brew-change

Make informed updates - see what changed in your Homebrew packages

# Show simple outdated list (like brew outdated)
brew-change

# Show outdated packages with version information
brew-change -v

# Show detailed changelog for specific package
brew-change node

# Show detailed changelogs for all outdated packages in parallel
brew-change -a

# Show changelogs with interactive upgrade prompt
brew-change -u

# Preview the no-signal package plan without executing it
brew-change -u --dry-run

# Highlight packages with breaking changes (-b implies -a)
brew-change -b

# Show version information
brew-change --version

# Show help
brew-change --help

• Developers who want to understand package changes before updating
• DevOps Engineers managing production dependencies
• Security-Conscious Users checking for vulnerability fixes
• Power Users who like knowing what's changing in their tools
• Curious Learners exploring how their tools evolve

• Smart Package Detection: GitHub, npm, third-party taps, hybrid packages, and more
• Parallel Processing: Handles multiple packages simultaneously (45-50s for 13 packages)
• Honest Update Assessment: Separates packages into attention, no-signal, and unknown instead of claiming an update is safe
• Preview Before Mutation: Shows Homebrew's upgrade --dry-run output, warns about dependency/dependent effects, and asks for final confirmation
• TTY-Aware Progress: Animates interactive work while keeping piped output deterministic
• Breaking Changes Detection: Highlights packages with breaking-change evidence using -b
• Rich Release Info: Full changelogs, commit history, and helpful links
• Revision Support: Advanced handling of Homebrew revision numbers
• Performance Optimized: 75% faster than original with intelligent caching

brew-change -u defaults only to packages whose fresh release evidence produced no risk signal. Packages marked attention or unknown are never bulk-selected. Before any upgrade, brew-change previews the exact named package list with Homebrew, then asks for immediate confirmation. Homebrew can still act on dependencies or dependents shown in that preview.

In a pipe or other non-interactive environment, brew-change prints guidance and never starts an upgrade.

# Install directly via Homebrew tap (dependencies included)
brew install shrwnsan/tap/brew-change

# Verify installation
brew-change --version

• Homebrew: Core package manager
• jq: JSON parsing and processing
• curl: HTTP requests with retry logic
• bash: Version 4.0+ for modern shell features

brew-change works seamlessly across all platforms where Homebrew is available:

The script automatically detects the correct library path using brew --prefix, ensuring compatibility across all Homebrew installations.

brew-change intelligently handles different package sources:

• GitHub packages: Full release notes with commit history
• npm packages: Registry information with release dates
• Hybrid packages: npm distribution + GitHub development
• Third-party taps: Community tap support (charmbracelet, oven-sh/bun)
• Modern CLI tools: Documentation-repository pattern (alpha)

→ See detailed package type examples: Package Types Documentation → Full documentation index: All Documentation

"Package not found" errors

brew info package-name    # Check if package exists
brew search package-name  # Search for similar packages

Slow performance

brew-change -a            # Auto-adjusts if system is busy
export BREW_CHANGE_JOBS=2 # Reduce parallel jobs manually

Network timeouts

curl -I https://api.github.com  # Check connectivity

Clear cache

rm -rf ~/.cache/brew-change/*

• Unreleased trusted-update foundation: Honest three-state assessments, canonical cask identities, exact package previews, final confirmation, deterministic tests, signal-safe terminal cleanup, and a strict evidence URL policy
• v1.11.0–v1.11.5: Made -u interactive by default, added --dry-run, and refined prompt/spinner behavior
• v1.10.0–v1.10.1: Improved interactive upgrade UX and ensured Homebrew receives --yes
• v1.9.0–v1.9.2: Removed prompt timeouts and simplified prompt formatting
• v1.8.0–v1.8.8: Added selective upgrades and iteratively hardened /dev/tty prompt handling and animation
• v1.7.0: Applied the post-refactor code-review fixes
• v1.6.0: Added positional multi-package support

→ Full changelog: CHANGELOG.md

• Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS
• jq - Command-line JSON processor
• GitHub CLI - Official GitHub command-line tool

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Looking for more?

• 📚 All Documentation | 🎯 Quick Start | Testing Suite | Contributing