01A consistent growth rule
After eight complete Monday–Sunday weeks, look for four consecutive complete weeks each reaching the greater of twice the prior eight-week median or 25 downloads. The first qualifying week is an estimated onset within the selected history, not an explanation of its cause.
02Honest boundaries
Daily history starts no earlier than January 10, 2015. Partial periods are marked; missing days stay missing. A launch or early rise may precede the required baseline. Downloads include repeated and automated activity; they do not count unique users.
03Dependents are a snapshot
The current search-index count can include your own packages. npm does not document a comparable historical dependent-count series. Release timestamps can help reconstruct declared dependencies, but that is a separate analysis.