Awarded for completing Researching a Package Before You Depend On It and passing its exam, demonstrating the ability to run a fast, repeatable pre-dependency research habit: reading maintenance signals, advisory history and licence obligations correctly, confirming repository and maintainer reality, checking install time behaviour, and consistently distinguishing a popular package from a maintained one.
Certificates are designed to be checked, not just displayed.
The credential is valid for 12 months from issue. Its public page states the expiry date, and renewing means passing the current exam again — so the credential always reflects the current material.
