I Built a Free API That Checks Package Health for AI Agents

Vincenzo Rubino — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:23:30 +0000

The Problem

AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) regularly suggest packages that are:

Deprecated without knowing it
Vulnerable to known CVEs
Abandoned with no maintainer activity for years

Every agent hits the npm registry, PyPI, and vulnerability databases independently. Millions of redundant requests for the same data.

The Solution: DepScope

DepScope aggregates package data from registries and vulnerability databases once, then serves it to any agent (or human) instantly.

curl https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/express

Returns:

{
  "package": "express",
  "latest_version": "5.2.1",
  "health": {
    "score": 85,
    "risk": "low",
    "breakdown": {
      "maintenance": 25,
      "security": 25,
      "popularity": 20,
      "maturity": 15,
      "community": 10
    }
  },
  "vulnerabilities": { "count": 0 },
  "recommendation": {
    "action": "safe_to_use",
    "summary": "express@5.2.1 is safe to use (health: 85/100)"
  }
}

Features

Check any package

# npm
curl https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/express

# PyPI
curl https://depscope.dev/api/check/pypi/django

# Cargo
curl https://depscope.dev/api/check/cargo/tokio

Compare packages side by side

curl https://depscope.dev/api/compare/npm/express,fastify,hono

Returns a ranked comparison:

Package	Health	Downloads/week
fastify	92/100	5.2M
hono	88/100	1.8M
express	85/100	35M

Scan an entire project

curl -X POST https://depscope.dev/api/scan \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ecosystem":"npm","packages":{"express":"*","lodash":"*","axios":"*"}}'

Returns project risk level + per-package audit:

{
  "project_risk": "low",
  "packages_scanned": 3,
  "packages": [
    { "package": "express", "health_score": 85, "vulnerabilities": { "count": 0 } },
    { "package": "lodash", "health_score": 88, "vulnerabilities": { "count": 0 } },
    { "package": "axios", "health_score": 82, "vulnerabilities": { "count": 0 } }
  ]
}

Quick endpoints

# Health score only (fast)
curl https://depscope.dev/api/health/npm/react

# Vulnerabilities only
curl https://depscope.dev/api/vulns/npm/lodash

# Version info only
curl https://depscope.dev/api/versions/pypi/fastapi

Health Score Algorithm

The score (0-100) is calculated from 5 signals. No AI, no LLM — pure algorithm, runs in milliseconds:

Signal	Max Points	How it's calculated
Maintenance	25	Days since last release. <30d = 25pts, <90d = 20pts, <180d = 15pts
Security	25	Known CVEs from OSV database, filtered to latest version only
Popularity	20	Weekly downloads from registry. >10M = 20pts, >1M = 17pts
Maturity	15	Total version count. >50 = 15pts, >20 = 12pts
Community	15	Number of active maintainers + GitHub stars

The key innovation: we only show vulnerabilities that affect the latest version. Django went from 272 "vulnerabilities" (historical noise) to just 1 that actually matters.

How It Works Under the Hood

Agent asks "is express safe?"
        │
        ▼
   DepScope checks Redis cache
        │
   Cache hit? ──yes──▶ Return in 0ms
        │
        no
        │
        ▼
   Fetch from npm registry ─────────────┐
   Fetch from OSV (vulnerabilities) ─────┤
   Fetch downloads from npm API ─────────┤
        │                                │
        ▼                                │
   Calculate health score ◀──────────────┘
        │
        ▼
   Cache in Redis (1 hour TTL)
   Save to PostgreSQL (permanent)
        │
        ▼
   Return full report

We pre-process the top 272 most popular packages every 6 hours, so most requests are served from cache instantly.

For AI Agents

DepScope is designed to be called by AI agents before they suggest any package installation.

Direct API (any agent with HTTP access)

Any AI agent that can make HTTP requests can use DepScope:

GET https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/express

No auth. No API key. No signup. Just call it.

ChatGPT / OpenAI Actions

https://depscope.dev/.well-known/ai-plugin.json

OpenAPI Spec (Swagger)

https://depscope.dev/openapi.json

Interactive docs at depscope.dev/docs

MCP Server (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "depscope": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["depscope-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub: depscope-mcp

Real Examples

Express.js

$ curl -s https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/express | jq '.recommendation'
{
  "action": "safe_to_use",
  "summary": "express@5.2.1 is safe to use (health: 85/100)"
}

Comparing web frameworks

$ curl -s https://depscope.dev/api/compare/npm/express,fastify,hono | jq '.winner'
"fastify"

A deprecated package

$ curl -s https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/request | jq '.recommendation'
{
  "action": "find_alternative",
  "issues": ["Package is deprecated"],
  "summary": "request is deprecated — find an alternative package"
}

Why Free?

We believe package intelligence should be infrastructure, not a premium feature.

The idea is simple: we do the heavy lifting once, so every AI agent benefits. Instead of millions of agents independently hitting npm + PyPI + OSV + GitHub, we aggregate it all and serve cached results in milliseconds.

272 packages pre-cached. 3 ecosystems. Zero cost to use.

Try It

Website: depscope.dev
API Docs: depscope.dev/api-docs
Swagger: depscope.dev/docs
Live Stats: depscope.dev/stats
MCP Server: GitHub

# Try it right now
curl https://depscope.dev/api/check/npm/express

Built by Cuttalo srl with FastAPI + PostgreSQL + Redis on a single VM. Feedback welcome at depscope@cuttalo.com

DEV Community: Vincenzo Rubino