{"id":49468152,"url":"https://github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout","last_synced_at":"2026-04-30T13:35:18.164Z","repository":{"id":353637597,"uuid":"1220268304","full_name":"zrosenbauer/namescout","owner":"zrosenbauer","description":null,"archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2026-04-24T21:41:27.000Z","size":414,"stargazers_count":0,"open_issues_count":1,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":0,"default_branch":"main","last_synced_at":"2026-04-30T13:35:17.264Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":"TypeScript","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/zrosenbauer.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null,"zenodo":null,"notice":null,"maintainers":null,"copyright":null,"agents":"AGENTS.md","dco":null,"cla":null},"funding":{"github":"zrosenbauer"}},"created_at":"2026-04-24T18:12:41.000Z","updated_at":"2026-04-24T21:41:11.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":null,"dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":["zrosenbauer/namescout"],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/zrosenbauer/namescout","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/zrosenbauer%2Fnamescout","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/zrosenbauer%2Fnamescout/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/zrosenbauer%2Fnamescout/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/zrosenbauer%2Fnamescout/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/zrosenbauer","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout/tar.gz/refs/heads/main","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/zrosenbauer%2Fnamescout/sbom","scorecard":null,"host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":286080680,"owners_count":32466333,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2026-04-30T13:12:12.517Z","status":"ssl_error","status_checked_at":"2026-04-30T13:12:06.837Z","response_time":57,"last_error":"SSL_read: unexpected eof while reading","robots_txt_status":"success","robots_txt_updated_at":"2025-07-24T06:49:26.215Z","robots_txt_url":"https://github.com/robots.txt","online":false,"can_crawl_api":true,"host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2026-04-30T13:35:16.069Z","updated_at":"2026-04-30T13:35:18.155Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/zrosenbauer.png","language":"TypeScript","funding_links":["https://github.com/sponsors/zrosenbauer"],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"\u003cdiv align=\"center\"\u003e\n  \u003ch1\u003enamescout\u003c/h1\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn npm package naming toolkit — generate names, check availability, detect squatters, and run semantic similarity \"vibe checks\" against the entire npm registry.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003ca href=\"https://github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout/actions\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https://github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?branch=main\" alt=\"CI\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.npmjs.com/package/namescout\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https://img.shields.io/npm/v/namescout\" alt=\"npm version\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https://github.com/zrosenbauer/namescout/blob/main/LICENSE\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/license/zrosenbauer/namescout\" alt=\"License\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n## Why\n\nNaming an npm package in 2025 is absurd. The registry has **4 million+ packages**, and the rules for what you can and can't publish are a mess:\n\n- You can't use names \"too similar\" to existing packages — but \"too similar\" is [decided by an opaque algorithm](https://blog.npmjs.org/post/168978377570/new-package-moniker-rules) that nobody fully understands\n- Hundreds of thousands of packages are squatted — empty `README`, no code, published once in 2014 and never touched again — but you still can't use that name\n- Scoped packages (`@scope/name`) exist as a workaround, but then your users have to type `@your-scope/your-package` every time\n- The npm dispute process is [slow, inconsistent, and heavily favors the incumbent](https://www.reddit.com/r/npm/comments/bp2tco/npm_package_name_disputes_are_a_mess/)\n- Meanwhile, [entire conversations](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/19629) about fixing the moniker rules go nowhere\n\nThe result? Developers burn hours brainstorming names, checking availability, getting rejected by the moniker rules, and repeating. It's a terrible experience.