https://nanobrew.trilok.ai/

nanobrew
GitHub Docs Benchmarks

nanobrew

The fastest macOS package manager. Written in Zig.

$ curl -fsSL https://nanobrew.trilok.ai/install | bash copy

Then restart your terminal or run the export command it prints.

3.5ms warm install time

7,000x faster than Homebrew * faster than echo

Speed

Apple Silicon, macOS 15, same network. Cold = fresh download. Warm =
cached in store.

tree / 0 deps, cold
brew
8.99s
nb
1.19s
7.6x faster
wget / 6 deps, cold
brew
16.84s
nb
11.26s
1.5x faster
ffmpeg / 11 deps, warm
brew
~24.5s
nb
3.5ms
7,000x faster

Quick start

$ nb install jq
==> Resolving dependencies...
    [38ms]
==> Installing 1 package(s):
    jq 1.7.1
==> Downloading + installing 1 packages...
     jq
==> Done in 1102.4ms
 
$ nb list
jq 1.7.1
 
$ nb update # self-update nanobrew
==> Updating nanobrew...
==> nanobrew updated successfully

How it works

01
Resolve
BFS parallel dependency resolution across concurrent API calls
02
Download
Native HTTP with streaming SHA256 verification in a single pass
03
Extract
Unpack into content-addressable store keyed by SHA256
04
Materialize
APFS clonefile into Cellar -- copy-on-write, zero disk cost
05
Link
Symlink binaries into PATH and record in local database

Why it's fast

APFS clonefile

Copy-on-write materialization via macOS syscall. Zero disk overhead
per install.

Parallel everything

Downloads, extraction, relocation, and dependency resolution all run
concurrently.

Native HTTP

Zig std.http.Client replaces curl subprocess spawns. One fewer
process per bottle.

Native Mach-O

Reads load commands from binary headers directly. No otool. Batched
codesign.

Content-addressed store

SHA256-keyed dedup means reinstalls skip download and extraction
entirely.

Single static binary

No Ruby runtime. No interpreter startup. No config sprawl. Just one
~2MB binary.

GitHub Benchmarks Apache 2.0

Built with care. Powered by Homebrew's bottle ecosystem.