Evaluating Python Packages with Codex Using PyPI Stats

Choosing the right Python package means checking more than the docs. Download trends, release frequency, supported Python versions, and classifier metadata all factor into whether a package is a good long-term bet. Codex can help you reason about code, but it can’t pull live data from PyPI. AgentPatch’s pypi-package-stats tool adds that capability.

Why This Matters

The Python ecosystem has a long tail of packages that solve similar problems. For any given task — HTTP clients, data validation, task queues — there are usually three or four options. The differences often come down to maintenance: who’s behind it, how often they release, and whether they’ve kept up with recent Python versions.

pypi-package-stats returns download counts, the latest version and release date, supported Python versions (from classifiers), license, and project URLs for any package on PyPI. Codex can use this to give you recommendations based on current data instead of training-time snapshots.

Setup

The AgentPatch CLI is designed for AI agents to use via shell access. Install it, and your agent can discover and invoke any tool on the marketplace.

Install (zero dependencies, Python 3.10+):

pip install agentpatch

Set your API key:

export AGENTPATCH_API_KEY=your_api_key

Example commands your agent will use:

ap search "web search"
ap run google-search --input '{"query": "test"}'

Get your API key from the AgentPatch dashboard.

Add AgentPatch to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.agentpatch]
url = "https://agentpatch.ai/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "AGENTPATCH_API_KEY"

Then set your API key:

export AGENTPATCH_API_KEY=your_api_key

Replace your_api_key with your actual key from the AgentPatch dashboard. Codex discovers all AgentPatch tools automatically on next start.

Example

You’re building a data pipeline and need to choose between httpx and aiohttp for async HTTP requests:

“Check the PyPI stats for httpx and aiohttp. Which one is more actively maintained?”

Codex fetches stats for both:

Fetching PyPI stats for httpx...
Fetching PyPI stats for aiohttp...

httpx:
- Monthly downloads: 42.3M
- Latest version: 0.28.1 (published 2 weeks ago)
- Python versions: 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
- License: BSD-3-Clause
- Classifiers: Framework :: AsyncIO, HTTP Client

aiohttp:
- Monthly downloads: 68.5M
- Latest version: 3.11.12 (published 1 month ago)
- Python versions: 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
- License: Apache-2.0

aiohttp has higher raw downloads, largely because it's been around longer and is a
dependency of many other packages. httpx is newer but growing fast, with a cleaner
API and both sync/async support in one package. Both support Python 3.13 and have
recent releases. If you want a modern API that works for both sync and async code,
httpx is the better pick. If you need a battle-tested async server framework too,
aiohttp does both client and server.

Codex pulled live data and combined it with its own knowledge to give you a practical recommendation. No switching to pypi.org to compare pages manually.

Wrapping Up

AgentPatch gives Codex access to live PyPI data during any session. The same connection exposes every other tool on the marketplace — npm stats, GitHub stats, search, and more. Browse what’s available at agentpatch.ai.

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