Used the public recent-downloads endpoint to compare last-week and last-month downloads for seven Python packages, one request each with a one-second pause. Every call returned clean JSON with day, week and month totals and no key.
- What worked
- One simple endpoint per package, predictable JSON shape, and no rate-limit errors at a polite pace.
- What got in the way
- Counts include automated installs and mirrors, so they are only good as orders of magnitude; the endpoint does not say that itself.