Homebrew Scraper

Extract detailed metadata for Homebrew formulae and casks — including versions, dependencies, download URLs, install analytics, and more.

What is Homebrew Scraper?

Homebrew is the most popular package manager for macOS and Linux. It hosts thousands of open-source software packages (formulae) and macOS applications (casks). This actor lets you programmatically explore the Homebrew registry, search for packages by name or description, and retrieve detailed metadata for any formula or cask.

Features

• Search Formulae: Find Homebrew formulae by name or description
• Search Casks: Find macOS applications (casks) by name or description
• Get By Name: Fetch exact metadata for specific formulae or casks
• Analytics: Includes 30-day install counts
• Full Metadata: Version, dependencies, build dependencies, download URLs, checksums, and more
• No auth required: Uses the public Homebrew API

Use Cases

• Monitor Homebrew package versions for dependency auditing
• Build package discovery tools or dashboards
• Track install popularity via analytics
• Automate security checks (version + checksum)
• Research open-source ecosystem trends

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
mode	Select	searchFormulae, searchCasks, or getByName	searchFormulae
searchQuery	String	Filter by name or description (case-insensitive)	git
names	Array	Package names for getByName mode	["git", "wget"]
maxItems	Integer	Maximum records to return (1–5000)	50

Input Example — Search Formulae

{
  "mode": "searchFormulae",
  "searchQuery": "git",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Input Example — Get By Name

{
  "mode": "getByName",
  "names": ["git", "wget", "iterm2"]
}

Input Example — Search Casks

{
  "mode": "searchCasks",
  "searchQuery": "browser",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Output

Formula Record

{
  "name": "git",
  "fullName": "git",
  "tap": "homebrew/core",
  "description": "Distributed revision control system",
  "license": "GPL-2.0-only AND GPL-2.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.1-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause AND MIT",
  "homepage": "https://git-scm.com",
  "version": "2.54.0",
  "dependencies": ["pcre2", "gettext"],
  "buildDependencies": ["gettext", "pkgconf"],
  "downloadUrl": "https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.54.0.tar.xz",
  "sha256": "f689162364c10de79ef89aa8dbf48731eb057e34edbbd20aca510ce0154681a3",
  "deprecated": false,
  "disabled": false,
  "analytics30d": 112799,
  "sourceUrl": "https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/git",
  "recordType": "formula",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-30T07:51:01.871263+00:00"
}

Cask Record

{
  "caskToken": "iterm2",
  "name": "iTerm2",
  "tap": "homebrew/cask",
  "description": "Terminal emulator as alternative to Apple's Terminal app",
  "homepage": "https://iterm2.com/",
  "version": "3.6.10",
  "sha256": "f62ce1cb28ac85a99b17447bebebbc2b2e4f6dd59ad7d64a612e39e07ce223ca",
  "downloadUrl": "https://iterm2.com/downloads/stable/iTerm2-3_6_10.zip",
  "analytics30d": 29445,
  "sourceUrl": "https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/iterm2",
  "recordType": "cask",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-30T07:51:05.123456+00:00"
}

Output Fields

Formula Fields

Field	Type	Description
name	String	Formula name
fullName	String	Full name including tap
tap	String	Homebrew tap (e.g. homebrew/core)
description	String	Short description
license	String	SPDX license identifier
homepage	String	Project homepage URL
version	String	Latest stable version
aliases	Array	Alternative names
dependencies	Array	Runtime dependencies
buildDependencies	Array	Build-time dependencies
conflicts	Array	Conflicting packages
downloadUrl	String	Source archive download URL
sha256	String	SHA256 checksum of source archive
deprecated	Boolean	Whether formula is deprecated
disabled	Boolean	Whether formula is disabled
analytics30d	Integer	Install count in last 30 days
sourceUrl	String	Homebrew formula page URL
recordType	String	Always "formula"
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp

Cask Fields

Field	Type	Description
caskToken	String	Cask identifier token
name	String	Display name
tap	String	Homebrew tap
description	String	Short description
homepage	String	Project homepage URL
version	String	Current version
sha256	String	SHA256 checksum of download
downloadUrl	String	Download URL
conflicts	Array	Conflicting casks
analytics30d	Integer	Install count in last 30 days
sourceUrl	String	Homebrew cask page URL
recordType	String	Always "cask"
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp

FAQs

Does this require an API key? No. The Homebrew Formulae API is completely public and requires no authentication.

How many packages can I scrape? There are approximately 7,000+ formulae and 7,000+ casks in Homebrew. Use maxItems to control how many records you retrieve (up to 5,000).

What does searchQuery match against? For formulae, it matches against the name, full_name, and desc (description) fields. For casks, it matches against the token, name, and description.

What is the difference between formulae and casks? Formulae are command-line tools and libraries (e.g. git, wget, python). Casks are macOS graphical applications (e.g. google-chrome, visual-studio-code).

How current is the data? The actor fetches live data from the official Homebrew Formulae API (formulae.brew.sh/api/) which is updated continuously.

Can I get all packages? Yes — leave searchQuery empty to get all packages up to maxItems.