# Install chawan with Homebrew, apk, Nix, pacman, zypper
TUI web browser with CSS, inline image and JavaScript support. Version 0.4.4 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-24. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#chawan.
## Install
```sh
sudo av install brew:chawan
```
Additional install commands:
### macOS
- Homebrew (100%):
```sh
brew install chawan
```
Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata
### Linux
- apk (92%):
```sh
sudo apk add chawan
```
Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: chawan from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
- Nix (92%):
```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#chawan
```
Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/ch/chawan/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- pacman (92%):
```sh
sudo pacman -S chawan
```
Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: chawan from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz
- zypper (92%):
```sh
sudo zypper install chawan
```
Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: chawan from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst
## Package facts
- **Package key:** brew:chawan
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.4.4
- **Source summary:** TUI web browser with CSS, inline image and JavaScript support
- **Homepage:**
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-24T17:46:47Z
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00
## Executables
- cha (alias)
- mancha (alias)
## Install behavior
- Bottle: not available
## Freshness
- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.4.4
## Project history and usage
Chawan is a Unix-like text-mode web browser and pager that aims to implement modern web standards in a self-contained terminal browser, including CSS, optional inline images, and optional JavaScript.
### Project history
Chawan is developed primarily in Nim and hosted on SourceHut, with Codeberg listed as another source mirror. The official news archive begins with the 0.2.0 release in June 2025 and shows active 0.3 and 0.4 releases through June 2026.
### Adoption history
The official site lists volunteer-maintained stable packages for Alpine Linux, Arch Linux, Debian testing, FreeBSD, Gentoo guru, Homebrew, NixOS, Slackware, and Void Linux, plus unstable packages through AUR, AppImage, Gentoo live ebuild, and Homebrew HEAD. That breadth is unusual for a young terminal browser and makes its packaging story part of the project identity.
### How it is used
The `cha` command opens URLs and files, can act as a pager, supports web, SFTP, FTP, gopher, gemini, file, finger, and spartan browsing, and can dump rendered content when stdout is not a TTY. The config documentation defines the canonical `~/.chawan/config.toml` path and XDG/`CHA_DIR` alternatives.
### Why package nerds care
Chawan is significant to package nerds because it revives the terminal-browser category with modern packaging friction: image protocols, QuickJS, sandboxing, Nim, multiple Unix distributions, and headless rendering all need to be expressed cleanly in distro formulas. It is also interesting as a modern counterpart to older text browsers such as w3m while using newer terminal capabilities.
### Timeline
- 2025-06: Official news archive lists Chawan 0.2.0.
- 2025-11: Official news archive lists Chawan 0.3.0.
- 2026-05: Official news archive lists Chawan 0.4.0.
- 2026-06: Official news archive lists Chawan 0.4.3.
### Related projects
- Chame is Chawan's HTML5 parser subproject.
- Chagashi is a related pure-Nim character coding library.
- Monoucha is a related QuickJS binding generator and runtime glue project.
- w3m and vi are cited by the official site as UI inspirations.
### Sources
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## Security Notes
No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for chawan. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.
## Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
## Configuration files
- Unix: $CHA_DIR/config.toml, ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/chawan/config.toml, ~/.chawan/config.toml
## Other Package-Manager Records
- Nix - chawan: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/ch/chawan/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- apk - chawan - 0.4.4-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: chawan from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | TUI web browser | https://git.sr.ht/~bptato/chawan
- apk - chawan-doc - 0.4.4-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: chawan-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | TUI web browser (documentation) | https://git.sr.ht/~bptato/chawan
- pacman - chawan - 0.4.4-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: chawan from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | A text-mode web browser and pager for Unix-like systems | https://chawan.net/
- zypper - chawan - 0.3.3-2.4: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: chawan from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | Terminal-based web browser and pager | https://chawan.net/
## Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/chawan.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/chawan.yml)
## Sources
- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph