Package Mate is an open source, native Apple Silicon manager built in Go to fix the friction of macOS dev setup. This tool offers a seamless fire-and-forget workflow by allowing you to queue Homebrew installations in the background through automated daemonization while providing a high-performance, zero dependency interactive dashboard for managing your tool stack. It leverages deep version intelligence to resolve conflicts with unmanaged binaries and mirrors setups via base64 strings.
Hey Product Hunt! 👋
I’m Yousef, and I built Package Mate because I honestly got tired of the "waiting game" every time I had to set up a new Mac or update a massive list of dev tools.
I wanted a manager that felt native to macOS, was fast (pure Go), and most importantly, didn't lock my terminal while it worked. I basically built this so I could "fire and forget" those heavy Homebrew installs in the background and just keep coding.
It’s completely open-source, zero-dependency, and natively optimized for M-series Macs. I spent a lot of time on the custom TUI and the background daemonization logic, so I’d really love to hear what you guys think of the workflow!
I'll be hanging out here all day to answer any questions. Let me know what you think!
every time i spin up a fresh mac for a new project, the homebrew install queue takes a disproportionate chunk of the first day. the installs themselves are what they are, but the part that kills flow is the terminal being locked. you can't do anything useful in that session while something big is installing, so you tab-switch to something unrelated and lose the setup momentum entirely.
the background daemonization is exactly the right fix for that. being able to queue a stack of installs and keep coding in another session while they run is a small change with a real multiplier on setup days. the base64 export and consume for replicating a setup on a new machine is the other genuinely useful part. i've lost that kind of config state when switching machines more than once.
ANNOUNCEMT:
Command are:
Mate Mate bg (for viewing them) Mate cleanup bg (removes installed apps from background installtion or update history) mate cleanup (for removing unused homebrew caches and unneeded files) mate cache (the ability to remove the tools catalog cache or update it (even tho it refreshes every 12 hours so no manual update needed, its tied to a json catalog on our cloud flare pages)) mate export (exports everything u installed via homebrew into a string for later consumption on a new mac or recovery) mate consume (it consumes the string and is able to install your old setup into a new mac in the background without any issues)
Hey Yousef, that feeling of watching your terminal locked up while Homebrew installs is such a quiet productivity killer. Was there a specific setup day where you just sat there staring at progress bars and thought why can’t I just let this run in the background and keep working?
Yousef Albustami