A native macOS menu bar app for managing Homebrew services. Start, stop, and restart services like Redis, PostgreSQL, nginx, and MySQL with one click — no terminal needed.
I got tired of typing brew services list and brew services start redis a dozen times a day. Every developer with Homebrew services does this — it's muscle memory at this point. I wanted to see what's running at a glance and toggle it with one click. BrewPilot is what happens when you decide a three-word terminal command still has too much friction.
# Clone or download, then build
cd BrewPilot
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh
# Launch
open BrewPilot.appOr compile manually:
swiftc -parse-as-library -o BrewPilot BrewPilot.swift
./BrewPilot- Run
./build.shto build the.appbundle - Run
open BrewPilot.app - Look for the mug icon in your menu bar
- Click it to see all your Homebrew services
- Hover over a service to reveal Start/Stop/Restart buttons
- Click a button — the service state changes immediately
See all services at a glance: The menu bar icon shows "3/7" — 3 of your 7 services are running.
Start Redis: Click the mug icon → hover over "redis" → click the green play button.
Stop PostgreSQL: Click the mug icon → hover over "postgresql@16" → click the red stop button.
Restart nginx: Click the mug icon → hover over "nginx" → click the orange restart button.
Empty state: If you have no Homebrew services installed, BrewPilot shows a helpful message explaining how to install services.
- Live service list from
brew services list --json - Color-coded status: green (running), gray (stopped), red (error)
- One-click start, stop, restart
- Auto-refresh every 5 seconds
- Running count in menu bar (e.g., "3/7")
- No dock icon (menu bar only)
- Native Swift + SwiftUI, no dependencies
- macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma)
- Homebrew installed (
/opt/homebrew/bin/brewor/usr/local/bin/brew) - Swift compiler (
swiftc) — comes with Xcode or Xcode Command Line Tools
"Homebrew not found" error:
BrewPilot looks for brew at /opt/homebrew/bin/brew (Apple Silicon) and /usr/local/bin/brew (Intel). Make sure Homebrew is installed: https://brew.sh
No services listed: You need to install Homebrew formulae that provide services. Examples:
brew install redisbrew install postgresql@16brew install nginxbrew install mysql
Menu bar icon not visible: If you have many menu bar icons, BrewPilot's mug icon may be hidden by the notch or by a menu bar manager. Try using Ice or Bartender to reveal hidden icons.
Service won't start:
Some services require specific configuration. Check brew services info <service> in the terminal for details.
MIT