macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install combylocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew / rank 4562
Install comby with Homebrew, Nix
Tool for changing code across many languages. Version 1.8.1 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#comby.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#combynixpkgs package indexes · comby · source: raw.githubusercontent.com
overview
Package summary
Tool for changing code across many languages
Project links
Commands and aliases
- comby
history
Project history and usage
Comby is a structural search-and-replace tool for source code. It occupies the space between regex-based text replacement and full language-specific refactoring engines.
Project history
Comby's documentation presents the core idea as lightweight matching of syntactic structures such as balanced delimiters, strings, and comments across many languages. The README frames it as a practical alternative when regular expressions become fragile for nested code constructs.
Adoption history
The official README documents Homebrew installation on macOS, binaries for Ubuntu-like Linux systems, Docker images, Windows use through WSL, and source builds through OCaml/opam. The supplied package-manager metadata lists Homebrew and Nix, while the upstream distribution story emphasizes prebuilt binaries and containers.
How it is used
Users write templates with holes such as `:[condition]` to match code structures and replacements that preserve or transform matched parts. Comby is commonly used for large mechanical code changes, interactive review of rewrites, and language-aware searches where plain `sed` or regexes are too coarse.
Why package nerds care
Comby matters to package nerds because it packages a source-to-source transformation engine as a single CLI spanning many languages. Its OCaml implementation, PCRE linkage, binary distribution, Docker image, and Homebrew/Nix formulas make it a useful case study in shipping a specialized developer tool beyond one language ecosystem.
Timeline
- 2019: Public Comby materials and README examples emphasized structural matching compared with regex approaches.
- 2020: The Comby website and documentation moved into a refreshed Docusaurus site.
- 2022: Comby blog posts documented experiments with type information for safer rewrites.
Related projects
- Comby is related to `sed`, regular-expression search tools, language-server and code-intelligence workflows, Sourcegraph-style code search, and language-specific refactoring engines.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
comby | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version1.8.1
manager updated
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:comby |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.8.1 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://comby.dev |
| Repository | https://github.com/comby-tools/comby |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Nix95%
comby
nix profile install nixpkgs#comby- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Comby
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation