Install angular-cli with Homebrew, apt

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• ng

Project history

The official GitHub repository was created in 2015, during the Angular 2 development period. The CLI emerged as Angular's answer to a common framework problem: developers needed a consistent way to create, build, test, and maintain applications without hand-assembling webpack, TypeScript, test runners, and project layout conventions.

Angular's current documentation describes the CLI as the tool used to initialize, develop, scaffold, and maintain Angular applications from a command shell. The repository README describes the monorepo packages around the CLI, Angular build tooling, DevKit, schematics, architect, and related build packages.

Over time the CLI became more than a project generator. It absorbed workspace configuration, builders, schematics, migrations, update workflows, and package-specific release channels, making it one of the main distribution points for Angular's build-system decisions.

Adoption history

Angular CLI adoption followed Angular adoption: teams standardized on `ng new`, `ng serve`, `ng build`, `ng test`, and `ng update` because those commands matched official documentation and release tooling. The project is distributed primarily as the npm package `@angular/cli`, while Homebrew packages it for users who install developer tools through system package managers.

The repo's package table shows Angular CLI sitting beside build, DevKit, schematics, SSR, and architect packages. That packaging structure matters because many ecosystem tools integrate with Angular not by shelling out alone, but by using the same builders and schematics machinery that the CLI exposes.

How it is used

The standard workflow is to install `@angular/cli`, create a workspace with `ng new`, run a local app with `ng serve`, generate code with `ng generate`, build with `ng build`, and update with `ng update`. Workspace-wide defaults and project targets live in `angular.json` at the workspace root.

Package users care about major-version alignment: Angular CLI releases track Angular framework majors, and projects usually keep the CLI, Angular packages, TypeScript support, and build tooling within supported version ranges.

Why package nerds care

Angular CLI is a large framework CLI that package managers mostly wrap rather than reinvent. Its real upstream distribution is npm, but Homebrew users still expect `ng` to appear like any other command-line developer tool.

It is also an example of a CLI that is both executable and policy: installing it brings official assumptions about workspace layout, builders, code generation, migrations, and release cadence.

Timeline

• 2015: The angular-cli GitHub repository is created.
• 2016: Angular 2 reaches general availability, with CLI tooling becoming central to the framework workflow.
• 2017: Angular 4 era documentation and releases continue the CLI as the standard project tooling surface.
• 2020s: Angular CLI releases remain aligned with Angular major versions and the Angular DevKit ecosystem.
• 2026: GitHub releases show active Angular CLI 20, 21, and 22 release trains.

Related projects

• Angular framework packages are the main runtime companion to the CLI.
• Angular DevKit, schematics, architect, build-angular, and Angular SSR are sibling packages in the same official CLI repository.
• Node.js and npm are prerequisites for the default installation path documented by the repository README.

Sources

• https://angular.dev/reference/configs/workspace-config
• https://angular.dev/tools/cli
• https://api.github.com/repos/angular/angular-cli
• https://api.github.com/repos/angular/angular-cli/releases
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angular/angular-cli/main/README.md
• source_facts.package-manager