Homebrew, From Your Menu Bar
Brewster is a lightweight macOS menu bar app that keeps an eye on your Homebrew packages. See pending updates at a glance, upgrade individual formulae or everything at once, and install new packages — all without leaving the menu bar.
Everything you need to keep Homebrew tidy
Lives quietly in your menu bar with a badge counter showing how many formulae and casks have updates waiting.
Upgrade a single outdated package or run the whole batch at once — no terminal required.
Search for and install new Homebrew formulae and casks straight from the menu bar dropdown.
Configurable refresh intervals keep the update count current in the background, on your schedule.
Optional auto-launch keeps Brewster running from the moment you log in — you’ll never miss an update.
Built with Swift and AppKit for a snappy native experience that respects your CPU and battery.
Update Homebrew without breaking your flow
Brewster checks your installed formulae and casks against Homebrew on a schedule you choose.
A badge on the menu bar icon counts the packages with pending updates so you know at a glance.
Click any item to upgrade it, or run the whole batch with one click. Hold ⌥ for advanced options.
Two ways to get started
$ brew tap shmoopi/brewster https://github.com/shmoopi/Brewster
$ brew install --cask brewster
Grab Brewster.zip from the GitHub Releases page, unzip it, and drag Brewster.app into your Applications folder.
Native, focused, and easy to contribute to
The main menu bar app, written in Swift with AppKit for a snappy, native macOS experience.
A unit test suite that keeps update detection and Homebrew interactions reliable across releases.
Brewster shells out to your existing brew install — no daemons, no background services, no surprises.
Continuous integration and release automation keep builds reproducible and signed.
Brewster is free, open source, and released under the MIT License.
View on GitHub