Homebrew Formula Scraper – API Metadata & Install Stats

Fetches Homebrew formula metadata — name, version, license, dependencies, and 30/90/365-day install analytics — directly from the official formulae.brew.sh JSON API. Built for developers, package maintainers, and analysts who need structured Homebrew data (versions, dependency trees, popularity trends) without manually querying the API or scraping brew.sh pages.

Why this scraper

• Reads directly from the official formulae.brew.sh JSON API rather than rendered HTML, so every field returned is complete and structured, with near-zero failure risk and sub-second latency per formula.
• Exposes 62 available fields per formula, including install-on-request counts (explicit installs, not pulled-in-as-dependency), which most formula listings skip.
• Priced per record at $0.0003, below the cheapest comparable per-record offering on the store.

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Formula short name
fullName	string	Fully qualified formula name including tap prefix if any
tap	string	Homebrew tap the formula belongs to
desc	string	Short description of the formula
homepage	string	Upstream project homepage URL
license	string	SPDX license identifier
stableVersion	string	Latest stable version string
revision	integer	Formula revision number
kegOnly	boolean	Whether the formula is keg-only (not symlinked into PATH)
deprecated	boolean	Whether the formula is deprecated
disabled	boolean	Whether the formula is disabled
dependencies	string	Comma-separated list of runtime dependencies
buildDependencies	string	Comma-separated list of build-time dependencies
dependenciesCount	integer	Total count of runtime dependencies
installs30d	integer	Install events in the last 30 days
installs90d	integer	Install events in the last 90 days
installs365d	integer	Install events in the last 365 days
installOnRequest30d	integer	Explicit (non-dependency) installs in the last 30 days
installOnRequest90d	integer	Explicit (non-dependency) installs in the last 90 days
installOnRequest365d	integer	Explicit (non-dependency) installs in the last 365 days

Input

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/wget.json" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Add one entry to startUrls per formula (e.g. git.json, node.json). maxItems caps how many records are returned.

Output

{
  "name": "wget",
  "fullName": "wget",
  "tap": "homebrew/core",
  "desc": "Internet file retriever",
  "homepage": "https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/",
  "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
  "stableVersion": "1.25.0",
  "revision": 0,
  "kegOnly": false,
  "deprecated": false,
  "disabled": false,
  "dependencies": "libidn2, libpsl, openssl@3, gettext, libunistring",
  "buildDependencies": "pkgconf",
  "dependenciesCount": 5,
  "installs30d": 13584,
  "installs90d": 49775,
  "installs365d": 312357,
  "installOnRequest30d": 13284,
  "installOnRequest90d": 48813,
  "installOnRequest365d": 308259
}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.0003 per formula scraped. A run covering 50 formulas costs about $0.015; 1,000 formulas costs about $0.30.

Use cases

• Tracking install-popularity trends for a set of formulas over time to decide which packages to prioritize for maintenance or deprecation.
• Auditing license compliance across a company's Homebrew-installed dependency list before a release.
• Building a dependency graph or compatibility checker by pulling dependencies and buildDependencies for a list of formulas in a Brewfile.