What happens when a package manager’s searchable index grows up and learns to speak JSON? Homebrew’s formula site now does both, and the pitch is simple: Homebrew’s formulae list and JSON API that mirror each other for humans and scripts alike.
Homebrew formulae JSON API: What’s new: a browsable index and a JSON feed formulae.brew.sh presents a catalog of everything in Homebrew’s core tap for macOS and Linux—names, versions, and one-line descriptions—along with a machine-readable mirror at /api/formula.json.
The site states it plainly: “This is a listing of all packages available from the core tap via the Homebrew package manager for macOS and Linux.”— formulae.brew.sh Right alongside that is the data hook developers care about: “/api/formula.json (JSON API)”— formulae.brew.sh The catalog isn’t just a name dump.Each entry pairs a version with a description that’s terse but useful.Examples from the A-section alone capture the range: a2ps is tagged as an “Any-to-PostScript filter”and sits at version 4.15.8; a52dec is a “Library for decoding ATSC A/52 streams (AKA’AC-3′)”at version 0.8.0; abcmidi “Converts abc music notation files to MIDI files”and is listed as 2025.11.26; Abseil shows up as “C++ Common Libraries”at 20260107.0. If you live in cross-compilers, you’ll also find aarch64-elf-binutils 2.45.1, aarch64-elf-gcc 15.2.0, and aarch64-elf-gdb 17.1.
The point is coverage of the core tap, not every ecosystem adjacent to it.
If you’re looking for casks or third-party taps, that’s outside this index.
Why it matters for developers and power users Centralizing a canonical list cuts the scavenger hunt.
One place to search, scan, and click through to details means less time grepping READMEs or guessing a formula name. It also sets a single reference for “what’s in core” across macOS and Linux, which helps reduce version mismatch headaches when a dotfile or script jumps between machines. Having the exact version next to the name is the practical win.If your setup notes say “install a2ps,” you can now just as easily say “install a2ps 4.15.8.” If you’re pinning toolchains, you can be explicit about aarch64-elf-gcc 15.2.0 or keep an eye on Abseil’s 20260107.0 drop.Even developer tools are in there; GitHub Actions aficionados will spot act 0.2.84.These are small details that make automation less fragile.Though whether this meaningfully changes your day-to-day depends on how you’ve been tracking Homebrew packages until now.If you already maintain your own manifests or scrape formula pages, the JSON endpoint is the piece that replaces ad-hoc solutions with an official feed.Web vs.API: how you’ll actually use it The site favors eyeballs.A search box, alphabetized lists, and per-formula pages make it easy to quickly confirm what a package does and what version you’ll get. You can jump to abcmidi (2025.11.26) and read its one-liner before installing, or verify that abyss is at 2.3.10 and decide if it’s new enough for your pipeline.
The JSON endpoint favors scripts. Hitting /api/formula.json returns the same dataset—names, versions, and descriptions—in a format you can parse in a CI job or a dashboard.
That unlocks straightforward tasks: pull the latest core tap versions nightly, diff against what your repo specifies, and flag drifts.
It beats scraping HTML and hoping a class name doesn’t change. Human path: open formulae.brew.sh/formula, search for “abseil,” confirm 20260107.0, read the description, install. Machine path: fetch /api/formula.json, parse into a map, check if “abseil” moved past 20260107.0, decide whether to alert.
If you’re maintaining both macOS and Linux hosts, the single index keeps your logic simple: same feed, same fields, same source of truth for the core tap. Expert take: this streamlines CI and version tracking My read: a stable, public JSON list means fewer bespoke scrapers and more reproducible workflows. Teams that gate updates can wire a lightweight checker to compare pinned versions against the feed and open a pull request when something moves. Think “notify when a52dec shifts off 0.8.0,” or “refresh our mirror when acpica changes from 20251212,” or “bump abricate past 1.2.0.” This is also useful for audit trails.
If your security review needs to cite exactly which package versions were in core on a given day, pulling and archiving the JSON gives you a clean snapshot. It’s boring infrastructure, which is exactly what you want for this job.
