# Install witness with Homebrew, Nix Automates, normalizes, and verifies software artifact provenance. Version 0.11.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-04-14. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:witness ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install witness ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata ### Linux - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#witness ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wi/witness/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:witness - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 0.11.0 - **Source summary:** Automates, normalizes, and verifies software artifact provenance - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** Apache-2.0 - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-04-14T22:15:45Z - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00 ## Executables - witness (cli) - witness (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: 0.11.0 - Package-manager updated: 2026-04-14 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/in-toto/witness - Upstream latest detected: v0.11.0 (current) ## Project history and usage Witness is an in-toto supply-chain security CLI for producing and verifying attestations about software artifacts and build steps. The project describes itself as a pluggable framework that automates, normalizes, and verifies software artifact provenance, combining attestation generation with a policy engine. ### Project history Witness originated at TestifySec and was later donated to the CNCF in-toto ecosystem. TestifySec's open-source statement dates the formal donation of Witness and Archivista to January 2024, after ratification by the in-toto steering committee, giving the project community governance under the same ecosystem as the in-toto specification. ### Adoption history Witness sits inside the broader in-toto adoption story. CNCF records in-toto as accepted on August 14, 2019, moved to Incubating on March 10, 2022, and Graduated on February 10, 2025. That matters for Witness because it implements the in-toto specification in a CLI intended for real pipelines, and its README points users to CNCF Slack channels and open community meetings rather than a vendor-only support path. The project is also tied to adjacent supply-chain standards and systems. The Witness README lists support for in-toto enhancement work, OPA Rego policy, Sigstore and SPIFFE/SPIRE signing paths, timestamp authorities, and Archivista storage, reflecting the post-SolarWinds era movement toward verifiable build provenance, signed attestations, and policy-driven release gates. ### How it is used A typical Witness workflow runs a command under `witness run` during a build or release step, collects attestations from configured attestors, signs them, and later verifies the resulting collection against a signed policy. The goal is to answer who performed a supply-chain step, what materials and products were involved, and whether the step satisfied policy before an artifact is trusted or deployed. ### Why package nerds care For package and release engineers, Witness is significant because it turns provenance from a document attached at the end of a release into machine-verifiable metadata emitted by each lifecycle step. It is part of the same tooling vocabulary as SLSA provenance, Sigstore signing, OPA/Rego policy, and SBOM/attestation storage, making it a package-nerd tool for proving how an artifact came to exist. ### Timeline - 2021-12-03: the current GitHub repository was created. - 2024-01: TestifySec donated Witness and Archivista as in-toto subprojects. - 2025-02-10: in-toto reached CNCF Graduated maturity, strengthening the ecosystem context around Witness. ### Sources - - - - - ## Security Notes narrow executable package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - narrow executable package without higher-risk signals ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** witness - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Head Version:** HEAD - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** head, stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Nix - witness: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wi/witness/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. - [Security and crypto packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/security-crypto-tools/) - Matched security, identity, cryptography, password, signing, or certificate metadata. - [Homebrew utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew-utility-packages/) - Matched Homebrew package provider. - [go](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/go/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [slsa-verifier](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/slsa-verifier/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, provenance, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [chain-bench](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/chain-bench/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [opensca-cli](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/opensca-cli/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [parlay](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/parlay/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [ratify](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ratify/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [vet](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/vet/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [zizmor](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/zizmor/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain, supply-chain-security. - [frizbee](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/frizbee/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, security, supply-chain. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/witness.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/witness.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - 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