WailBrew - Homebrew GUI Manager for macOS

A modern, native Homebrew GUI for macOS to install, update, and manage brew packages, casks, and services - an actively maintained, open-source Cakebrew alternative.

⚡ Quick Install

brew install --cask wailbrew

Prefer a direct download? Grab the latest release. See Installation for details.

📖 Table of Contents

• Quick Install
• About
• Why WailBrew?
• Features
• Screenshots
• Installation
• Uninstall
• Requirements
• WailBrew vs. Cakebrew
• Localizations
• FAQ
• Featured In
• Sponsor
• Contributing
• Troubleshooting & Support
• License
• Acknowledgments

🍺 About

WailBrew is a modern and intuitive graphical interface for Homebrew on macOS. It makes package management accessible to everyone - no terminal required - while still giving power users full control over formulae, casks, taps, and services.

WailBrew was inspired by Cakebrew, bringing modern UI design and enhanced functionality to Homebrew package management. Built with Wails, Go, and React, it combines native performance with a beautiful, responsive interface.

Requests, Questions, Troubleshooting? => r/WailBrew

⭐ Why WailBrew?

• 🚀 Native & fast - a real macOS app built on Wails (Go + React), not a browser wrapper.
• 🍎 Universal - runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
• 🧩 Complete - manages formulae, casks, taps, and services - not just packages.
• 🌍 Localized - a fully translated UI in 12 languages.
• 🔒 Signed & notarized - distributed through the official Homebrew cask.
• 💚 Actively maintained & open source - MIT licensed, with regular releases.

✨ Features

📦 Package management

• Browse and manage installed formulae and casks
• Instant search and filtering across all packages
• Install, uninstall, and upgrade - individually, in bulk (multi-select), or all at once
• View detailed package info, including dependencies and dependents
• Leaves view to find packages you can safely remove

• Check for outdated packages and update them individually or all at once
• Background update checks with a Dock badge showing available updates
• Configurable outdated-check flags (e.g. include greedy cask updates)

• List, tap, and untap repositories
• Trust untrusted taps and view tap info

• List all services and their status
• Start, stop, restart, and run services directly from the UI

• Built-in brew doctor with deprecated-formula detection
• Cleanup with dry-run preview before removing old versions and caches
• Brewfile export (brew bundle dump)
• Self-manage Homebrew itself (brew update, version info)

• Command palette and keyboard shortcuts
• Light / dark mode synced with macOS appearance
• Proxy and mirror source support (including China mirrors) for faster, restricted-network installs
• Custom brew path with architecture auto-detection, custom cask options, no-quarantine toggle, auto-relaunch & auto-cleanup after upgrades
• Session logging for transparency into every command run

📸 Screenshots

!WailBrew - Homebrew GUI showing installed formulae, casks, and available updates on macOS

!WailBrew Casks view - pinning a cask to block its updates !WailBrew Services view - managing Homebrew services !WailBrew Doctor view - diagnosing Homebrew issues with brew doctor !WailBrew in light mode

📥 Installation

📦 Installation via Homebrew (recommended):

brew install --cask wailbrew

Or download the latest version directly from GitHub Releases.

🗑️ Uninstall

brew uninstall --cask wailbrew

💻 Requirements

WailBrew supports the following macOS versions:

• Apple Silicon (ARM): macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) and later
• Intel: macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) and later

🆚 WailBrew vs. Cakebrew

WailBrew is inspired by Cakebrew and aims to be a modern, actively maintained successor.

| | WailBrew | Cakebrew | |---|:---:|:---:| | Manage formulae | ✅ | ✅ | | Manage casks | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited | | Homebrew services management | ✅ | ❌ | | brew doctor & cleanup | ✅ | ⚠️ Partial | | Apple Silicon native | ✅ | ✅ | | Localized UI (12 languages) | ✅ | ❌ | | Light / dark mode | ✅ | ⚠️ | | Actively maintained | ✅ | ❌ | | Open source | ✅ (MIT) | ✅ |

🌍 Localizations

WailBrew ships with a fully translated UI in the following languages:

• 🇺🇸 English
• 🇩🇪 German
• 🇫🇷 French
• 🇹🇷 Turkish
• 🇨🇳 Chinese (Simplified)
• 🇹🇼 Chinese (Traditional)
• 🇧🇷 Português do Brasil
• 🇷🇺 Russian
• 🇰🇷 Korean
• 🇮🇱 Hebrew
• 🇪🇸 Spanish
• 🇮🇹 Italian

Configuration folder

Open Settings → Configuration folder, choose an empty folder (for example ~/.config/wailbrew), then click Move. WailBrew transfers your settings and Brewfile snapshots and uses the new location immediately and after restarting. Existing files in the destination are never overwritten. Other files in the old folder are left there; the old folder is removed only when empty.

The selected location is recorded in WailBrew/config-location.json under the operating system's configuration directory (~/Library/Application Support on macOS, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or ~/.config on Linux). This small record stays in its standard location so WailBrew can find the selected folder on startup.

WAILBREW_CONFIG_FILE takes precedence over the saved selection. If it is set in the app's environment, the folder control is disabled until the override is removed and WailBrew is restarted. Without an override or saved selection, WailBrew looks for an existing XDG configuration, then ~/.wailbrew/config.json; new installations use the XDG location.

❓ FAQ

Is WailBrew free? Yes. WailBrew is completely free and open source under the MIT license.

Does it work on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)? Yes - WailBrew runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

Do I still need Homebrew installed? Yes. WailBrew is a graphical front-end for Homebrew, so brew must be installed. WailBrew auto-detects the brew path for your architecture.

How is WailBrew different from Cakebrew? WailBrew is an actively maintained, modern alternative with cask and services management, a localized UI in 12 languages, light/dark mode, and native Apple Silicon support. See the comparison above.

Does WailBrew run my commands safely? Yes - WailBrew simply calls the brew CLI. Every command is transparent, and session logging lets you see exactly what runs.

Is it available for Linux or Windows? WailBrew targets macOS. There is partial Linux support; see the troubleshooting note below.

📰 Featured In

WailBrew has been featured by a number of publications and communities:

• How-To Geek
• Mac Power Users
• iFun
• AlternativeTo

❤️ Sponsor

WailBrew is free and open source, built and maintained in my spare time. Sponsorship helps cover the Apple Developer Program membership (\$99/year, required for code signing & notarization) and funds time for new features like Brewfile import, native notifications, and faster large-list performance.

If WailBrew saves you time, please consider supporting its development:

• ☕ Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi - one-time tip
• 💳 PayPal - one-time donation
• 💖 GitHub Sponsors - recurring support

🛠️ Contributing

Interested in contributing to WailBrew? We welcome contributions of all kinds!

• Code contributions: Bug fixes, features, improvements
• Translations: Help localize WailBrew to more languages
• Bug reports: Found an issue? Let us know
• Feature requests: Have an idea? We'd love to hear it

🐛 Troubleshooting & Support

Common Issues

• Linux running problem: Check this post from dsmyth, thank you!
• Homebrew not found: Ensure Homebrew is correctly installed
• Permission errors: May need to run the app with appropriate permissions
• Slow performance: Close other resource-intensive applications

Support

For issues, feature requests, or questions:

• Visit r/WailBrew for community support
• Check existing issues on GitHub
• Create a new issue if needed
• See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details on reporting bugs

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

🏆 Acknowledgments

• Wails community for the framework
• Cakebrew as inspiration

WailBrew makes Homebrew management simple and accessible for all macOS users.
Try it out and streamline your package management workflow! 🍺