I built BrewBar, a small native macOS menubar app that lets you view, start, stop, and restart Homebrew services without using the terminal.
It runs entirely locally, shells out to `brew services`, and is built with SwiftUI. No background daemons, no cloud, no telemetry.
Why I built it: I often run multiple local services (Postgres, Redis, etc.) and wanted a quick way to see their status and control them without switching contexts.
Features: – Shows all Homebrew services and their status – Start / stop / restart individual services – Start / stop all services – Auto-refresh – Optional launch at login
It’s open source and free: https://github.com/omkarkirpan/BrewBar
I’d love feedback from people who use Homebrew heavily, especially around UX or edge cases I may have missed.
omkarkirpan•1h ago
If anyone is curious, I avoided using private APIs and Apple developer accounts, and distribution is via GitHub releases and Homebrew.