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🍺 Using Tavern

Tavern is a graphical Homebrew client for Linux — a native GTK4 "App Store" for managing your command-line tools and graphical applications.

First Run​

Launch Tavern from the app grid:

flatpak run dev.hanthor.Tavern

Or from the terminal (if installed via Homebrew cask):

tavern

The main window shows:

  • Browse — featured and popular packages
  • Search — search bar at the top
  • Installed — your installed formulae and casks
  • Taps — manage Homebrew tap repositories

Searching for Packages​

Type in the search bar to search across 6,000+ formulae and casks:

# Search for "node"
Type "node" in the search bar
# Results show formulae (node) and casks (nodeclipse)

Linux users: macOS-only casks are automatically filtered out.

Installing a Package​

  1. Search for the package
  2. Click on it to view details (description, version, dependencies)
  3. Click the Install button
  4. Watch progress in the task manager (bottom panel)

Packages install in parallel — multiple installs at once with a global progress indicator.

Managing Installed Packages​

View installed​

Click the Installed tab to see everything on your system.

Update​

# Check for updates in the Installed view
# Click "Update All" or update individual packages

Uninstall​

  1. Find the package in Installed view
  2. Click the Remove button
  3. Confirm

Using Brewfiles​

Tavern supports Brewfiles — declarative environment files:

# ~/Brewfile
tap "homebrew/bundle"
brew "htop"
brew "neovim"
cask "visual-studio-code"
cask "font-fira-code-nerd-font"

Open a Brewfile​

# File → Open Brewfile
# Or launch Tavern with a Brewfile
tavern ~/Brewfile

Tavern displays the Brewfile contents and lets you bulk-install or remove all listed packages.

Managing Taps​

Homebrew taps are additional package repositories:

# View current taps in the Taps view
# Add a tap:
brew tap hanthor/homebrew-tap

# Remove a tap from Tavern's Taps view

Keyboard Shortcuts​

ShortcutAction
Ctrl+FFocus search bar
Ctrl+QQuit
EscapeClear search / go back
Ctrl+TabSwitch between views

Tips​

  • Dark Mode — Tavern follows the system theme automatically
  • Parallel installs — Tavern installs multiple packages simultaneously
  • Progress tracking — the bottom panel shows overall progress
  • macOS filtering — casks only available on macOS are hidden on Linux

Troubleshooting​

ProblemFix
"Homebrew not found"Ensure Homebrew is installed: /bin/bash -c \"\$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)\"
No search resultsRun brew update in the terminal to refresh the package index
Flatpak won't launchEnsure the TunaOS remote is added: flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists tuna-os oci+https://tuna-os.github.io/Tavern
Packages not installingCheck brew doctor in terminal for Homebrew issues

See Also​