What do green checkmarks mean?

[AnsisMalins]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.0.3
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: fbfdbaba008189499958a7aeb1e2c36ab10c067d
Last commit: 3 weeks ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 08 Dec 12:27 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 08 Dec 12:27 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 32
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 16
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.7 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.7/bin/ruby
CPU: 16-core 64-bit arm_brava
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.50.1 => /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 26.1-arm64
CLT: 26.1.0.0.1.1761104275
Xcode: 26.1.1
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry or file an issue; just ignore this. Thanks!

Warning: /usr/bin occurs before /opt/homebrew/bin in your PATH.
This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those
provided by Homebrew. Consider setting your PATH so that
/opt/homebrew/bin occurs before /usr/bin. Here is a one-liner:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

The following tools exist at both paths:
  openssl

Warning: Homebrew's "sbin" was not found in your PATH but you have installed
formulae that put executables in /opt/homebrew/sbin.
Consider setting your PATH for example like so:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Description of issue

I thought green checkmarks indicated installed packages, but here when I do brew search node, I see a green checkmark next to node@24, but when I do brew list it's not there, and when I do npm --version shell claims there is no npm. So what do green checkmarks mean?

To show that I've done my homework: the one similar discussion thread is #3328. I also searched the brew.sh site for the word "green" and only found it in package names.

[SMillerDev]

Why would you run npm --version to get the version of node? I suggest running node --version, or brew info node@24 to check if it's installed

[bevanjkay]

node@24 is in the list.

It isn't available at npm because it is a versioned formula, which results in it being "keg-only". This means it is used as a dependency by other relevant formula, but it is not linked in your path.

If you require node in your path you can install the node formula and it will be available.
If you specifically require node@24 available in your path, then you can force it to be linked with brew link node@24. But generally it would be advisable to manage multiple versions of node for your path with a node-specific version manager like nvm.

[AnsisMalins]

Now that you point it out, I can see it too.