hostess ☆

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Description:
Idempotent command-line utility for managing your /etc/hosts file

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 0.5.2@0 | Tracked Since: Oct 10, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: hosts networking development cli devops

Install: brew install hostess

About:
Hostess is a command-line utility that provides an idempotent way to manage the /etc/hosts file. It allows users to add, remove, and modify hostname-to-IP mappings without manual editing, ensuring consistent state. The tool helps prevent common errors and simplifies the management of local development domains and network overrides.

Key Features:

Idempotent operations for safe, repeatable changes
Simple commands to add, delete, and toggle entries
Prevents duplicate or conflicting host entries
Zero-dependency binary for easy installation

Use Cases:

Managing local development environments for multiple web projects
Blocking malicious domains or ad servers system-wide
Quickly switching between production and local API endpoints

Alternatives:

vim /etc/hosts – Manual editing is error-prone and not idempotent
sed/awk scripts – Less robust and harder to maintain than a dedicated tool

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Oct 10, 2025 2:05pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	4380ebb3
Sep 12, 2025 10:44am		0	VERSION_BUMP	738d8325