A keyboard-driven terminal UI for Homebrew, with a native macOS menu bar companion that watches updates in the background. No daemons, no middleware — both tools call brew directly.
brew tap MoLinesDesigns/tap
brew install brewtui-bar # then just type: brewtui-barYou don't memorize brew outdated && brew upgrade && brew services list && brew leaves. You forget half of them. BrewTUI-Bar puts every command behind one keystroke and shows you what brew never tells you until something breaks: orphans, vulnerabilities, services that died last Tuesday.
| Without BrewTUI-Bar | With BrewTUI-Bar |
|---|---|
brew outdated → wall of text → grep |
Press 3 → list with version arrows → Enter to upgrade |
brew services list → restart by hand |
Press 4 → toggle services with one key |
| Vulnerable packages? | Press 9 → cross-checked against OSV.dev (Pro) |
| Forgot to update? | BrewTUI-Bar lives in your menu bar and tells you (Pro) |
# Homebrew (recommended)
brew tap MoLinesDesigns/tap
brew install brewtui-bar
# npm
npm install -g brewtui-bar
# Run without installing
npx brewtui-barRequirements: Homebrew, macOS. The Homebrew formula installs the required Node.js runtime dependency.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Overview of installed packages, outdated counts, services, and system info |
| Installed | Browse and filter formulae and casks with version info and status badges |
| Search | Find and install packages directly from the TUI |
| Outdated | Version comparison arrows, upgrade individually or all at once |
| Services | Start, stop, and restart Homebrew services |
| Doctor | Run brew doctor and see warnings at a glance |
| Package Info | Detailed view with dependencies, caveats, and quick actions |
| Feature | What it solves |
|---|---|
| Smart Rollback | Auto-snapshots after every install/upgrade/uninstall/pin; revert with bottle/versioned/pin strategies. Press R from a flagged CVE to jump straight to the rollback plan |
| Cross-machine Sync | iCloud Drive backend, AES-256-GCM encrypted client-side. Brewfile and snapshots stay aligned across all your Macs with interactive conflict resolution |
| CVE Real-time | BrewTUI-Bar polls OSV.dev hourly. Critical/high CVEs trigger native macOS notifications and a badge count |
| Declarative Brewfile | YAML desired state, drift score 0-100, interactive reconciliation. Closer to a lightweight Nix-flake than brew bundle |
| Impact Analysis | Pre-upgrade risk panel (low/medium/high) with dependency tree and reverse-deps that will be affected, surfaced before each upgrade |
| Profiles | Replicate your exact setup on a new Mac in one command |
| Smart Cleanup | Reclaim gigabytes by listing orphans ranked by size |
| Action History | "What did I install last week?" — answered |
| Security Audit | Cross-checks every installed package against OSV.dev live |
| BrewTUI-Bar | A menu bar app that watches your packages while you sleep — auto-installs and auto-launches the moment you go Pro |
Everything in Pro plus Team Compliance — admin defines a central PolicyFile (JSON) listing required and forbidden packages and required taps. Each Mac on the team gets a 0-100 compliance score, severity-graded violations and an automatic remediation plan. Useful for onboarding, security audits and keeping every developer's environment aligned.
| Dashboard | Outdated |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Services | Doctor |
 |
 |
| Smart Cleanup (Pro) | Security Audit (Pro) |
 |
 |
Smart Cleanup ranks orphans by size — find your 34 MB unused
jpeg-xlin 2 seconds. Security Audit cross-checks every installed package against OSV.dev live.
