install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install metashell

local Homebrew formula metadata

overview

Package summary

Metaprogramming shell for C++ templates

Project links

Commands and aliases

metashell
templight_metashell

history

Project history and usage

Metashell is a C++ template metaprogramming REPL: its project README describes the goal as providing an interactive shell for template metaprogramming, and the project documentation frames it as the C++ template analogue of Python, Haskell, or Erlang interactive shells. Its core niche is making compile-time C++ template evaluation inspectable without forcing developers to encode every experiment as compiler diagnostics.

Project history

The tool is tied to the mid-2010s wave of C++ metaprogramming tooling around Clang and Templight. Public Templight material names Abel Sinkovics and Andras Kucsma in connection with Metashell, and a Meeting C++ 2014 talk presented an interactive metaprogramming shell based on Clang. Metashell's own documentation says it uses Clang to evaluate metaprograms, while later discussion of Metashell 2.0.0 highlighted a GDB-like template metaprogram debugger.

How it is used

In practice, Metashell is used by C++ library authors and template-heavy codebases to experiment with types, evaluate metaprograms, and debug template instantiation flows. Boost.Metaparse documentation explicitly assumes Metashell can be used while building compile-time parsers, which places it in the same ecosystem as Boost.MPL, Metaparse, Clang, and Templight rather than in general-purpose C++ build tooling. The Homebrew package exposes both metashell and templight_metashell, matching that role as a specialist command-line tool for template metaprogramming work.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: yellow

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

Risk classifier

yellow risk · medium confidence · runtime

Why

generalized runtime or code generation signal

Signals

text:shell

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
`metashell`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`templight_metashell`	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 version5.0.0

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:metashell
Version	5.0.0
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	http://metashell.org
Repository	https://github.com/metashell/metashell
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

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.

combined/metashell.yml

Used sources

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

Install metashell with Homebrew