zerobrew¶

ID: zerobrew
Link: Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 7,543
Last commit: 2026-09-02
Version requirement: >= 0.3
Platforms: 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS
Operations: installed · outdated · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove
purl types: pkg:zerobrew/
CLI name: zb
Extra search paths: /opt/zerobrew/bin
Forced environment: NO_COLOR=1
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: homebrew
Source: zerobrew.toml

ZeroBrew is a fast, Homebrew-compatible package manager written in Rust, reusing Homebrew’s formula ecosystem but storing packages in a content-addressable store at /opt/zerobrew.

ZeroBrew has no search command: use brew search or browse the Homebrew formula repository instead.

The >=0.3.0 floor is where zb upgrade landed; zb outdated and its --json output shipped earlier, in 0.2.0.

What `mpm` adds to `zerobrew`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not zerobrew alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover zerobrew alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `zerobrew` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know zerobrew: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `zerobrew`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`zb list`	`mpm --zerobrew installed`
List outdated packages	`zb outdated --json`	`mpm --zerobrew outdated`
Install a package	`zb install <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:zerobrew/<package_id>`
Upgrade one package	`zb upgrade <package_id>`	`mpm --zerobrew upgrade <package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`zb upgrade`	`mpm --zerobrew upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`zb uninstall <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:zerobrew/<package_id>`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported
`installed`	✅
`outdated`	✅
`orphans`
`search`
`install`	✅
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅
`sync`
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore zerobrew on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-zerobrew option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
zerobrew = false
```
Raise the timeout of all zerobrew calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.zerobrew]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template zerobrew to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.zerobrew]
cli_names = [
    "zb",
]
cli_search_path = [
    "/opt/zerobrew/bin",
]
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=0.3.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "zb\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

[mpm.overrides.zerobrew.extra_env]
NO_COLOR = "1"

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every zerobrew call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around zerobrew, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --zerobrew dump zerobrew.toml, then mpm restore zerobrew.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --zerobrew sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations is privileged.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of zerobrew’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Git-manifest indexes
Retraction: Index revert: reverting the manifest, Portfile or derivation commit withdraws the version
Publish date: ❌ only the commit date, which is client-set and trivially backdated. A date declared in the manifest, like winget’s optional ReleaseDate, is author-supplied too and no sounder

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the bundled definition. If you know zerobrew well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ zb list
jq 1.7.1
wget 1.24.5

$ zb outdated --json
[
  {
    "name": "jq",
    "installed_versions": [
      "1.7.1"
    ],
    "current_version": "1.7.2"
  }
]

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ zb --version
zb 0.3.0

and extracted with:

r"zb\s+(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`lucasgelfond/zerobrew`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

7.3.0 (2026-07-17)
- Convert from a Python class to a bundled configuration definition, its installed-versions array read through the new [N] field selector, with no functional change.
6.6.0 (2026-06-17)
- Add upgrade and upgrade_all support via zb upgrade, and bump minimum zb from 0.2.0 to 0.3.0.
6.3.0 (2026-04-09)
- Add ZeroBrew manager with installed, outdated, install, and remove support. Closes #1681.