[GSOC 2026] Proposal feedback: Package Popularity Ranking prototype

Hi! I’ve been working on the Package Popularity Ranking idea for PURLdb and wanted to share my progress and get your feedback.

I’ve implemented a working prototype where I build a dependency graph from package relationships and compute PageRank-based scores to estimate package importance. I also exposed this via an API endpoint to fetch top-ranked packages.

The system builds a directed dependency graph and ranks packages based on incoming dependency influence.

Here’s the repo:
https://github.com/HARSH-KHEM/purldb-popularity-ranking

I’d really appreciate your feedback on:

- Whether this approach aligns with what you had in mind
- Any improvements or pitfalls I should consider before finalizing my proposal

I’m currently drafting my GSoC proposal and would love to refine it based on your input.

If this aligns with the project direction, I’d be happy to extend this into a full GSoC proposal.

Thanks!