The 10-100x faster
drop-in replacement for Homebrew.
10-100x faster drop-in replacement for Homebrew. Written in Rust. Pre-computed SQLite+FTS5 index, parallel downloads, offline support, and enterprise features — all in a single native binary.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neul-labs/stout/main/install.sh | sh Everything Homebrew does, 10-100x faster.
stout eliminates the performance bottlenecks that make Homebrew slow — Ruby startup, sequential downloads, and full git clones — while keeping full compatibility with the ecosystem you already use.
10-100x faster installs
Native Rust binary with Tokio async runtime. No Ruby interpreter overhead — stout starts in 5ms where Homebrew needs 500ms.
SQLite + FTS5 search
Instant full-text package search via a pre-computed ~3MB SQLite index. Works offline, returns results in under 50ms.
Drop-in Homebrew compatible
Same formulae, same taps, same Cellar structure. Zero migration friction — your existing packages work unchanged.
Air-gapped & offline support
Create local mirrors for restricted environments. Host your own index with Ed25519-signed updates.
Vulnerability scanning
Built-in `stout audit` checks installed packages against known CVEs. Security scanning without extra tooling.
Enterprise-ready
Multi-prefix isolation, private index hosting, lock files for reproducible builds, and deterministic CI/CD workflows.
Benchmarks don't lie.
Real-world performance comparisons on the same machine, same packages. stout eliminates Ruby interpreter overhead and replaces network-heavy operations with a pre-computed local index.
--version 100x faster search json 60x faster info wget 19x faster update 15x faster Install in seconds.
Pre-built binaries for macOS (ARM64, Intel) and Linux (x86_64, ARM64). Or build from source with Cargo.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neul-labs/stout/main/install.sh | sh cargo install stout brew install neul-labs/tap/stout nix profile install github:neul-labs/stout Start here
Guides to get up and running with stout.
Getting Started with stout
Install stout, run your first package install, and understand the basics — in under five minutes.
Migrating from Homebrew to stout
Step-by-step guide to switching from Homebrew to stout — zero downtime, zero data loss, full compatibility.
Using stout in CI/CD Pipelines
Speed up GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins pipelines with stout — lock files, caching, and parallel installs.
From the blog
Deep dives on Homebrew, Rust, package management, and performance.
Managing Developer Dependencies at Scale
When your team grows past 10 developers, 'just brew install it' stops working. Here's how to standardize, audit, and scale developer tooling.
Using Homebrew Inside Docker Containers
Homebrew in Docker adds bloat and build time. Here's how to minimize the impact — and why stout's single binary is a better fit for containers.
Package Manager Security Best Practices
Supply chain attacks target package managers. Here's how to protect your development environment — signed packages, vulnerability scanning, and verified indexes.
Frequently asked
- Is stout a drop-in replacement for Homebrew?
- Yes. stout reads the same formulae, uses the same Cellar directory structure, and writes compatible INSTALL_RECEIPT.json files. Your existing packages, taps, and symlinks work unchanged.
- How is stout so much faster than Homebrew?
- Three architectural changes: (1) stout is a native Rust binary — no Ruby interpreter startup overhead. (2) Package metadata comes from a pre-computed ~3MB SQLite index with FTS5 full-text search instead of cloning a 700MB git repo. (3) Downloads happen in parallel via Tokio async runtime.
- Does stout work on Linux?
- Yes. stout supports macOS (ARM64, Intel) and Linux (x86_64, ARM64) with pre-built binaries. Linux cask support includes AppImage and Flatpak integration.
- Can I use stout in air-gapped environments?
- Yes. stout can create offline mirrors of any subset of packages, serve them via a local HTTP server, and verify updates with Ed25519 cryptographic signatures. Designed for enterprise and restricted-network environments.
- Is stout open source?
- Yes. stout is MIT licensed and developed in the open at github.com/neul-labs/stout. Contributions are welcome.
Need Rust performance engineering or AI agent expertise?
Neul Labs — the team behind stout — consults on Rust development, performance optimization, CLI tool design, and AI agent infrastructure. We build fast, reliable systems that ship.