Invalid active developer path: Xcode Command Line Tools broken after an update

After this, git, make, and clang work from any Terminal tab again.

Why this happens

The Command Line Tools are a separate package from Xcode, installed either standalone or alongside it, and xcode-select just points the system at whichever one should be active. A macOS or Xcode update can move or invalidate that target without updating the pointer, so every tool that depends on it — git included, since macOS ships it as a Command Line Tools shim rather than a real standalone binary — fails immediately with a developer-path error until the pointer is fixed.

Fix it

1. Confirm what's currently set as the active developer path:

   ● Reads the system

   What it does: prints the path xcode-select currently points at.

   After: nothing changes, this only reads.

   xcode-select -p

   Copy

   Output — healthy (captured live)

   /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

   Output — broken (representative, not from this machine)

   xcode-select: error: invalid developer path
   (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at:
   /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun

   The first block is the real path on the verification machine, shown so you know what a working answer looks like. The second is the well-documented error text for the broken case — reproducing it live would mean deliberately breaking the tools on the machine this article was verified on, which isn't a trade worth making for a screenshot.

2. If the path is broken or missing, reinstall the tools. This opens the standard Apple installer dialog and only adds files — it doesn't remove or reset any of your projects, shell config, or Xcode itself:

   ▲ Changes settings

   What it does: triggers a fresh install of the Command Line Tools package.

   After: a system dialog opens; once it finishes, xcode-select -p resolves again.

   sudo xcode-select --install

   Copy

   Revert: not needed — this only adds missing files, it doesn't remove anything to undo.

   On a slow or locked-down network, the popup installer can fail to reach Apple's servers. If it does, download the package directly from developer.apple.com/download/all/ (free Apple ID required, search "Command Line Tools") and run the .pkg by hand instead.

3. If step 2 instead prints xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates — the dialog won't appear, but the path is still broken — the folder exists but is corrupt. Remove it first, then reinstall:

   ■ Irreversible

   What it does: deletes the entire Command Line Tools folder.

   After: run sudo xcode-select --install again immediately afterward — the machine has no working CLT until you do.

   This only removes the CLT package itself, not your projects or any file you created — there's nothing personal to back up here. It's marked irreversible only because there's no single "undo" command; the undo is reinstalling in the next step.

   sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

   Copy

   Revert: sudo xcode-select --install immediately after.

4. If the path resolves fine and neither error above showed up, reset the pointer to the default location instead — this covers the case where CLT is genuinely installed but something switched the active target (an Xcode beta you later removed is the most common cause):

   ▲ Changes settings

   What it does: resets the active developer directory to the default Command Line Tools path.

   After: takes effect immediately, no reboot needed.

   sudo xcode-select --reset

   Copy

   Revert: sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer if you specifically need it pointed at a full Xcode install instead.

Still broken?

Before concluding it's still CLT, rule out a different Apple-Silicon-specific trap: Homebrew installs to /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon (versus /usr/local on Intel), but Xcode's own Run Script build phase only includes /usr/local/bin in its PATH by default — so a Homebrew-installed tool "disappearing" mid-build looks exactly like a broken toolchain but is actually a PATH problem specific to this chip generation. Verify what's actually installed, independent of the path pointer:

pkgutil --pkgs | grep CLTools

Expect com.apple.pkg.CLTools_Executables. One caveat worth knowing: after some macOS upgrades this receipt goes missing even though the tools are installed and working fine — treat a blank result here as inconclusive, not proof of a problem, and trust xcode-select -p and a real git command over this check alone.

• Xcode and its simulators are also eating a surprising amount of disk space
• A specific CLI tool installed via Homebrew is being blocked, not the tools themselves

Verified on

The healthy xcode-select -p output above was captured live on the M3 / macOS 26.6 row.

Related problems

• Disk full but no large files to delete
• App blocked because Apple cannot check it for malware