What 3,600+ Maven Central publishers do after claiming their namespace on Scarf

Scarf has now onboarded 3,693 open source organizations from Maven Central as part of our partnership with Sonatype. We now have a meaningful signal on how these teams are leveraging Scarf most effectively.

Not every Maven Central publisher has commercial ambitions, and that’s okay. For many OSS maintainers, the goal is not to build a sales funnel or identify buyers. It’s to understand who depends on their work, where adoption is coming from, and what kind of impact the project is having.

But for publishers who do have commercial goals, the same usage data can become a practical starting point for finding the right companies to talk to.

Here are three high-leverage things Maven Central publishers can do after claiming their namespace in Scarf.

1. Create filters around activity that actually matters

The first step is to separate noise from meaningful usage.

Raw package downloads are useful, but they are also broad. A better workflow is to create filters that identify the usage patterns you care about most.

For example, you might want to segment by:

• companies using specific Maven packages
• usage from commercial domains vs. hobbyist or personal traffic
• version usage
• companies in industries where your project is especially relevant
• traffic around packages that map to paid features, support needs, or enterprise use cases

For commercially minded publishers, these filters can become a lightweight qualification layer: “Which companies are showing signs that this project matters to them?”

For non-commercial maintainers, the same filters are still valuable. They help answer questions like:

• Who is actually using this project?
• Is usage growing in the places we expected?
• Are companies, universities, governments, or other OSS projects depending on it?
• Which packages seem most important to users?

Either way, filtering turns anonymous download volume into a clearer picture of real-world adoption.

2. Use the 25 free company unlocks included with the Maven Central publisher benefit

Maven Central publishers get 25 free company unlocks through Scarf.

Once you have filters that surface interesting usage, those unlocks let you go deeper on the companies that matter most.

For commercial OSS projects, this can help identify:

• potential sales leads
• companies that may need support
• accounts that are already getting value from your project
• organizations worth prioritizing for outreach
• users who may be good candidates for case studies, partnerships, or customer development

Use your filters first to maximize the value of your Scarf credits on the right companies that show the strongest signals.

For maintainers without commercial goals, unlocks can still be useful for understanding impact. Seeing that a known company, research institution, public-sector group, or major OSS ecosystem player depends on your package can help with roadmap decisions, grant applications, sponsorship conversations, and community storytelling.

3. Add a Scarf pixel around your package docs, website, or install flow

Download data tells you one part of the story: who is pulling the package. A Scarf pixel can help connect that to the rest of the user journey.

Publishers can add a pixel to places like:

• package documentation
• project websites
• install guides
• quickstart pages
• migration guides
• commercial landing pages
• support or onboarding materials

That gives maintainers a better view of what happens before and after someone reaches for the package.

For commercial publishers, this can help answer:

• Which companies are reading the docs before installing?
• Which install guides are attracting serious users?
• Are known package users also visiting pricing, support, or enterprise pages?
• Which docs seem to influence adoption?

For non-commercial maintainers, it can help answer:

• Which documentation is most useful?
• Where are new users getting stuck?
• Which pages drive installation or deeper engagement?
• What parts of the project are most visible to the community?

In both cases, the goal is not surveillance. It’s feedback. Maintainers get a clearer signal about how their work is being discovered, evaluated, and used.

The bigger idea

Claiming your Maven Central namespace on Scarf can be the beginning of a better relationship with your users.

For some publishers, that means finding companies that may become customers.

For others, it means understanding adoption, improving documentation, proving impact, or making better decisions about where to invest limited maintainer time.

The useful workflow is the same:

• Add a Scarf pixel to your docs and website to connect package usage with docs, website, and onboarding activity.
• Create filters to define and segment the activity you care about.
• Use your 25 free company unlocks on the most interesting companies surfaced by those filters.

Done well, this turns Maven Central usage from a vague download number into a practical map of who your software is helping, and where your project might go next.

Get started with Scarf

If you’re a Maven Central publisher and want to get started with Scarf, you can get started from the publisher insights tab in your Maven Central portal: https://central.sonatype.com/publishing/insights.