Lesson 4 of 8

Install Homebrew

The package manager that makes everything else possible.

~15 min to complete

Homebrew is a tool that installs other software on your Mac. Think of it as an app store that Terminal can use. You install it once and never think about it again.

The install command

Copy and paste this entire line into Terminal, then press Enter:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Paste the whole thing at once. Select the line above, copy it (Cmd + C), click into Terminal, paste (Cmd + V), and press Enter. Don't try to type it by hand.

Terminal with the Homebrew install command (a long /bin/bash -c curl line) pasted on a single line, cursor at the end, ready to be run. — One line, pasted directly into Terminal.

What to expect

It will ask for your Mac password. When you type it, nothing appears on screen — no dots, no asterisks. This is normal and expected security behavior. Type your password and press Enter.

A popup may appear asking you to install Xcode Command Line Tools. Click Install and wait for it to finish — this is a separate Apple download that Homebrew needs, and it can take 5–20 minutes depending on your internet connection. Once it finishes, Homebrew will continue automatically.

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The macOS popup titled 'The xcode-select command requires the command line developer tools' with Install / Cancel / Get Xcode buttons.

If you see this popup, click Install — not Get Xcode. The smaller Command Line Tools download is all Homebrew needs.

You'll then see a lot of text scrolling by. This is normal. The whole process takes 5–20 minutes depending on your internet speed. Don't close Terminal.

After it finishes: the "Next steps" section

When the installer completes, it will show a section called "Next steps" with 2–3 commands to run. These commands tell your Mac where to find Homebrew. Copy and run each one.

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Terminal showing the Homebrew installer's 'Next steps' section with two echo commands and one eval command, each prefixed by a hyphen.

The 'Next steps' section the installer prints. Copy these exactly — they're tailored to your Mac.

For Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3/M4), those commands typically look like:

echo >> ~/.zprofile
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Copy exactly what the installer shows you — not the lines above. The installer tailors them to your specific Mac. On Intel Macs the path will be /usr/local/bin/brew instead of /opt/homebrew/bin/brew.

Verify it worked

Type this and press Enter:

brew --version

You'll know it worked when you see Homebrew 4.x.x (or a higher version number) printed in Terminal.

If you see command not found: brew, the "Next steps" commands above didn't run correctly. Go back and run them again, making sure to copy exactly what the installer showed you.