There’s a tradeoff to keep in mind — the feed covers the core tap. If your stack leans on casks or external taps, you’ll still need to aggregate those from somewhere else, or treat core as just one of multiple data sources.
The benefit holds even then: one official feed is one fewer moving part you have to maintain. This source material on the site is clear about what’s on offer—an authoritative list and a JSON mirror—and the examples show the breadth: from utilities like a2ps 4.15.8 and ack 3.9.0, to toolchains like aarch64-elf-binutils 2.45.1 and aarch64-elf-gcc 15.2.0, to libraries like abseil 20260107.0, and bioinformatics tools like abyss 2.3.10 and abricate 1.2.0. If you just want to look something up, the web index is fine.
If you want to automate, hit the endpoint.Homebrew sums it up more succinctly than any press release could: “This is a listing of all packages available from the core tap via the Homebrew package manager for macOS and Linux.”The only extra you need to remember is the URL: formulae.brew.sh/formula for humans, /api/formula.json for machines. /api/formula.json returns the same dataset—names, versions, and descriptions—in a format you can parse in a CI job or a dashboard. Human path: open formulae.brew.sh/formula, search for “abseil,” confirm 20260107.0, read the description, install.
- Machine path: fetch /api/formula.json, parse into a map, check if “abseil” moved past 20260107.0, decide whether to alert.There’s a tradeoff to keep in mind.The feed covers the core tap.
- That source material on the site is clear about what’s on offer—an authoritative list and a JSON mirror—and the examples show the breadth: from utilities like a2ps 4.15.8 and ack 3.9.0, to toolchains like aarch64-elf-binutils 2.45.1 and aarch64-elf-gcc 15.2.0, to libraries like abseil 20260107.0, and bioinformatics tools like abyss 2.3.10 and abricate 1.2.0.Homebrew sums it up more succinctly than any press release could: “This is a listing of all packages available from the core tap via the Homebrew package manager for macOS and Linux.”The only extra you need to remember is the URL: formulae.brew.sh/formula for humans, /api/formula.json for machines., parse into a map, check if “abseil” moved past 20260107.0, decide whether to alert.
If you’re maintaining both macOS and Linux hosts, the single index keeps your logic simple: same feed, same fields, same source of truth for the core tap.
Expert take: this streamlines CI and version tracking
My read: a stable, public JSON list means fewer bespoke scrapers and more reproducible workflows. Teams that gate updates can wire a lightweight checker to compare pinned versions against the feed and open a pull request when something moves. Think “notify when a52dec shifts off 0.8.0,” or “refresh our mirror when acpica changes from 20251212,” or “bump abricate past 1.2.0.”
This is also useful for audit trails. If your security review needs to cite exactly which package versions were in core on a given day, pulling and archiving the JSON gives you a clean snapshot. It’s boring infrastructure, which is exactly what you want for this job.
There’s a tradeoff to keep in mind. The feed covers the core tap. If your stack leans on casks or external taps, you’ll still need to aggregate those from somewhere else, or treat core as just one of multiple data sources. The benefit holds even then: one official feed is one fewer moving part you have to maintain.
The source material on the site is clear about what’s on offer—an authoritative list and a JSON mirror—and the examples show the breadth: from utilities like a2ps 4.15.8 and ack 3.9.0, to toolchains like aarch64-elf-binutils 2.45.1 and aarch64-elf-gcc 15.2.0, to libraries like abseil 20260107.0, and bioinformatics tools like abyss 2.3.10 and abricate 1.2.0. If you just want to look something up, the web index is fine. If you want to automate, hit the endpoint.
Homebrew sums it up more succinctly than any press release could:
“This is a listing of all packages available from the core tap via the Homebrew package manager for macOS and Linux.”
The only extra you need to remember is the URL: formulae.brew.sh/formula for humans, /api/formula.json for machines. More details at Homebrew formulae JSON API. More details at formulae.brew.sh API. More details at Homebrew core tap index.
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