Install and upgrade

Hostwright is in active development and not production ready.

Qualification builds, not a GA release

brew install hostwright/tap/hostwright installs an unsupported qualification build from the Hostwright-maintained tap. The unqualified brew install hostwright (Homebrew-core) does not exist. Neither the tap nor a source build is a GA support claim; read Compatibility.

Requirements

• Apple silicon Mac.
• macOS 26 or newer for the current package target.
• A supported Apple container version for live runtime commands.
• Swift 6.2-compatible toolchain and Git, for a source build.

Vendor tap

brew install hostwright/tap/hostwright
hostwright --version
hostwright capabilities --json

This installs the same four executables a source build produces: hostwright, hostwright-control, hostwrightd, and hostwright-dist. Upgrade and uninstall through Homebrew as usual; hostwright-dist status --prefix <path> reports the installed-lifecycle state Homebrew is managing underneath.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/hostwright/hostwright.git
cd hostwright
swift build
swift test
scripts/integration.sh
swift run hostwright --version
swift run hostwright capabilities --json

This prints the current development version. There is no release tag to check out yet; build from the default branch. The build produces the same four executables. Locate them with swift build --show-bin-path. In a source checkout, prefix every command with swift run (swift run hostwright ...) unless you install the binaries onto your PATH yourself.

Try the current safe surface

swift run hostwright init
swift run hostwright validate
swift run hostwright plan --output json
swift run hostwright doctor --output json

Runtime-backed and state-writing commands need Apple container as applicable. They use the state database at ~/Library/Application Support/Hostwright/state/state.sqlite by default, or an explicit --state-db path:

swift run hostwright status
swift run hostwright logs api
swift run hostwright events
swift run hostwright cleanup --dry-run
swift run hostwright paths --json

hostwright-dist implements an installed lifecycle (install, upgrade, repair, rollback, uninstall) for a verified artifact at an explicit prefix, plus the trusted release pipeline that produces the vendor tap’s formula and the signed archives it installs. A Homebrew-core submission still needs broader qualification evidence than the vendor tap requires. The source checkout is separate from an installed prefix; deleting the checkout does not uninstall or remove state.