badges/shields · error · InvalidParameter

recent downloads not supported for specific versions

Error message

recent downloads not supported for specific versions

What it means

The crates downloads service supports two variants; the 'dr' (recent downloads) variant only works for whole crates. crates.io does not expose recent download counts per version, so requesting dr with a version parameter throws InvalidParameter before any fetch.

Source

Thrown at services/crates/crates-downloads.service.js:91

  }

  transform({ variant, json }) {
    switch (variant) {
      case 'dv':
        return this.constructor.getVersionObj(json).downloads
      case 'dr':
        return json.crate.recent_downloads || 0
      default:
        return json.crate ? json.crate.downloads : json.version.downloads
    }
  }

  async handle({ variant, crate, version }) {
    if (variant === 'dr' && version) {
      /* crates.io doesn't currently expose
         recent download counts for individual
         versions */
      throw new InvalidParameter({
        prettyMessage: 'recent downloads not supported for specific versions',
      })
    }

    const json = await this.fetch({ crate, version })

    const downloads = this.transform({ variant, json })

    return this.constructor.render({ variant, downloads, version })
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 766fd8bc89)

Solutions

Drop the version segment: /crates/dr/<crate> for recent downloads of the whole crate
Use the 'dv' variant instead: /crates/dv/<crate>/<version> for total downloads of a specific version
Update any saved badge URLs or documentation referencing dr with a version

Example fix

// before
/badge/crates/dr/serde/1.0.0
// after
/badge/crates/dr/serde

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (variant === 'dr' && version) throw new Error('recent downloads (dr) cannot be scoped to a version; use variant dv for per-version totals');

Try / catch

try {
  const badge = await fetchBadge(`/crates/${variant}/${crate}${version ? `/${version}` : ''}`);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes('recent downloads not supported')) console.warn('use /crates/dv/<crate>/<version> for per-version downloads');
  else throw e;
}

Prevention

Use dr without a version for recent downloads of the whole crate
Use dv with a version for per-version total downloads
Never mix the dr variant with a version segment in saved URLs or docs

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the downloads badge with variant 'dr' AND a version segment, e.g. /crates/dr/<crate>/<version>.

Common situations: Users appending a version out of habit from the 'dv' (total downloads per version) badge, or copy-pasting a URL template and swapping variant letters.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of badges/shields@766fd8bc89 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f6c3d43c8bcce5de. Report an issue: GitHub.