Uninstall the Homebrew Mac app without removing the brew command

Homebrew.app is the Mac app for Homebrew, with the bundle id sh.brew.app. Removing it does not remove the brew command or anything you installed with it, so there is nothing to back up for the app alone. If you also plan to remove command-line Homebrew, export your package list first (see the last section). These steps cover the app from the BrewUI releases and the homebrew-app Homebrew cask.

Quit Homebrew.app and remove it

Quit Homebrew.app and move it from Applications to the Trash. That removes the Mac app. It does not run Homebrew's command-line uninstaller, and packages managed by brew keep working.

Which files belong to the app

After quitting, press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open ~/Library/Application Support/sh.brew.app, ~/Library/Caches/sh.brew.app and ~/Library/Preferences/sh.brew.app.plist when present. Move only the Homebrew.app items you chose to discard to the Trash. Leave the brew command’s cache, logs and installation prefix intact unless you also choose the separate command-line removal below.

Check the result

pgrep -ix homebrew
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/sh.brew.app ~/Library/Caches/sh.brew.app
command -v brew

No output from pgrep means the app has quit. No such file or directory from ls means the app's folders are gone; a listed path is still on disk. A path from command -v brew means this shell can still find brew, which is the expected result after removing only the app, not a failed uninstall. No output only means the current PATH cannot find it, not that every package has been removed.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

To remove only the app, run brew uninstall --cask homebrew-app. The homebrew-app cask's zap list covers only the app's own files: Application Support, caches, HTTP storage, and preferences named sh.brew.app. Removing it with brew uninstall --cask --zap homebrew-app, whether you run it yourself or Mole adds --zap, leaves the brew command, its cache and logs, and your packages alone.

If you also want to remove the command-line tool

Removing command-line Homebrew removes every formula and cask record it manages. Save the list first; brew bundle dump writes it as a Brewfile you can install from later (Brew Bundle and Brewfile):

brew bundle dump --file="$HOME/Desktop/Brewfile"
brew --prefix

The second command prints the prefix to remove: /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon, /usr/local on Intel. A Mac migrated from Intel can have both. Homebrew's uninstall instructions use this script:

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

To preview first or pick a prefix, download the script and run it with --dry-run, which lists what it would remove and changes nothing, or with --path=/usr/local for the other prefix:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/uninstall.sh
/bin/bash uninstall.sh --dry-run

When it finishes, the script prints any files it could not delete under "The following possible Homebrew files were not deleted". Review that list yourself. Apps installed with brew install --cask stay in /Applications; the script removes only app links that point into Homebrew's own folders. Remove those apps separately if you no longer want them. The longer article is Uninstall Homebrew on Mac with the Official Script.

What Mole lists

Rows named sh.brew.app (Application Support, caches, preferences) are selected by default. Mole does not put these on the Homebrew.app plan, because they belong to the brew command:

What this test covered

Homebrew.app 0.4.3 was downloaded from the BrewUI GitHub release, copied into Applications, and uninstalled with a Mole 1.15 Preview build. That build selected the command-line ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew (489 MB) and ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew by default because they share the Homebrew name, and moved them to the Trash while brew itself stayed. Removing command-line Homebrew was not tested.