Homebrew Scraper - Formulae, Casks & Installs

Search Homebrew formulae and casks or look them up by name and get clean rows: 30/90/365-day install counts, latest version, license, dependencies, homepage, tap and deprecation status. Built on the official formulae.brew.sh API - no API key, no browser, no proxy. The whole catalogue is read in one request and filtered in memory.

What you get per package

Field	Meaning
name / type / fullName	Name, whether it is a formula or cask, and the tap-qualified name
description / homepage / license	Description, homepage and license (formulae)
version	Latest stable version
installs30d / installs90d / installs365d	Install counts over 30, 90 and 365 days
dependencies / buildDependencies	Runtime and build-time dependencies
hasBottle / kegOnly	Precompiled-bottle and keg-only flags (formulae)
displayName / autoUpdates	Display name and self-update flag (casks)
deprecated / disabled / deprecationReason / tap / url	Lifecycle status, tap and the brew page

Input

{ "searchQueries": ["database", "kubernetes"], "maxItemsPerQuery": 50 }

• Search terms - matched against name and description, one per line (e.g. database, video).
• Package names - fetch exact formulae/casks (e.g. wget, node, google-chrome).
• Include casks - set includeCasks to also search macOS GUI apps (google-chrome, docker), not just command-line formulae.
• Import from a file - paste a list, or link a public .txt/.csv, a Google Sheet/Drive link, or an Apify key-value-store record.
• Output fields - trim every record to exactly the columns you need.

Leave everything empty and the run returns the most-installed formulae as a free sample.

Reliability

Reads the official formulae.brew.sh JSON API - static CDN files, so there is no rate limit, no key, no proxy and no anti-bot. The catalogue is downloaded once per run and filtered locally. Results are ranked by 30-day installs. An empty search or an unreadable import bills $0 and says why.

Honest limits

• displayName and autoUpdates are cask fields - null for formulae; populated when includeCasks is on.
• deprecationReason is set only for deprecated packages - the deprecated flag is always present.
• dependencies / buildDependencies are empty when the formula has none - an empty array is a real value.
• Install counts are Homebrew's own anonymous analytics (opt-in telemetry), covering 30/90/365-day windows.

Pricing

$0.001 per package on the FREE tier (tiered pricing lowers it with volume). Only packages actually saved are billed; empty searches and unreadable imports cost nothing.

Output views

• Packages - name, type, description, version, 30-day installs and homepage.

Use with AI assistants (MCP)

Available through the Apify MCP server - an agent can find the most-installed tool for a task, compare install trends across alternatives, or enrich a list of package names with versions and dependencies in one call.

Agent-ready: autonomous payments (x402 & Skyfire)

This actor is agent-ready - AI agents can discover it, run it, and pay for it autonomously, with no Apify account and no human in the loop. It uses pay-per-event pricing and limited permissions, so it qualifies for Apify's agentic-payment standards:

• x402 - an open, HTTP-native payment protocol. Agents pay per run in USDC on the Base network directly through the Apify MCP server - no account, no API key.
• Skyfire - agent-to-service payments for fully autonomous AI-agent workflows.

Building an AI agent, MCP tool, or autonomous data pipeline? This scraper is ready to plug in and pay as it goes.