\n\n**namescout** automates the painful parts:\n\n1. **Check availability** — Is the name actually free?\n2. **Detect squatters** — Is the name \"taken\" by an empty package nobody maintains?\n3. **String similarity** — How close is your name to existing packages? (This is roughly what the moniker rules check)\n4. **Semantic similarity** — Using vector embeddings of all 4M+ package names, find conceptually similar packages even if the strings don't match\n5. **Risk scoring** — Get a low/medium/high risk assessment combining all signals\n\n## Install\n\n```bash\nnpm install -g namescout\n```\n\nOn first run, namescout will download a pre-built database snapshot (~100MB compressed) containing all npm package names and their embeddings. Subsequent runs do delta syncs.\n\n## Usage\n\n### Check names\n\n```bash\n# Check one or more names\nnamescout check my-cool-lib another-name\n\n# Check from a JSON file\nnamescout check --file candidates.json\n\n# Output formats: table (default), json, agent\nnamescout check my-cool-lib --format=json\n```\n\nExample output:\n\n```\nName          Available  Squatted  Risk       Top Match     npm Link\n────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────\nmy-cool-lib   ✓ yes      -         🟢 low     my-cool-list  -\nanother-name  ✗ no       ⚠ likely  🟡 medium  other-name    https://www.npmjs.com/package/another-name\n```\n\n### Sync the database\n\n```bash\n# Download/update the local package database\nnamescout sync\n```\n\n### View past checks\n\n```bash\n# List previous check runs\nnamescout history\n```\n\n### Interactive dashboard\n\n```bash\n# Launch the TUI dashboard\nnamescout\n```\n\n## How It Works\n\nnamescout maintains a local SQLite database with:\n\n- **All npm package names** — sourced from [`all-the-package-names`](https://github.com/nice-registry/all-the-package-names), updated daily\n- **384-dimensional embeddings** — generated with [`all-MiniLM-L6-v2`](https://huggingface.co/sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2) via [`@xenova/transformers`](https://github.com/xenova/transformers.js)\n- **Vector search** — powered by [`sqlite-vec`](https://github.com/asg017/sqlite-vec) for fast KNN similarity queries\n\nWhen you check a name, namescout:\n\n1. Queries the npm registry for existence + squatter signals via [`squatter`](https://github.com/nicedoc/squatter)\n2. Runs Jaro-Winkler string similarity against candidate packages via [`cmpstr`](https://github.com/nicedoc/cmpstr)\n3. Embeds your name and runs a vector similarity search against all 4M+ package embeddings\n4. Combines all signals into a risk score\n\n## AI Skills\n\nnamescout ships with [Vercel AI skills](https://sdk.vercel.ai/docs/ai-sdk-ui/chatbot-tool-usage) for use in AI agents:\n\n- **`skills/check-npm-package`** — Validate package name availability from an AI agent\n- **`skills/name-npm-package`** — Creative naming workflow powered by AI\n\n## Monorepo Structure\n\n```\npackages/\n  types/     → @namescout/types   — shared TypeScript interfaces\n  db/        → @namescout/db      — SQLite + sqlite-vec layer\n  data/      → @namescout/data    — sync pipeline, embeddings, snapshot download\n  core/      → @namescout/core    — check pipeline (squatter → similarity → risk)\n  cli/       → namescout (npm)    — CLI + Ink TUI dashboard\nskills/\n  check-npm-package/  → AI skill for validating package names\n  name-npm-package/   → AI skill for creative naming workflow\n```\n\n## Further Reading\n\n- [npm Blog: New Package Moniker Rules](https://blog.npmjs.org/post/168978377570/new-package-moniker-rules) — the original announcement that started the pain\n- [npm/npm#19629: Package name dispute process](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/19629) — years-long thread about the broken dispute system\n- [Reddit: npm package name disputes are a mess](https://www.reddit.com/r/npm/comments/bp2tco/npm_package_name_disputes_are_a_mess/) — community frustration\n- [Reddit: Why are so many npm package names taken by empty packages?](https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/8ck2y0/why_are_so_many_npm_package_names_taken_by_empty/) — the squatting problem\n- [Sindre Sorhus on npm naming](https://github.com/sindresorhus/ama/issues/10) — even prolific package authors struggle with this\n\n## License\n\n[MIT](LICENSE)\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fzrosenbauer%2Fnamescout","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fzrosenbauer%2Fnamescout","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fzrosenbauer%2Fnamescout/lists"}