Brewbox app icon Brewbox

Homebrew updates, quietly handled from your menu bar.

Brewbox checks for outdated formulae and casks on your schedule. Update one, update all, or let it take care of things while you work.

Download for macOS View on GitHub

macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple silicon & Intel · Free & open source · All releases

Or install from Terminal

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/richardchvalny/brewbox/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Installs Brewbox in Applications, or updates the copy you have, then opens it. No security prompt. Using the DMG? The first launch needs one extra click.

How it works

Three steps. Mostly, it's one.

  1. Step 1

    It checks on your schedule

    Brewbox runs brew update and brew outdated every day, every few days, or once a month, at the time you pick. If your Mac was asleep, it catches up when it wakes.

    The bubbles rise while brew is working.

  2. Step 2

    It shows what's outdated

    A filled dot and a count appear in the menu bar. Open the panel to see each package with its current and new version. You can get a notification too.

    No dot, nothing to do.

  3. Step 3

    You update, or it does

    Update a single package or all of them. Or turn on automatic updates and let Brewbox upgrade on the same schedule. Pinned packages stay put.

    Back to a quiet menu bar.

Features

Everything brew, one click away

A small panel with three tabs and a few good habits.

Updates

One package, or all of them

Update one package or click Update All, and it can even do it on a schedule. Jobs wait their turn in a queue, so brew never runs twice at once. Watch the live brew upgrade output as it goes.

The Installed tab: a searchable list of installed packages, with an Update button on the ones that are outdated.

Installed

Everything you have

A searchable list, filtered by formulae or casks. Dependencies are hidden by default. Open a package for details, or uninstall it after a confirmation.

The Discover tab showing ripgrep: its description, homepage and formulae.brew.sh links, version, license and dependencies, and an Install button.

Discover

The whole catalog, instantly

Search every formula and cask. See the details, follow the homepage or formulae.brew.sh link, and install with one click.

Schedules & auto-updates

On your clock, even after sleep

Check every day, every 2, 7 or 15 days, or on the 1st of the month, at a time you choose. Missed runs catch up after sleep. Turn on auto-update and Brewbox upgrades on that schedule, skipping pinned packages and any you switch off.

Schedule settings: check every day at 9:00, with Install updates automatically switched on.

Errors

Errors you can hand to an AI agent

When something fails, you see the command that failed. Copy it as plain text, or as a ready-made prompt for your AI agent, with the full output and your macOS and Homebrew versions included.

A failed install shown at the top of the panel, with Copy prompt for AI and Copy error buttons.
The welcome window when Homebrew is missing, with an Install in Terminal button and links to download the .pkg installer or copy the command.

First launch

Homebrew setup, if you need it

A welcome window checks for Homebrew. If it's missing, Brewbox helps you install it with the official script in Terminal, or the official .pkg.

Built for brew users

It runs brew the way you would

No wrapper of its own, no clever shortcuts. Just brew, called carefully.

  • A serial queue

    Every job lines up behind the last one. Two brews never fight over the same lock.

  • A clean environment

    Brew runs with a clean environment, so results don't depend on what your shell profile happens to export.

  • Pinned means pinned

    brew pin is respected everywhere. Pin or unpin formulae from the right-click menu, which also opens a package's homepage.

  • --greedy, if you want it

    Opt in to include casks that update themselves, like brew upgrade --greedy does. Off by default.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Something else? Get in touch.

Is it free?

Yes. Brewbox is free and open source. The code is on GitHub.

Does it replace the brew CLI?

No. Brewbox runs brew for you, using the Homebrew you already have. brew in Terminal works exactly as before.

What about casks that need a password?

Some casks need an admin password to upgrade. Those have to be upgraded in Terminal, and Brewbox tells you when that's the case.

Where is my data?

On your Mac. Brewbox only talks to Homebrew and formulae.brew.sh.

What do I need to run it?

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel, and Homebrew installed in /opt/homebrew or /usr/local. No Homebrew yet? The welcome window helps you install it.

macOS says it can't verify Brewbox. What do I do?

The DMG isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks once before the first launch. Try to open Brewbox, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. After that it opens normally. Apple explains this step in more detail.

Prefer Terminal? This clears the flag in one go:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Brewbox.app

If you installed with the Terminal command, you can skip this step entirely.

Let it brew.

Install it once. Forget about brew outdated.

Download for macOS View on GitHub

macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple silicon & Intel · All releases

Brewbox - Homebrew updates from your menu bar | Product Hunt