ARM64 timescaledb-tune on macOS

Despite Apple having transitioned their desktop and laptop devices from x86-64 to ARM64 with the M1 processor and macOS 11 Big Sur in late 2020, TimescaleDB still don’t provide ARM64 builds of their “timescaledb-tune” utility on macOS in November 2025 through either their official installation method using a Homebrew tap or in the binaries released in the GitHub repository.

Trying to use the “timescaledb-tune” utility (a key part of the installation process for TimescaleDB) on any Mac made in the last 5 years will result in an error unless you have the Rosetta 2 dynamic binary translation feature installed:

unable to execute /opt/homebrew/bin/timescaledb-tune: Bad CPU type in executable

This is particularly weird as the TimescaleDB library itself is ARM64.

Given that Tiger Data have had 5 years to ship a native ARM64 binary for their “timescaledb-tune” utility, it is rather disappointing to see that they are still relying on people installing the optional Rosetta 2 dynamic binary translation feature on their devices. This requirement also doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere that I can find.

Apple are going to be removing most of Rosetta 2 from macOS 28 in 2027, so hopefully Tiger Data will get around to shipping an ARM64 binary before then.

In the meantime, we can manually build an ARM64 binary for the “timescaledb-tune” utility from source as follows:

1. Download the Go installer from https://go.dev/dl/ using the “Apple macOS (ARM64)” option and run through the installer steps.
2. Open up your preferred terminal app and run “go install github.com/timescale/timescaledb-tune/cmd/timescaledb-tune@main”.
3. You will find the ARM64 binary for the “timescaledb-tune” utility in ~/go/bin/timescaledb-tune

I really don’t understand why Tiger Data aren’t shipping an ARM64 binary for their “timescaledb-tune” utility, given how ridiculously simple it is to build one!