Installing Scratch via Homebrew on macOS | Generated by AI
Here’s exactly what I did:
1. Pre-flight check — is Homebrew available?
which brew && brew --version
Homebrew 5.1.1 was found at /opt/homebrew/bin/brew.
2. Check if Scratch was already installed
brew list --cask | grep -i scratch
ls /Applications/ | grep -i scratch
Neither returned anything — clean slate.
3. Install via Homebrew Cask
brew install --cask scratch
Homebrew downloaded Scratch 3.31.1 and moved Scratch 3.app to /Applications/.
4. Verify
ls /Applications/ | grep -i scratch
Confirmed /Applications/Scratch 3.app exists.
Why Homebrew Cask?
On macOS, brew install --cask is the standard way to install GUI apps — it handles the download, .dmg mounting, and moving to /Applications automatically. No flatpak, no manual download needed. The alternative is downloading the .dmg from scratch.mit.edu/download manually, but Homebrew is cleaner and easier to update later (brew upgrade --cask scratch).