brew-hop-search 0.2.0

Fast offline-first search of Homebrew formulae, casks, taps, and installed packages

brew-hop-search

Fast offline-first search of Homebrew formulae, casks, taps, and installed packages.

Built on SQLite + FTS5 for instant local search with smart caching.

GitHub · PyPI · Brew Tap

Install

# PyPI (recommended)
uv tool install brew-hop-search     # or: pip install brew-hop-search
uvx brew-hop-search python          # one-shot without install

# Homebrew tap
brew tap mcint/brew-hop-search
brew install brew-hop-search

Usage

brew-hop-search <query>                  # search formulae + casks (default)
brew-hop-search -f <query>               # formulae only
brew-hop-search -c <query>               # casks only
brew-hop-search -i <query>               # search installed packages
brew-hop-search -t <query>               # also search tapped repos
brew-hop-search -L <query>               # search brew's local API cache (offline)
brew-hop-search -C                       # show cache status
brew-hop-search --refresh <query>        # force re-fetch before searching

Cache control (bkt-style TTLs)

brew-hop-search --stale 1h <query>       # background refresh if cache > 1h old
brew-hop-search --fresh 24h <query>      # force sync refresh if cache > 24h old

Output formats

brew-hop-search --json <query>           # JSON output
brew-hop-search -g <query>               # greppable: slug\tversion\turl
brew-hop-search -C --json                # machine-readable cache status

Direct DB access

The SQLite database is at ~/.cache/brew-hop-search/brew-hop-search.db and is fully compatible with sqlite-utils:

sqlite-utils tables ~/.cache/brew-hop-search/brew-hop-search.db
sqlite-utils search ~/.cache/brew-hop-search/brew-hop-search.db formula python
sqlite-utils query ~/.cache/brew-hop-search/brew-hop-search.db "SELECT name, desc FROM installed_formula"

How it works

On first run, brew-hop-search fetches the Homebrew formula and cask indexes from formulae.brew.sh, stores them in a local SQLite database with FTS5 full-text search, and keeps the raw JSON alongside for easy re-creation.

Subsequent searches are instant (local FTS5 queries). Stale caches trigger a background refresh so the next search is both fast and fresh.

Source	Flag	Data
Remote API	(default)	formulae.brew.sh formula + cask indexes
Installed	-i	brew info --json=v2 --installed
Taps	-t	.rb files in $(brew --repo)/Library/Taps/
Local	-L	Brew's own API cache at $(brew --cache)/api/

License

MIT