Install confluent-cli with Homebrew Cask

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• confluent

Project history

The official repository states that the CLI manages Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform from the terminal and that its command reference is generated from the repository. Confluent's documentation positions it as the starting point for working with both managed and self-managed Confluent environments.

The modern CLI is distributed as a first-party tool across macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, APT, YUM, and Homebrew tap channels. Its update-check behavior and user configuration are recorded in ~/.confluent/config.json, which also makes the file important for credentials and operational state.

Adoption history

Adoption follows Confluent's own platform surface: users install the CLI to create and inspect clusters, environments, API keys, Kafka topics, Flink resources, networks, and related services. The release feed shows frequent additions tracking Confluent Cloud and Platform features, including Flink, Tableflow, network endpoints, certificate authorities, and API-key behavior.

How it is used

Common usage starts with login and environment selection, then proceeds through cluster, topic, API-key, connector, Flink, Schema Registry, and local-services commands. The docs also describe direct API-key and secret use for produce and consume flows, with a reminder that generated secrets must be saved because they are not retrievable later.

Why package nerds care

For package maintainers, Confluent CLI is a vendor CLI with fast release cadence, prebuilt platform archives, self-update behavior, Docker images, and first-party package repositories. The Homebrew cask wraps that vendor distribution for macOS users who want the official confluent binary managed alongside other tools.

Timeline

• 2026: v4.60.0 added Materialized Table commands for Confluent Cloud.
• 2026: v4.61.0 added Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect ingress support.
• 2026: v4.67.0 added Global API key support to confluent api-key store and use.
• 2026: v4.68.0 added endpoint listing and on-premises Flink application, secret-mapping, event, and secret commands.

Related projects

• Official sources tie the CLI to Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform, Apache Kafka, Flink, Schema Registry, Control Center, package repositories, Docker, and the confluentinc/cli GitHub repository.

Sources

• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli#readme
• https://docs.confluent.io/confluent-cli/current/overview.html
• https://docs.confluent.io/confluent-cli/current/command-reference/index.html
• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases
• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/tag/v4.60.0
• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/tag/v4.61.0
• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/tag/v4.67.0
• https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/tag/v4.68.0