# Brew Browser – A Native macOS GUI for Homebrew

> Source: <https://brew-browser.zerologic.com/>
> Published: 2026-06-14 02:16:16+00:00

## What it does

### Dashboard

Your Homebrew at a glance: installed count, updates available, brew version, formula/cask split, top-categories donut, and storage usage with one-click Reveal in Finder.

### Library

Every installed formula and cask in one dense, filterable list, with outdated badges and a slide-over detail panel. Cask icons extracted from the real `.app`

bundle.

### Discover

Search the full Homebrew package index (16,028 packages, bundled at build time) by name or by the 19-category tile grid. 15,725 of those carry AI-curated friendly names and summaries baked in at build time — zero LLM calls at runtime.

### Trending

Top packages from Homebrew's own published `formulae.brew.sh`

install analytics. 30 / 90 / 365 day windows, a velocity index (recent month vs prior eleven so genuinely emerging packages out-rank stably-popular ones), and opt-in per-package install-trend sparklines.

### Snapshots

Save your full Homebrew setup as a Brewfile, restore on a new Mac in one click. Uses Homebrew's own `brew bundle`

mechanism. Multiple snapshots stored locally.

### Services

List, start, stop, and restart background services managed by launchd through `brew services`

. Status pills update live.

### Activity

Every `brew`

invocation streams live into a bottom drawer with full stdout, stderr, and session history. Nothing hidden, nothing surprising.

### Updates

A title-bar pill quietly tells you when a newer brew-browser version exists. Every artifact is verified end-to-end against an embedded minisign public key before a single byte hits your disk. Daily auto-check is off by default; you opt in.

### Security

Opt-in vulnerability scanning. Surfaces known CVEs against your installed formulae via the official `brew vulns`

subcommand (OSV.dev under the hood), with optional GHSA enrichment when you're signed into GitHub. Dashboard Exposure card, Sidebar count badge, per-row severity dots, PackageDetail Security card with one-click **Upgrade to fix** wired straight to the existing upgrade pipeline. Off by default; first-launch posture unchanged.

### Two builds, one design

A cross-platform **Tauri 2** app (Rust + SvelteKit) for macOS 13+ and Linux, and a fully native **Swift 6 + SwiftUI + Liquid Glass** app for macOS 26 — same features, same `brew`

integration, same privacy posture, kept in lock-step parity. Cmd+K palette, Cmd+0…6 section jumps, type-ahead search, live Activity drawer in both.

## Open by default

**MIT licensed.** Use it however you want.**Full source.** 41 Rust files + 63 Svelte/TypeScript files. Read every line.**No CLA.** Your contributions stay yours.**No EULA.** No click-through to use the app.**No telemetry.** No analytics, no crash reporting, no third-party pixels.**No accounts.** No sign-in, no cloud sync, no required services.**No surprise network.** Every outbound call is documented and gated. Eleven paths total — Homebrew's analytics for Trending, the catalog refresh, cask homepage probes (SSRF-filtered), GitHub repo stats, GitHub OAuth + authed actions when you opt in,`brew`

itself, your default browser, the updater manifest, the signed updater artifact, the opt-in Enhanced Trending History endpoint (project infra, IP-redacted logs), and the opt-in Vulnerability Scanning surface (OSV.dev + source forges via`brew vulns`

subprocess + optional GHSA enrichment when you're also signed into GitHub). Full enumeration in the[README network posture](https://github.com/msitarzewski/brew-browser/blob/main/README.md#open-source-posture). Flip on**Offline Mode** in Settings to block them all in one click.

## Security posture

Independently audited and scanned across the major tools developers actually use to assess open-source projects:

`cargo audit`

`cargo deny`

`npm audit`

`osv-scanner`

`semgrep`

(security-audit + OWASP-10)`gitleaks`

`cargo clippy -D warnings`

`unsafe`

Rust
Full audit at
[memory-bank/security.md](https://github.com/msitarzewski/brew-browser/blob/main/memory-bank/security.md).
Vulnerability reporting policy at
[SECURITY.md](https://github.com/msitarzewski/brew-browser/blob/main/SECURITY.md).

## Get it

**Direct download (recommended):** the signed & notarized `.dmg`

is on the [latest release](https://github.com/msitarzewski/brew-browser/releases/latest). It's the build signed and tested directly each release, and it keeps you on the app's own verified updater.

Or install with Homebrew:

```
brew tap msitarzewski/brew-browser
brew install --cask brew-browser
```

Installs the same notarized `.dmg`

.

Or build it yourself from source — the cross-platform **Tauri** build:

```
git clone https://github.com/msitarzewski/brew-browser
cd brew-browser
npm install
npm run tauri build      # produces a .dmg in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/
```

Prereqs: [Rust](https://rustup.rs), Node 22+, [Homebrew](https://brew.sh), Xcode Command Line Tools.

…or the fully native **Swift / SwiftUI** build (macOS 26):

```
cd brew-browser/native
swift build
./build-app.sh           # wraps into Brew Browser.app
open BrewBrowser.app
```

Prereqs: macOS 26 + a recent Xcode toolchain. The native build lives in `native/`

as a Swift Package.