# Install hcledit with Homebrew, Nix

Command-line editor for HCL. Version 0.2.18 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-27. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#hcledit.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:hcledit
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install hcledit
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#hcledit
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:hcledit
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.2.18
- **Source summary:** Command-line editor for HCL
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/minamijoyo/hcledit>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/minamijoyo/hcledit>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-27T14:32:23+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- hcledit (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.2.18
## Project history and usage

hcledit is a command-line editor for HCL2 files. It is aimed at automation-friendly edits of attributes, blocks, bodies, and formatting while preserving the token stream well enough to avoid discarding comments.

### Project history

The repository was created on January 1, 2020, after HCL2 had become the dominant syntax for Terraform-era infrastructure configuration. The README describes the tool as originally born for refactoring Terraform configurations, but deliberately schemaless so it is not bound to Terraform itself.

### Adoption history

The tool found a narrow audience among infrastructure engineers who needed repeatable HCL rewrites in shell scripts and CI tasks. Its distribution history is similarly compact: GitHub releases, a Homebrew tap/formula path, source builds with Go, and Nix packaging recorded in the batch input.

### How it is used

hcledit reads from stdin or a file, writes to stdout or updates in place, and exposes subcommands for attribute get/set/move/remove, block listing and mutation, whole-body extraction, and formatting. Its value is token-based mutation rather than evaluation of a provider or Terraform module.

### Why package nerds care

For package-manager users, hcledit is the HCL counterpart to focused text-structure tools such as jq or yq, but constrained to HCL syntax and Terraform-style refactoring chores. It is useful precisely because it avoids a dependency on a specific application's schema.

### Timeline

- 2020: GitHub repository created.
- 2020: alpha and v0.0.1 releases published.
- 2020: v0.1.0 release published after the early alpha series.
- 2021: v0.2.0 release published.

### Related projects

- HashiCorp HCL supplies the syntax and Go libraries behind HCL2-aware tooling.
- Terraform is the origin use case named by the README.
- hcl2json solves a neighboring conversion problem rather than in-place editing.

### Sources

- <https://api.github.com/repos/minamijoyo/hcledit>
- <https://api.github.com/repos/minamijoyo/hcledit/releases>
- <https://github.com/hashicorp/hcl>
- <https://github.com/minamijoyo/hcledit>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

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

## Other Package-Manager Records

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


## Combined YAML source

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


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph