@ecosyste-ms/critical

SQLite database of critical open source packages from ecosyste.ms.

The database is rebuilt daily and published to npm and as a GitHub release. Versions use MAJOR.MINOR.YYYYMMDD where major/minor track schema changes and patch is the build date.

Install

npm install @ecosyste-ms/critical

The package includes a pre-built critical-packages.db file:

import { databasePath } from "@ecosyste-ms/critical";
import { DatabaseSync } from "node:sqlite";

const db = new DatabaseSync(databasePath);
const pkg = db.prepare("SELECT * FROM packages WHERE name = ?").get("lodash");

Written in TypeScript and published with type declarations; the row shapes the build side works with (ApiPackage, ApiAdvisory, ApiRepoMetadata, BuildInfo) are exported as types.

Since 1.3.0 the package has one runtime dependency, @ecosyste-ms/ecosystems-ts, the typed client for the ecosyste.ms API. The build talks to the API through it rather than through a hand-rolled fetch layer, so retries, rate limiting and registry routing live in one place across the ecosyste.ms packages. The version is pinned exactly, since the daily job publishes unattended. Reading the bundled database still touches nothing but node:sqlite.

See ecosyste-ms/mcp for a full example.

Download

You can also grab the database directly from the releases page:

• critical-packages.db - uncompressed SQLite
• critical-packages.db.gz - gzip compressed

Building

To build the database yourself:

import { build, createDatabase } from "@ecosyste-ms/critical";

await build({
  dbPath: "critical-packages.db",
  fetchVersionsData: true,
  onProgress: console.log,
});

From the command line:

npx @ecosyste-ms/critical                    # full build with versions
npx @ecosyste-ms/critical --skip-versions    # faster, packages only
npx @ecosyste-ms/critical -o my-db.db        # custom output path
npx @ecosyste-ms/critical --stats            # show database statistics

Set ECOSYSTEMS_MAILTO to a contact address before a full build. The ecosyste.ms API allows anonymous callers roughly 5,000 requests an hour and a full build makes around 9,700; a build that identifies itself gets roughly 15,000. Without it most of the version fetches are rate-limited away, and build() throws rather than publish a database that lost more than 5% of its versions.

[email protected] npx @ecosyste-ms/critical

Development

npm ci
npm run build          # tsc: lib/*.ts -> dist/
npm test               # vitest, against lib/ sources -- no build needed
npm run test:packaged  # packs the tarball and tests what it ships
npm run lint           # biome check + tsc --noEmit
npm run format         # biome check --write
npm run build:db       # build critical-packages.db from the API (what the daily job runs)

The default suite runs against lib/ and needs no build step. test:packaged is separate because it builds, runs npm pack, and exercises the extracted tarball's entrypoint, export surface and bin — the checks that catch a broken exports map rather than broken logic.

The published package is plain JavaScript, so consumers stay on the Node >= 22.5.0 floor that node:sqlite sets.

Schema

packages

Indexes: (ecosystem, name) unique, purl, licenses, ecosystem

versions

Primary key: (package_id, number)

advisories

Indexes: package_id, uuid, severity, (package_id, uuid) unique

repo_metadata

Indexes: full_name, owner

packages_fts

FTS5 virtual table for full-text search on ecosystem, name, description, and keywords.

build_info

Example Queries

SBOM enrichment by purl:

SELECT * FROM packages WHERE purl = 'pkg:npm/lodash';

-- Check if a specific version exists
SELECT * FROM versions v
JOIN packages p ON v.package_id = p.id
WHERE p.purl = 'pkg:npm/lodash' AND v.number = '4.17.21';

Find packages with known vulnerabilities:

SELECT p.ecosystem, p.name, a.uuid, a.severity, a.title
FROM packages p
JOIN advisories a ON p.id = a.package_id
WHERE a.severity IN ('HIGH', 'CRITICAL');

License audit:

SELECT ecosystem, name, licenses
FROM packages
WHERE licenses NOT IN ('MIT', 'Apache-2.0', 'BSD-3-Clause');

Full-text search:

SELECT p.* FROM packages p
JOIN packages_fts ON p.id = packages_fts.rowid
WHERE packages_fts MATCH 'http client';

Packages by ecosystem:

SELECT * FROM packages WHERE ecosystem = 'npm';

Most depended-on packages:

SELECT ecosystem, name, dependent_packages_count
FROM packages
ORDER BY dependent_packages_count DESC
LIMIT 100;

License

CC-BY-SA-4.0