# Install foreman with Homebrew, Nix

Manage Procfile-based applications. Version 0.90.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-06. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#foreman.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:foreman
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install foreman
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#foreman
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fo/foreman/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:foreman
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.90.0
- **Source summary:** Manage Procfile-based applications
- **Homepage:** <https://ddollar.github.io/foreman/>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/ddollar/foreman>
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-06T20:56:44-04:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- foreman (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.90.0
## Project history and usage

Foreman is a Ruby command-line process manager for Procfile-based applications. It is best known for making the Heroku-style Procfile a local-development and deployment artifact outside Heroku itself.

### Project history

David Dollar introduced Foreman in May 2011 as a way to start multi-process web applications from a Procfile, covering web, worker, and clock processes with shared environment handling and automatic port assignment.

The project grew beyond local development by adding export targets for process supervisors. Its manual documents running an app directly, running one-off commands, and exporting process definitions to formats such as init, upstart, systemd, runit, and supervisord.

### Adoption history

Foreman's README points users to installation as a Ruby gem and warns Ruby users not to bundle Foreman inside an application's Gemfile, reflecting its role as a developer tool around an application rather than a library dependency.

The README's ports list shows the Procfile-runner idea spreading into other languages and ecosystems, including forego, node-foreman, goreman, honcho, shoreman, and other reimplementations.

### How it is used

Foreman reads a Procfile, loads environment from .env by default or from files passed with --env, starts each declared process, prefixes output, and can scale process counts with formation options.

Package users typically install the foreman executable and keep Procfile and .env files in the application root, making it a bridge between twelve-factor app conventions, local shells, and service managers.

### Why package nerds care

Foreman is historically important because it helped normalize Procfile as a portable, package-manager-distributed convention rather than only a Heroku deployment file.

It is also a small example of a package whose interface became a pattern: many later packages are not forks of Foreman, but compatibility ports of the same Procfile workflow.

### Timeline

- 2011: David Dollar publishes the Introducing Foreman post and documents Procfile-based local process startup.
- 2011: The changelog records 0.26.x and 0.27.0 releases with .env loading and Travis CI configuration.
- 2012: Early releases add and refine concurrency, root directory handling, and one-off command execution.
- 2016: The changelog records systemd exporter work and related service-management fixes.
- 2024: Foreman 0.88.0 refreshes CI and updates documentation for systemd export.
- 2025: Foreman 0.90.0 is released with Ruby dependency updates.

### Related projects

- Forego, goreman, node-foreman, honcho, shoreman, proclet, and other ports listed by the upstream README reuse Foreman's Procfile-runner model in other languages or shell environments.
- Foreman is related to platform Procfile conventions used by Heroku-style applications and to Unix service managers such as systemd, upstart, runit, and supervisord through its export functionality.

### Sources

- <https://blog.daviddollar.org/2011/05/06/introducing-foreman.html>
- <https://ddollar.github.io/foreman/>
- <https://github.com/ddollar/foreman>
- <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddollar/foreman/main/Changelog.md>
- <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddollar/foreman/master/README.md>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## 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: ./Procfile, ./.env
## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - foreman: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fo/foreman/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Related links

- [foreman](https://pkg.so/pkg/npm/foreman/) - Same normalized package name exists in another local package ecosystem.

## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/foreman.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/foreman.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