# Install zipkin with Homebrew, Nix Collect and visualize traces written in Zipkin format. Version 3.6.1 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:zipkin ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install zipkin ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata ### Linux - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#zipkin ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/zi/zipkin/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:zipkin - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 3.6.1 - **Source summary:** Collect and visualize traces written in Zipkin format - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** Apache-2.0 - **Source archive:** - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00 ## Executables - zipkin (cli) - zipkin (alias) ## Dependencies - openjdk ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Service: declared - Bottle: available on all ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 3.6.1 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://zipkin.io - info: No package-manager update timestamp was available. - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## Project history and usage Zipkin is a distributed tracing system born inside Twitter and later stewarded by the OpenZipkin volunteer organization. For package users it is the classic lightweight trace collector and UI: run a server, point instrumented services at it, and inspect latency paths through a service graph. ### Project history Twitter announced Zipkin as open source on 7 June 2012, describing it as a system created to gather timing data for requests moving through the services behind the Twitter API. The announcement says Zipkin began during Twitter's first Hack Week as a basic implementation of the Google Dapper paper for Thrift, then grew to support tracing HTTP, Thrift, Memcache, SQL, and Redis requests. OpenZipkin later became the project home. The official community page says Zipkin was originally created by Twitter and is now run by the OpenZipkin volunteer organization, which stewards code, docs, specs, and support. The server evolved into a standalone Java service with collectors, storage options, a query/UI layer, and instrumentation integrations. The current README and site describe support for HTTP or Kafka reporting, alternatives such as ActiveMQ, gRPC, RabbitMQ, and Pulsar, and storage backends including in-memory, Cassandra, and Elasticsearch. ### Adoption history Zipkin's initial adoption came from Twitter's own production need to understand latency in a service-oriented architecture. The 2012 announcement says it helped find optimizations such as removing memcache requests, rewriting slow MySQL SELECTs, and fixing service timeouts. After open sourcing, Zipkin became one of the default names in distributed tracing alongside systems such as Dapper-inspired internal tools and later Jaeger. Its adoption was helped by a simple local demo path, a web UI, many instrumentation libraries, and a data model that other systems could emit. The OpenZipkin community page describes a volunteer-run project with GitHub repositories, a website, mailing list, chat, support channels, and community events. That community model is part of why Zipkin remained packageable after its Twitter-origin architecture changed hands. ### How it is used A typical user runs the Zipkin server, instruments applications with a tracer or instrumentation library, sends spans to Zipkin, and queries traces by service, operation, tags, duration, or trace ID. The UI shows trace waterfalls and a dependency diagram for aggregate service relationships. For local or package-manager use, the README documents running the server as a jar, Docker container, or installed command, then opening the UI on the Zipkin endpoint. In production, users choose collectors and storage backends according to the traffic and retention requirements of their service architecture. ### Why package nerds care Zipkin is important in package catalogs because it makes distributed tracing something a developer can install and run locally, not only a hosted observability product. That has made it useful for demos, integration tests, platform teams, and service owners validating instrumentation. It also occupies a historical bridge between the Dapper paper era and the broader observability ecosystem. The package is a runnable artifact of how tracing moved from large-company infrastructure into everyday open-source service stacks. ### Timeline - 2012: Twitter open sources Zipkin after its Hack Week origin and production use. - 2013: Twitter publishes a browser-extension workflow showing continued work to make traces easier to consume. - 2010s: OpenZipkin becomes the volunteer organization stewarding Zipkin code, docs, specs, and support. - 2020s: Zipkin continues as a standalone server with multiple transports, storage backends, UI, and instrumentation integrations. ### Related projects - Google Dapper, the tracing paper that inspired Zipkin's original design. - Twitter Finagle, Scrooge, Scribe, Cassandra, ZooKeeper, Bootstrap, and D3, named by Twitter as early Zipkin dependencies or surrounding infrastructure. - Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, Brave instrumentation, service meshes, and other distributed tracing systems that interoperate with or sit near Zipkin in observability stacks. ### Sources - - - - - ## Security Notes formula declares a Homebrew service. - **Geiger risk:** orange / medium - formula declares a Homebrew service ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** zipkin - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Nix - zipkin: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/zi/zipkin/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Related links - [Secret-risk packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/secret-risk-packages/) - Has protected-tool coverage, approval-gate, or non-low Geiger security signals. - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Developer build packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/developer-build-tools/) - Matched build, compiler, generator, or developer workflow metadata. - [openjdk](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/openjdk/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [lttng-ust](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/lttng-ust/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability, tracing. - [otel-cli](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/otel-cli/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability, tracing. - [alp](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/alp/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [grafana](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/grafana/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [grafana-alloy](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/grafana-alloy/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [grafanactl](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/grafanactl/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [humanlog](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/humanlog/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [newrelic-cli](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/newrelic-cli/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, observability. - [byteman](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/byteman/) - Both packages touch the same language runtime or ecosystem. Shared terms: cli, developer, developer-tools, java, openjdk. - [gcviewer](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gcviewer/) - Both packages touch the same language runtime or ecosystem. Shared terms: cli, developer, developer-tools, java, openjdk. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/zipkin.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/zipkin.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