Install Homebrew the Right Way

The official install is one curl command pasted into Terminal. It downloads the install script, prompts you for your password (Homebrew uses sudo only during install — never after), checks for the Xcode Command Line Tools, and creates the prefix at /opt/homebrew.

The single step everyone forgets on Apple Silicon is the PATH setup afterwards. The installer prints the exact eval line at the end — copy it into ~/.zprofile so future shells find brew. If you skip this, you'll see command not found: brew in every new terminal and waste an hour blaming the install.

After install, run two checks: brew --version to confirm Homebrew is reachable, and brew doctor to confirm your environment is clean. brew doctor will warn about leftover Intel Homebrew files, broken symlinks, or PATH conflicts — fix any warnings now, before your install graph grows.

One choice point: do you want the rolling tip (default) or a tagged release? 99% of users want the rolling install — Homebrew updates fast, and tagged releases miss security patches. Stay on the default unless you have a very specific compliance reason.

Code

Install Homebrew + verify·bash

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

# 2. Add to PATH (Apple Silicon — copy from installer's last printout if different)
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

# 3. Verify
brew --version       # e.g. Homebrew 5.1.0
which brew           # /opt/homebrew/bin/brew
brew doctor          # "Your system is ready to brew."

Apple Silicon vs Intel — know your prefix·bash

# Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4): brew lives here
ls /opt/homebrew/bin/brew

# Intel Macs: brew lives here
ls /usr/local/bin/brew

# If you're on Apple Silicon and 'which brew' returns /usr/local/bin/brew,
# you have Intel Homebrew left over from a Time Machine restore — uninstall it.
# See https://docs.brew.sh/Installation for the cleanup script.

Exercise

Install Homebrew if you haven't already, then run 'brew doctor' and 'brew --version'. If 'brew doctor' reports anything, write down each warning verbatim — those are the gotchas you'll dodge later. Then install one tool you've actually wanted: 'brew install ripgrep' is a great first pick because rg is faster than grep and you'll use it forever.

Install Homebrew the Right Way

Code

External links

Exercise

Progress

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