Install zig with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• zig

Project history

The public Zig repository dates to August 2015 on GitHub, and the project grew around the idea that a C-like systems language could make compile-time execution, explicit allocation, error handling, cross-compilation, and C interop feel like one coherent toolchain instead of a pile of external build machinery. The Zig home page still presents that philosophy through simple-language constraints such as no hidden control flow, no hidden allocations, and no preprocessor or macros.

A major internal evolution was the self-hosted compiler. Loris Cro described the 0.10-era switch as shipping a new compiler written in Zig, cutting compiler-build memory use from 9.6 GB to 2.8 GB in one example and opening the door to custom backends and the official package manager. Zig 0.11 then removed the old stage1 path from normal use, bootstrapped through a small WebAssembly compiler artifact, and described the compiler as 100% Zig code apart from LLVM libraries.

Zig 0.11 was also the debut of the official package manager. Instead of creating a central package registry, the release notes describe packages as arbitrary directory trees, local directories, or archives fetched from URLs, with metadata in build.zig.zon and integration through the Zig build system. That design kept package management close to zig build and reinforced Zig's identity as a toolchain rather than only a language front end.

In November 2025, the Zig project made its canonical repository Codeberg instead of GitHub. Andrew Kelley's migration post says the GitHub mirror was made read-only and origin/master moved to https://codeberg.org/ziglang/zig.git, a governance and infrastructure milestone for a project funded through the Zig Software Foundation.

Adoption history

Zig's adoption has been strongest where a small, reproducible native toolchain matters: cross-compiling C/C++, shipping static command-line programs, language runtimes, databases, terminal tools, game-adjacent systems code, and embedded or freestanding experiments. The language's package-manager story lagged behind the compiler for years, so early ecosystem practice often involved vendoring, git submodules, or third-party tools before build.zig.zon became the official path.

One important adoption path was zig cc rather than Zig-the-language. Motiejus Jakstys' write-up of Uber's usage describes Uber using Zig to compile C/C++ code in its Go monorepo, attracted by configurable glibc versions and macOS cross-compilation. This made Zig visible to package and build-system people even in places where no application code was written in Zig.

The 0.14 and 0.15 release cycles show the project trying to turn interest into daily usability. Zig 0.14 emphasized long-term investments in incremental compilation and the x86 backend, while 0.15 enabled the self-hosted x86_64 backend by default for most Debug-mode x86_64 targets and reported roughly 5x faster Debug compilation than LLVM in most cases.

How it is used

Typical package-manager usage starts with installing the single zig command, then using zig build, zig test, zig fmt, zig cc, zig c++, zig run, and zig fetch-style package workflows depending on project age. Zig projects conventionally use build.zig as executable build logic and, for modern package-manager integration, build.zig.zon for package metadata and dependencies.

Zig is also frequently installed as a hermetic C/C++ toolchain. A package maintainer can reach for zig cc to cross-compile without separately installing target libc headers, linker bits, and SDK fragments, which is why Zig appears in build farms and language-package recipes even when the upstream project is C or C++.

Because Zig has not reached 1.0, package users often pin compiler versions tightly. Formulae such as zig@0.14 and zig@0.15 exist because build-system APIs, standard-library APIs, and language details can change enough that downstream projects need a known compiler generation rather than whatever the latest zig package currently provides.

Why package nerds care

Zig is one of the clearest modern examples of a language package doubling as a distribution primitive. It collapses compiler, build system, package manager, C/C++ cross toolchain, and linker driver into one installable binary, which changes how downstream packages think about bootstrapping and cross-platform builds.

The official package manager is package-nerd interesting precisely because it avoids a central registry. The package is a source tree plus build.zig.zon metadata and a hashable fetched dependency, so the ecosystem's trust, cache, and reproducibility questions look more like Go modules and source archives than npm-style registry publication.

Zig's versioned packages are also a live reminder that pre-1.0 languages are not just semver labels in package managers. Keeping 0.14 and 0.15 installable gives downstream recipes a way to survive build.zig API churn while still letting the main zig formula move.

Timeline

• 2015-08-06: The public ziglang/zig GitHub repository is created; the project later records this era as the original git init period.
• 2020: The Zig Software Foundation is founded by Andrew Kelley to support development of the language.
• 2022: The self-hosted compiler ships in the 0.10 era, replacing the old C++ bootstrap compiler for most development work.
• 2023-08-04: Zig 0.11.0 is released with the debut of official package management and build.zig.zon.
• 2025-03-05: Zig 0.14.0 is released, emphasizing incremental compilation work, build-system changes, and the self-hosted x86 backend.
• 2025-08-19: Zig 0.15.1 is released with the self-hosted x86_64 backend enabled by default for most Debug-mode x86_64 targets.
• 2025-11-26: Zig moves canonical development from GitHub to Codeberg.
• 2026-04-13: Zig 0.16.0 becomes the latest stable release listed on the Zig download page.

Related projects

• Zigmod was an independent third-party Zig package manager before and alongside the official build.zig.zon package-manager work.
• zigup and anyzig are version-management tools used to install or select Zig compilers across projects.
• LLVM, LLD, and Clang are central to Zig's historical implementation and cross-compilation story, even as Zig works toward making LLVM optional for more paths.
• bazel-zig-cc packages Zig's C/C++ toolchain behavior for Bazel users, notably in the Uber case study.

Sources

• https://jakstys.lt/2022/how-uber-uses-zig/
• https://kristoff.it/blog/zig-self-hosted-now-what/
• https://ziglang.org/
• https://ziglang.org/download/
• https://ziglang.org/download/0.11.0/release-notes.html
• https://ziglang.org/download/0.14.0/release-notes.html
• https://ziglang.org/download/0.15.1/release-notes.html
• https://ziglang.org/news/migrating-from-github-to-codeberg/