BrewBar

A native macOS menubar app for managing Homebrew services.

Features

• Service Management - View all Homebrew services at a glance
• One-Click Controls - Start, stop, and restart services instantly
• Bulk Actions - Start or stop all services at once
• Auto-Refresh - Services status updates every 30 seconds
• Visual Indicators - Color-coded status (running/stopped/error)
• Toast Notifications - Feedback for all actions
• Launch at Login - Option to start BrewBar automatically
• Native macOS - Built with SwiftUI, feels right at home

Screenshots

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ BrewBar              ↻  ▶  ■    │
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│ ● postgresql@17              ▶■↻│
│ ● redis                      ▶■↻│
│ ○ mysql                      ▶■↻│
│ ○ nginx                      ▶■↻│
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⚙                        Quit   │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
• Homebrew installed

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install omkarkirpan/tap/brewbar
brewbar

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/omkarkirpan/BrewBar.git
cd BrewBar/BrewBar
swift build -c release
.build/release/BrewBar

Download .app Bundle

git clone https://github.com/omkarkirpan/BrewBar.git
cd BrewBar/BrewBar
./scripts/build-app.sh

Then either:

• Install to Applications: cp -r BrewBar.app /Applications/
• Run directly: open BrewBar.app

See macOS Security Notice if downloading pre-built releases.

macOS Security Notice

BrewBar is distributed unsigned to keep it free and open-source.

If downloading the .app directly:

• macOS will show "Developer cannot be verified"
• Right-click the app → Open → Open (first time only)
• Or: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway

Recommended: Install via Homebrew or build from source to avoid this entirely

Usage

1. Launch - Open BrewBar from Applications or run directly
2. Click - Click the ☕ mug icon in your menubar
3. Manage - View services and use the action buttons:
   • ▶ Start service
   • ■ Stop service
   • ↻ Restart service
4. Settings - Click the ⚙ gear icon for:
   • Launch at Login toggle
   • About & author info

CLI Commands

BrewBar supports command-line arguments:

# Show version
BrewBar --version
BrewBar -v

# Show help
BrewBar --help
BrewBar -h

When launched without arguments, BrewBar runs as a menubar application.

Note: On first launch, BrewBar automatically enables "Launch at Login". You can disable this in Settings.

Project Structure

BrewBar/
├── Package.swift
├── BrewBar/
│   ├── BrewBarApp.swift         # App entry point
│   ├── Models/
│   │   ├── ServiceStatus.swift  # Service status enum
│   │   └── BrewService.swift    # Service model
│   ├── Services/
│   │   ├── ShellExecutor.swift       # Brew command execution
│   │   ├── BrewOutputParser.swift    # Parse brew output
│   │   ├── BrewServiceManager.swift  # Service state management
│   │   ├── ToastManager.swift        # Notifications
│   │   ├── PollingManager.swift      # Auto-refresh
│   │   └── LaunchAtLoginManager.swift # Login item
│   └── Views/
│       ├── MainPanel.swift      # Main container
│       ├── HeaderView.swift     # Header with actions
│       ├── ServiceListView.swift # Service list
│       ├── ServiceRowView.swift  # Individual service row
│       ├── ToastView.swift      # Toast notifications
│       └── SettingsView.swift   # Settings & About
└── scripts/
    └── build-app.sh             # Build .app bundle

Development

# Build debug version
swift build

# Run debug version
.build/debug/BrewBar

# Build release .app bundle
./scripts/build-app.sh

# Clean build
swift package clean

Tech Stack

• Swift 5.9+ - Modern Swift with async/await
• SwiftUI - Native macOS UI framework
• MenuBarExtra - macOS 13+ menubar API
• ServiceManagement - Login item management
• Actor isolation - Thread-safe shell execution

Author

Omkar Kirpan

• GitHub: github.com/omkarkirpan
• Website: omkarkirpan.com

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file