Cellar

Cellar is a macOS Homebrew GUI prototype. It uses the official Homebrew Formulae API for catalog metadata and, when run as the desktop app, uses a restricted Electron bridge to run Homebrew install, uninstall, upgrade, and diagnostic commands.

User Features

• Browse Homebrew formulae and casks
• Install and remove individual packages through guarded Homebrew actions.
• Manage installed packages and available updates together in Library.
• Bulk update all outdated Homebrew packages with one Update All action.
• Run a Homebrew checkup without opening Terminal.

Run Locally

npm install
npm start

Opening index.html directly still works as a read-only catalog browser, but package installation and removal require the Electron desktop app.

Build Release Zip

Create the macOS release zip with:

npm run dist

The unsigned local build is written to:

dist/Cellar-0.1.0-mac.zip

This artifact is ignored by git and should be uploaded to a GitHub Release before publishing a Homebrew cask.

GitHub Pages Preview

The static browser preview can be deployed with GitHub Pages at:

https://intrisym.github.io/Cellar/

The Pages preview supports browsing, searching, and filtering Homebrew catalog data. Installing, removing, updating, and Homebrew diagnostics require the Electron desktop app because those actions need the local Homebrew bridge.

Homebrew Cask Distribution

The intended first-party tap install flow is:

brew tap intrisym/cellar
brew install --cask cellar

A release build should publish a signed and notarized macOS .zip containing Cellar.app. The Homebrew cask points at that release artifact.

The committed cask template is stored at:

Casks/c/cellar.rb.template

Generate the local cask file from the template, then replace REPLACE_WITH_RELEASE_SHA256 with the SHA-256 of the release zip:

cp Casks/c/cellar.rb.template Casks/c/cellar.rb
shasum -a 256 dist/Cellar-0.1.0-mac.zip

Casks/c/cellar.rb is ignored by git so an invalid cask with a placeholder checksum is not committed accidentally.

Current cask shape:

cask "cellar" do
  version "0.1.0"
  sha256 "REPLACE_WITH_RELEASE_SHA256"

  url "https://github.com/intrisym/Cellar/releases/download/v#{version}/Cellar-#{version}-mac.zip"
  name "Cellar"
  desc "Friendly macOS GUI for Homebrew formulae and casks"
  homepage "https://github.com/intrisym/Cellar"

  app "Cellar.app"
end

To test the cask locally after replacing the checksum:

brew install --cask ./Casks/c/cellar.rb
brew uninstall --cask cellar
brew audit --new --cask ./Casks/c/cellar.rb

For a dedicated tap repository, create github.com/intrisym/homebrew-cellar, copy Casks/c/cellar.rb into it, then users can run:

brew tap intrisym/cellar
brew install --cask cellar

Safety Model

Cellar does not run arbitrary shell commands. The desktop bridge accepts only known Homebrew operations and validates package tokens before running brew. Bulk update uses Homebrew's standard brew upgrade command.