install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install molten-vk

local Homebrew formula metadata

overview

Package summary

Implementation of the Vulkan graphics and compute API on top of Metal

Project links

Homepage

Commands and aliases

MoltenVKShaderConverter

history

Project history and usage

MoltenVK began at The Brenwill Workshop Ltd. as a commercial portability layer for running Vulkan graphics code on Apple's Metal framework. Brenwill announced the product in July 2016 for iOS and macOS, with Bill Hollings presenting it around SIGGRAPH as a way for game developers to keep Vulkan-style rendering paths while targeting Apple platforms.

Project history

Its major ecosystem turn came on February 26, 2018, when Khronos announced the Vulkan Portability Initiative with Valve, LunarG, and The Brenwill Workshop. That announcement released MoltenVK as open source under Khronos stewardship, described it as translating the portable Vulkan subset to Metal on macOS and iOS, and tied it to the macOS Vulkan SDK work. Valve's Dota 2 port was used as an early production example of the value of the stack.

Adoption history

In practice MoltenVK is linked into games, emulators, engines, and graphics applications that already speak Vulkan and need Apple-platform deployment without rewriting their renderer around Metal. Its repository describes a layered Vulkan 1.4 implementation over Metal for macOS, iOS, tvOS, visionOS, simulators, Mac Catalyst, and Apple Silicon, with automatic SPIR-V to Metal Shading Language conversion and a standalone MoltenVKShaderConverter tool. Khronos material lists users and adjacent projects including Dota 2, Metro Exodus, Final Fantasy XIV, DXVK, VKD3D, Google Android Emulator, Dolphin, Autodesk Fusion 360, Google Filament, and other engines and games.

How it is used

As a Homebrew package, molten-vk occupies a developer-tool niche rather than a command-heavy CLI niche: it ships the runtime and shader-conversion tooling for local Vulkan-on-Apple builds. It sits beside the Vulkan SDK and portability-layer ecosystem rather than replacing native Vulkan drivers.

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
`MoltenVKShaderConverter`	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 version1.4.2

manager updated2026-07-24

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:molten-vk
Version	1.4.2
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://github.com/KhronosGroup/MoltenVK
Repository	https://github.com/KhronosGroup/MoltenVK
Last updated	2026-07-24T17:00:08Z
Pulse	updated
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/molten-vk.yml

Used sources

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

Install molten-vk with Homebrew