/npm-downloads-to-leads

name: npm-downloads-to-leads
description: Takes a list of npm package names (yours or competitors'), fetches 12 weeks of daily download data from the npm API, computes a breakout velocity score per package to identify hockey-stick growth, fetches maintainer profiles from the npm registry and GitHub API, and outputs a ranked lead brief for each breakout package with who built it, how to reach them, and what to say. Use when asked to find evangelists before they are famous, track competitor package momentum, identify breakout npm packages, map npm maintainers to Twitter or GitHub, or find DevTools leads from package growth signals. Trigger when a user says "find leads from npm packages", "who maintains these breakout packages", "track npm download trends", "find evangelists before they are famous", or "map npm maintainers to Twitter".
compatibility: [claude-code, gemini-cli, github-copilot]

npm Downloads to Leads

Take a list of npm packages. Fetch 12 weeks of download data. Compute breakout velocity. Enrich maintainer profiles. Output a ranked lead brief per breakout package with contact signals and an outreach message.

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**Critical rule:** Every package download figure in the output must come from the npm API response. Every maintainer GitHub handle or Twitter username must come from the GitHub API response -- not guessed from the npm username. If the GitHub API did not return a twitter_username field, write "not found on GitHub" -- do not invent one.

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Common Mistakes

| The agent will want to... | Why that's wrong | |---|---| | Fetch GitHub profiles for every package in the list | Rate limit is 60 req/hr without a token. Enriching steady or declining packages wastes the budget before reaching breakout ones. Only fetch profiles for breakout and watching packages. | | Rank packages by raw weekly downloads | Raw downloads favor React and lodash, which are not leads. A package going from 1K to 8K/week is more actionable than React at 50M/week. Velocity score is the signal. | | Skip URL-encoding for scoped packages | @org/pkg without encoding causes a 404 from the npm API. Encode @ as %40 and / as %2F for every scoped package name. | | Stop the skill when the GitHub rate limit is hit | Degrade gracefully. Present the velocity leaderboard from npm data, skip remaining GitHub enrichments, and add a flag to data_quality_flags. Do not abort. | | Write outreach messages without naming the specific package | Generic "I saw your project" messages go unanswered. Every outreach message must name the package, its growth numbers, and a specific connection to the context the user provided. | | Include packages below 500 weekly downloads as leads | Below 500/week is noise. The maintainer has no meaningful audience yet. Flag as "too early" but do not present as a lead. |

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Step 1: Setup Check

echo "GITHUB_TOKEN: ${GITHUB_TOKEN:-not set, unauthenticated rate limit applies (60 req/hr -- enough for ~10 packages)}"

**If GITHUB_TOKEN is not set:** Continue. Inform the user: "GITHUB_TOKEN is not set. GitHub enrichment is limited to ~10 packages before hitting the rate limit. Add a token at github.com/settings/tokens (no scopes needed)."

No required keys. The npm API and npm registry are fully public with no authentication.

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Step 2: Gather Input

Collect from the conversation:

• One or more npm package names (unscoped like `esbuild`, or scoped like `@hono/hono`)
• Optional: a short product context string (used to personalize outreach messages)

If the user gives an npmjs.com URL, extract just the package name. Preserve the full scoped name including `@` and org prefix -- encoding is handled in Step 3.

**If no packages are provided:** Ask: "Which npm packages would you like to analyze? Provide your own, competitors, or a mix. Example: esbuild, @hono/hono, zod, valibot"

python3 << 'PYEOF'
import json, sys

packages_raw = "PACKAGES_HERE"  # comma or newline separated
product_context = "CONTEXT_HERE"  # optional, can be empty string

packages = [p.strip() for p in packages_raw.replace("\n", ",").split(",") if p.strip()]
if not packages:
    print("ERROR: No packages provided.")
    sys.exit(1)

print(f"Packages to analyze: {len(packages)}")
for p in packages:
    print(f"  {p}")

with open("/tmp/npl-input.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump({"packages": packages, "product_context": product_context}, f)
PYEOF

---

Step 3: Fetch 12-Week Download Data

**Use the standalone script if available -- it handles Steps 3, 4, and 5 in one call so you do not need to run the inline code blocks below.**

# Check if the script exists
ls scripts/fetch.py 2>/dev/null && echo "script available" || echo "script not found"

**If the script is available**, run it directly and skip to Step 6:

python3 scripts/fetch.py PACKAGES_HERE --context "CONTEXT_HERE" --output /tmp/npl-script-out.json

Then load the output into the enriched format Step 6 expects:

python3 << 'PYEOF'
import json

out = json.load(open("/tmp/npl-script-out.json"))
# Script output has results array -- split into scored and enriched for Steps 6-8
enriched = [r for r in out["results"] if "profile" in r]
scored = out["results"]
json.dump(scored, open("/tmp/npl-scored.json", "w"), indent=2)
json.dump(enriched, open("/tmp/npl-enriched.json", "w"), indent=2)
json.dump({"packages": [r["package"] for r in scored], "product_context": out.get("product_context", "")},
          open("/tmp/npl-input.json", "w"), indent=2)
print(f"Loaded {len(scored)} packages | {out['breakout_count']} breakout | {out['watching_count']} watching")
PYEOF

**If the script is not available**, run the inline code below.

Fetch daily download data for each package from the npm Downloads API. Aggregate to weekly buckets.

python3 << 'PYEOF'
import json, urllib.request, sys, time
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from collections import defaultdict
import urllib.parse

data = json