# Install spicedb with Homebrew, Nix

Open Source, Google Zanzibar-inspired database. Version 1.54.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-19.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:spicedb
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install spicedb
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#spicedb
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/sp/spicedb/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:spicedb
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Package manager page:** <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/spicedb>
- **Version:** 1.54.0
- **Source summary:** Open Source, Google Zanzibar-inspired database
- **Homepage:** <https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/getting-started/discovering-spicedb>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/authzed/spicedb>
- **Upstream docs:** <https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/getting-started/discovering-spicedb>
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Source archive:** <https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/archive/refs/tags/v1.54.0.tar.gz>
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-19T00:41:23Z
- **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00

## Executables

- spicedb (cli)
- spicedb (alias)

## Build dependencies

- go

## Install behavior

- Post-install hook: not defined
- Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-07-08
- Package-manager version: 1.54.0
- Package-manager updated: 2026-06-19
- Local data: ok
- Upstream repository: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb
- Upstream latest detected: v1.54.0 (current)
## Project history and usage

SpiceDB is AuthZed's open source, Google Zanzibar-inspired permissions database. It stores relationship data and answers authorization questions for applications that need centralized, fine-grained access control.

### Project history

AuthZed's official history says its founders left Red Hat in August 2020, built an API-complete Zanzibar implementation called Arrakis in Python the next month, rewrote the idea in Go as Caladan in March 2021, and open-sourced it in September 2021 as SpiceDB. GitHub records the authzed/spicedb repository as created in August 2021, and the first v1.0.0 GitHub release was published on September 30, 2021.

### Adoption history

SpiceDB grew with the broader interest in relationship-based access control and Zanzibar-style authorization outside large platform companies. Its README presents it as a centralized service for product suites and microservice architectures, and the official docs emphasize Kubernetes operation, gRPC and HTTP APIs, client libraries, schema validation, and datastore choices such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, CockroachDB, Spanner, and in-memory storage.

### How it is used

Developers define a schema, write relationships, and use client libraries or APIs to check permissions. Operators run the spicedb binary or container with flags, environment variables, Kubernetes operator configuration, or a spicedb.env dotenv file, then connect it to a datastore for production use.

### Why package nerds care

SpiceDB matters to package and CLI users because it packages a once-proprietary class of infrastructure as a downloadable binary, container image, and Homebrew formula. It is one of the modern examples where local CLI experimentation, Docker examples, Kubernetes operators, and security-sensitive production service packaging all describe the same tool.

### Timeline

- 2020: AuthZed founders begin the first Zanzibar-inspired implementation after leaving Red Hat.
- 2021: The project is rewritten in Go and open-sourced as SpiceDB.
- 2021: SpiceDB v1.0.0 is released on GitHub.
- 2026: SpiceDB remains actively released, with v1.54.0 published in June 2026.

### Related projects

- Google Zanzibar is the main design inspiration.
- AuthZed Cloud is the managed product around the SpiceDB ecosystem.
- Open Policy Agent is documented as a comparison/migration reference in the official docs.
- The SpiceDB Kubernetes Operator manages SpiceDB clusters in Kubernetes.

### Sources

- <https://api.github.com/repos/authzed/spicedb>
- <https://api.github.com/repos/authzed/spicedb/releases?per_page=100>
- <https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/getting-started/configuration>
- <https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/getting-started/discovering-spicedb>
- <https://github.com/authzed/spicedb>


## Security Notes

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for spicedb. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.



## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: spicedb.env
## Source Database Details

- **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API
- **Tap:** homebrew/core
- **Full Name:** spicedb
- **Version Scheme:** 0
- **Revision:** 0
- **Head Version:** HEAD
- **Bottle Stable Root URL:** <https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core>
- **Deprecated:** no
- **Disabled:** no
- **Keg Only:** no
- **URL Keys:** head, stable

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - spicedb: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/sp/spicedb/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Related links

- [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata.
- [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata.
- [Database and data packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/database-data-tools/) - Matched database, SQL, migration, or data-store metadata.
- [Security and crypto packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/security-crypto-tools/) - Matched security, identity, cryptography, password, signing, or certificate metadata.
- [go](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/go/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew.
- [openfga](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/openfga/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: access-control, authorization, cli, security, zanzibar.
- [permify](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/permify/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: authorization, cli, security, zanzibar.
- [authz0](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/authz0/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: authorization, cli, security.
- [fwknop](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fwknop/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: access-control, cli, security.
- [knock](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/knock/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: access-control, cli, security.
- [libcap](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libcap/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, permissions, security.
- [libcap-ng](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libcap-ng/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, permissions, security.
- [libselinux](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libselinux/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: access-control, cli, security.

## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/spicedb.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/spicedb.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- package-page enrichment
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- package version freshness
- av.db category and tag curation
- package relationship graph
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