brewtui-bar # Launch the TUI
brewtui-bar status # Show license status
brewtui-bar activate <key> # Activate Pro license
brewtui-bar revalidate # Revalidate Pro license
brewtui-bar deactivate # Deactivate license on this machine
brewtui-bar delete-account # Remove all local data (~/.brewtui-bar/)Heads up — keyboard model changed in 0.9.0 / 0.9.1. Numbers
1–0no longer jump between views; they now run the numbered actions in the footer of the current view. The side menu opens automatically on launch (0.9.1) so arrows operate it from the first frame; pressmto close or reopen it. The blinking orangeMin the menu indicator marks the toggle. Old per-view letter shortcuts (i,u,r, …) still work as aliases.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
↑ / ↓ + Enter |
Operate the side menu (active by default on launch) |
m |
Toggle the side menu (close / reopen) |
1-9 |
Run the matching numbered action in the current view's footer |
↑ / ↓ (or j / k) |
Move within a list |
Enter |
Open / confirm the highlighted item |
/ |
Filter the current list |
S |
Open the Search view |
Escape |
Go back |
L |
Toggle language (en/es) |
q |
Quit |
BrewTUI-Bar supports English and Spanish. Language is detected from your system locale (LANG), or you can:
- Pass
--lang=esor--lang=enas a CLI flag - Press
Linside the TUI to toggle
BrewTUI-Bar is a native macOS menu bar companion app (Swift 6 / SwiftUI) that:
- Shows a badge with outdated package count
- Sends push notifications when updates are available
- Lets you upgrade packages without opening a terminal
- Displays Homebrew service status
- Configurable check interval (1h / 4h / 8h)
- Supports Launch at Login
# Via BrewTUI-Bar CLI (Pro license required)
brewtui-bar install-brewtui-bar
brewtui-bar install-brewtui-bar --force # Reinstall / update
brewtui-bar uninstall-brewtui-bar # Remove
# Via Homebrew Cask
brew install --cask MoLinesDesigns/tap/brewbarcd menubar
tuist generate
xcodebuild -workspace BrewTUI-Bar.xcworkspace -scheme BrewTUI-Bar buildRequires Tuist, Xcode, and macOS 14+.
Views (React/Ink) --> Stores (Zustand) --> brew-api --> Parsers --> brew CLI (spawn)
| Layer | Tech | Role |
|---|---|---|
| UI | React 18 + Ink 5 | Terminal rendering via ANSI escape codes |
| State | Zustand 5 | Global stores with per-key loading/error maps |
| API | brew-api.ts | Typed wrapper over brew CLI with input validation |
| Parsers | json-parser / text-parser | Parse brew info --json, brew search, brew doctor |
| CLI | brew-cli.ts | execBrew() (30s timeout) and streamBrew() (async generator, 5min idle timeout) |
- ESM-only, TypeScript strict mode, built with tsup
- All streaming operations (install, upgrade) use AsyncGenerators yielding lines in real time
- Package names validated via regex before passing to
spawn(no shell injection) - 434 tests across 59 suites (Vitest)
- License data encrypted with AES-256-GCM, machine-bound via UUID
- SHA-256 verification on BrewTUI-Bar binary downloads
- Bundle integrity check at startup (fail-closed)
- Runtime validation of all external API responses (Polar, OSV)
- Rate limiting on license activation (5 attempts / 15min lockout)
- No secrets in logs, no PII transmitted without consent
src/
views/ # 16 React/Ink views (incl. rollback, brewfile, sync, compliance)
stores/ # Zustand stores (brew, navigation, license, modal, rollback, sync, compliance, ...)
components/ # Shared UI (StatusBadge, ResultBanner, SelectableRow, ...)
hooks/ # useKeyboard, useBrewStream, useDebounce
lib/
license/ # Polar API, AES encryption, anti-tamper, canary
security/ # OSV vulnerability scanning (Pro)
profiles/ # Profile export/import (Pro)
cleanup/ # Orphan detection (Pro)
history/ # Action logging (Pro)
rollback/ # Snapshot-based rollback engine (Pro)
state-snapshot/# Periodic Brew state snapshots (Pro)
diff-engine/ # Snapshot diff for rollback and sync (Pro)
impact/ # Pre-upgrade impact analysis (Pro)
brewfile/ # Declarative YAML Brewfile + drift score (Pro)
sync/ # iCloud-backed cross-machine sync, AES-256-GCM (Pro)
compliance/ # Team policy enforcement (Team)
parsers/ # JSON and text parsers for brew output
i18n/ # English + Spanish translations
utils/ # Colors, spacing, logger, formatting
menubar/ # BrewTUI-Bar (Swift 6 / SwiftUI / Tuist)
git clone https://github.com/MoLinesDesigns/BrewTUI-Bar.git
cd BrewTUI-Bar
npm install
npm run dev # Run with tsx (requires interactive TTY)
npm run typecheck # tsc --noEmit
npm run test # vitest (434 tests)
npm run lint # eslint
npm run build # Production bundle via tsup