The officially supported thing is:
https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-bundle
See my Brewfile in my dotfiles for how I use it to install my stuff:
https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/dotfiles/blob/master/Brewfile
If you want to go a step further there's also Strap which will bootstrap your macOS system with some sensible defaults and install Homebrew, your dotfiles and your Brewfile:
https://github.com/mikemcquaid/strap
Finally, if you're interested how I combined these to replace Boxen at GitHub (our macOS system/project bootstrap tool using Puppet) read this:
http://mikemcquaid.com/2016/06/15/replacing-boxen/
In Homebrew 1.1.0Homebrew
homebrew-bundle
OPEN SOURCE2016–2026
Homebrew / homebrew-bundle · Archived
homebrew-bundle
💀 Homebrew/bundle (merged into Homebrew/brew)
22Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
5.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
💀 Homebrew/bundle (merged into Homebrew/brew)
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- mikemcquaid/strap · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 3:30:57 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year25 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-06-20 14:40:47 UTC to 2026-01-02 14:19:20 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Homebrew/bundle (merged into Homebrew/brew)
This tap provided Bundler for non-Ruby dependencies from e.g. Homebrew, Homebrew Cask, Mac App Store and Visual Studio Code. It has been entirely merged into Homebrew/brew. brew bundle still works as before, it just isn't in this tap any more.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
4 sourcesYou can use brew-bundle for that. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-bundle
On one machine:
brew bundle dump
On another machine:
brew bundle
In Homebrew 1.0.0I like homebrew-bundle [1]. It lets me list all of the apps I use in a text file and install them with a single command.
You can also run `brew bundle --cleanup` to purge your system of apps that you no longer need (as long as you installed them with homebrew/homebrew-bundle in the first place).
- [1] https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-bundle
In How to prepare your fresh Mac for software developmentI have my dotfiles for that. Split into different categories (brew, npm, pip) together with all the config files I need. brew and brew cask (with brew-bundle [0] for Brewfile support) take care of getting all libraries and applications onto the system.
For the development itself I'm either shipping my entire config (.vimrc for example) or use systems like spacemacs, sublimious or proton that only need 1 single file to re-install the entire state of the editor.
The install script itself [1] is then symlinking everyhing into place and executes stuff like pip install -r ~/.dotfiles/pip/packages.txt.
It takes a bit of effort to keep everything up to date but I'm never worried of loosing my "machine state". If I go to a new machine all I have to do is clone my dotfiles, execute install.sh and I have everything I need.
On servers I am using sal
Read the rest
tstack [2], a tool like puppet, ansible and friends, to ensure my machines are in the exact state I want them to be. I'm usually using the serverless version and push my states over SSH to them.
[0]: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-bundle
[1]: https://github.com/dvcrn/dotfiles/blob/master/install.sh
[2]: https://saltstack.com