Command Not Found

Homebrew can suggest a formula when an interactive shell cannot find a command. The handler queries brew which-formula --explain and prints an installation command when Homebrew knows which formula provides the missing executable.

Setup

Run this command in an interactive Bash, fish or zsh session to print the setup instructions for that shell:

brew command-not-found-init

For Bash or zsh, add the printed handler-loading block to the startup file identified by the command. For fish, add its block to ~/.config/fish/config.fish.

The setup loads the handler from the current Homebrew repository, so it remains in sync when Homebrew updates. Do not copy the handler implementation into a shell configuration file.

Behaviour

When a command is missing, the handler searches Homebrew's formula metadata for an executable with the same name. For example, a match can produce output similar to:

$ example-command
The program 'example-command' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
  brew install example-formula

If Homebrew finds no match, the shell prints its normal command-not-found error. The handler does not install software automatically.