])
List of 15
$ _id : chr "676e405689f7bbc5d2bce2bc"
$ Package : chr "weatherOz"
$ Title : chr "An API Client for Australian Weather and Climate Data Resources"
$ Description : chr "Provides automated downloading, parsing and formatting of\nweather data for Australia through API endpoints pro"| __truncated__
$ _user : chr "ropensci"
$ _usedby : int 0
$ _searchresults: int 39
$ _score : num 8.52
$ _uuid : int 1200269
$ maintainer :List of 6
..$ name : chr "Rodrigo Pires"
..$ email : chr "[email protected] "
..$ login : chr "bozaah"
..$ twitter: chr "@ecophysplants"
..$ uuid : int 11730095
..$ orcid : chr "0000-0001-7384-6849"
$ updated : int 1732690924
$ stars : int 30
$ topics :List of 19
..$ : chr "dpird"
..$ : chr "bom"
..$ : chr "meteorological-data"
..$ : chr "weather-forecast"
..$ : chr "australia"
..$ : chr "weather"
..$ : chr "weather-data"
..$ : chr "meteorology"
..$ : chr "western-australia"
..$ : chr "australia-bureau-of-meteorology"
..$ : chr "western-australia-agriculture"
..$ : chr "australia-agriculture"
..$ : chr "australia-climate"
..$ : chr "australia-weather"
..$ : chr "api-client"
..$ : chr "climate"
..$ : chr "data"
..$ : chr "rainfall"
..$ : chr "weather-api"
$ match : num 170
$ rank : num 1451
Example using {universe}:
<- universe:: global_search (query = '"weather data"' , limit = 100 L)str (packages, max.level = 1 )
List of 5
$ results:List of 75
$ query :List of 1
$ skip : int 0
$ limit : int 100
$ total : int 75
str (packages$ results[[1 ]])
List of 15
$ _id : chr "676e405689f7bbc5d2bce2bc"
$ Package : chr "weatherOz"
$ Title : chr "An API Client for Australian Weather and Climate Data Resources"
$ Description : chr "Provides automated downloading, parsing and formatting of\nweather data for Australia through API endpoints pro"| __truncated__
$ _user : chr "ropensci"
$ _usedby : int 0
$ _searchresults: int 39
$ _score : num 8.52
$ _uuid : int 1200269
$ maintainer :List of 6
..$ name : chr "Rodrigo Pires"
..$ email : chr "[email protected] "
..$ login : chr "bozaah"
..$ twitter: chr "@ecophysplants"
..$ uuid : int 11730095
..$ orcid : chr "0000-0001-7384-6849"
$ updated : int 1732690924
$ stars : int 30
$ topics :List of 19
..$ : chr "dpird"
..$ : chr "bom"
..$ : chr "meteorological-data"
..$ : chr "weather-forecast"
..$ : chr "australia"
..$ : chr "weather"
..$ : chr "weather-data"
..$ : chr "meteorology"
..$ : chr "western-australia"
..$ : chr "australia-bureau-of-meteorology"
..$ : chr "western-australia-agriculture"
..$ : chr "australia-agriculture"
..$ : chr "australia-climate"
..$ : chr "australia-weather"
..$ : chr "api-client"
..$ : chr "climate"
..$ : chr "data"
..$ : chr "rainfall"
..$ : chr "weather-api"
$ match : num 170
$ rank : num 1451
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' )