jackwener--opencli/docs/adapters/browser/homebrew.md

Homebrew

Mode: 🌐 Public · Domain: formulae.brew.sh

Inspect Homebrew formulae and casks, plus the official install-rank analytics, without auth or browser. Three commands.

Commands

Command	Description
opencli homebrew formula <name>	Single Homebrew core formula's metadata
opencli homebrew cask <token>	Single Homebrew cask's (macOS app) metadata
opencli homebrew popular	Most-installed formulae or casks (Homebrew analytics ranking)

Usage Examples

# Inspect a formula
opencli homebrew formula wget
opencli homebrew formula gcc@13
opencli homebrew formula imagemagick

# Inspect a cask (macOS package)
opencli homebrew cask firefox
opencli homebrew cask visual-studio-code

# Most popular installs (defaults to formula / 30d / top 30)
opencli homebrew popular
opencli homebrew popular --type cask --window 90d --limit 50
opencli homebrew popular --type formula --window 365d --limit 100

# JSON output
opencli homebrew popular -f json

Output Columns

Command	Columns
formula	formula, tap, version, license, description, homepage, dependencies, deprecated, disabled, source, url
cask	cask, tap, name, version, description, homepage, deprecated, disabled, download, url
popular	rank, token, type, installs, percent, window, url

The token column from popular round-trips into formula (when type=formula) or cask (when type=cask).

Options

homebrew formula

Option	Description
name (positional)	Formula name (wget, gcc@13, imagemagick)

homebrew cask

Option	Description
token (positional)	Cask token (firefox, visual-studio-code)

homebrew popular

Option	Description
--type	formula (default) or cask
--window	30d (default) / 90d / 365d
--limit	Max rows (1-500, default: 30)

Caveats

• Formula / cask tokens are validated against Homebrew's [A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._+@-]* pattern (max 100 chars). Bad input raises ArgumentError.
• --type and --window are validated against the only values Homebrew analytics actually publishes. Anything else raises ArgumentError.
• Homebrew analytics serves install counts as comma-formatted strings ("139,972"); we coerce them to plain numbers.
• The endpoints are static GitHub Pages JSON regenerated daily, so timestamps lag by up to 24 h.

Prerequisites

• No browser required — uses formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/<name>.json, formulae.brew.sh/api/cask/<token>.json, and formulae.brew.sh/api/analytics/(install|cask-install)/<window>.json.