To have launchd start mongodb at login: ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mongodb/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents Then to load mongodb now: launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mongodb.plist Or, if you don't want/need launchctl, you can just run: mongod --config /usr/local/etc/mongod.conf ==> Summary 🍺 /usr/local/Cellar/mongodb/2.6.1: 17 files, 317M