zsh: command not found: brew

zsh: command not found: brew usually means Homebrew is installed but its shell environment has not been loaded, or it is not installed yet.

command -v brew
ls -l /opt/homebrew/bin/brew /usr/local/bin/brew 2>/dev/null

The usual prefix is /opt/homebrew on Apple silicon and /usr/local on Intel Macs. Use the shell setup command printed by the current Homebrew installer; for an existing installation it commonly looks like this on Apple silicon:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Put the equivalent command in ~/.zprofile if it fixes the problem, then open a new terminal and run brew --version. Avoid adding both prefixes blindly: that can make zsh select a different installation from the one you intended. If brew is absent from both locations, install it only from brew.sh and read the installer output before accepting its shell changes.

Sources

• Homebrew installation

• Homebrew shellenv documentation