![](/https/pub.dev/static/hash-l15m0lvm/img/packages-side.webp)
Search #
Query expressions #
pub.dev
supports the following search query expressions:
-
"exact phrase"
: By default, when you perform a search, the results include packages with similar phrases. When a phrase is inside quotes, you'll see only those packages that contain exactly the specified phrase. -
package:<prefix>
: Searches for packages that begin withprefix
. Use this feature to find packages in the same framework. -
dependency:<package_name>
: Searches for packages that referencepackage_name
in theirpubspec.yaml
. -
dependency*:<package_name>
: Searches for packages that depend onpackage_name
(as direct, dev, or transitive dependencies). -
topic:<topic-name>
: Searches for packages that have specified thetopic-name
topic. -
publisher:<publisher-name.com>
: Searches for packages published bypublisher-name.com
-
sdk:<sdk>
: Searches for packages that support the given SDK.sdk
can be eitherflutter
ordart
-
runtime:<runtime>
: Searches for packages that support the given runtime.runtime
can be one ofweb
,native-jit
andnative-aot
. -
updated:<duration>
: Searches for packages updated in the given past days, with the following recognized formats:3d
(3 days),2w
(two weeks),6m
(6 months),2y
2 years. -
has:executable
: Search for packages with Dart files in theirbin/
directory.
Filters #
The search UI also supports filters. On a wide screen, the filter options will appear to the left of the search results. On a non-wide screen, to open the filter options, click the filter icon to the right of the search bar.
-
To filter by Dart or Flutter support, expand the SDKs section, then select the SDK you are developing with.
-
To filter by platform, under the Platforms section, select all platforms you intend to support.
-
To filter for only packages with OSI approved licenses, expand the License section, then select OSI approved.
-
For other filters, such as including unlisted packages, expand the Advanced section.
Ranking #
When you search for a package, the search algorithm first applies filters, and then considers only the packages that aren’t filtered out and that match the search query. Because packages contain a lot of text (including documentation comments and identifiers from source code), common words can match many packages.
To find the most relevant search results, the algorithm ranks packages using a combination of the following parameters, listed in order of relative importance:
-
Search query relevance of the following:
- Package name
- Description
- README
- Documentation comments and identifiers
-
Package popularity and like count
-
Pub points, which are based on factors such as these:
- Adherence to Dart file conventions
- Presence of documentation
- Up-to-date dependencies
- Language feature support
These parameters are normalized, weighted for relative importance, and combined to form an overall score for each search result; this score determines the default order of the displayed search results.
The code for normalizing and weighting parameters changes occasionally. You can find it at github.com/dart-lang/pub-dev.
Legacy packages #
pub.dev
does not expose packages that support only Dart SDK 1.x in search results
or in listing pages. However, one can access these packages through their package
page (/packages/<pkg>
) and pub
client can download them.
To search for such packages, include is:legacy
in the search query.