Bold Brew v2.3: Homebrew 6, Vulnerability Scanning, and Multi-Source Support

We're excited to announce Bold Brew v2.3 — the biggest feature release since 2.0. This update brings full Homebrew 6.0 compatibility, integrated vulnerability scanning, multi-source package support, and quality-of-life improvements that make managing your packages faster and more secure.

Homebrew 6.0 Compatibility

Homebrew 6.0 introduced significant changes to how taps, installations, and the API work. Bold Brew v2.3 is fully compatible:

• Tap trust — Bold Brew respects the new trust model and prompts when needed
• Ask mode — interactive confirmation flows work seamlessly within the TUI
• JSON v2 API — faster metadata fetching with the updated API format

If you're already on Homebrew 6, Bold Brew will work out of the box with no configuration changes.

Vulnerability Scanning

Security matters. Bold Brew now integrates with brew vulns to detect known CVEs in your installed packages:

• Press v anywhere to trigger a vulnerability scan
• Results are displayed inline with severity indicators
• If brew vulns isn't installed, Bold Brew offers to install it automatically

This makes it trivial to audit your development environment for known security issues without leaving the TUI.

Mac App Store Support

Bold Brew now understands mas entries in Brewfiles. This means you can manage your Mac App Store applications alongside Homebrew packages in a unified workflow:

mas "Xcode", id: 497799835
mas "1Password", id: 1333542190

Load a Brewfile with mas entries using bbrew -f ~/Brewfile and see everything in one place.

Flatpak Support (Linux)

On Linux, Bold Brew now supports flatpak entries in Brewfiles:

flatpak "org.gimp.GIMP"
flatpak "org.mozilla.firefox"

This is especially useful on Project Bluefin and Aurora where both Homebrew and Flatpak are part of the default setup.

Formulae-Only Filter

A new filter mode lets you show only formulae (excluding casks):

• Press F to toggle the formulae-only filter
• Combines with search for focused formula discovery

This brings the total number of filter modes to six: all, installed, outdated, leaves, casks, and formulae.

Sort Modes

You can now sort packages by popularity or name:

• Press s to cycle through sort modes
• Sort by downloads (most popular first) or name (alphabetical)

Sorting by downloads is great for discovering widely-used packages you might not know about.

Brewfile Export

Export your current selection to a Brewfile:

• Press e to export
• Saves to ~/Brewfile in the standard format
• Respects current filters — export only what you're viewing

This makes it easy to snapshot your setup for sharing or backup.

CI Pipeline

Bold Brew now has a full CI pipeline with automated tests and coverage reporting. This ensures reliability across releases and makes contributing easier.

Upgrade

Update Bold Brew to v2.3 with:

brew upgrade bbrew

Or install fresh:

brew install Valkyrie00/bbrew/bbrew

Check out the full changelog for the complete list of changes.

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Bold Brew is the official Homebrew TUI for Project Bluefin, Aurora, and Universal Blue. Used by tens of thousands of developers on macOS and Linux.