How to Install Command Line Tools in macOS Sequoia & Sonoma

Command Line Tools are an optional component of Xcode that bring a variety of advanced utilities to the Mac command line, including compilers, debuggers, and other essentials for software development and command line tinkering. But not everyone has to be a developer to require Command Line Tools be installed on their Mac, because the suite is necessary as a prerequisite for installing things like the popular Homebrew package manager, and cask.

Whether you recently installed MacOS Sequoia or are running Sonoma, installing Command Line tools is pretty straight forward.

Installing Command Line Tools in MacOS is relatively simple, but if you’re unfamiliar with the process then you might not know where to begin, or it may seem intimidating because it involves using the Terminal. Not to worry, we’ll walk through the steps in simple fashion.

Here’s how you can install Command Line Tools easily:

1. Open the Terminal application from /Applications/Utilities/ or through Spotlight by hitting Command+Spacebar and typing “Terminal” and the Return key
2. At the command prompt in Terminal, enter the following command string and then hit return to execute:

xcode-select --install

3. Click on “Install” when asked to confirm that you wish to install Command Line Tools on the Mac



4. Command Line Tools will begin downloading from Apple, you’ll see a progress bar like so



5. When finished, you will get a notification alerting you that Command Line Tools has been installed successfully on the Mac



6. With Command Line Tools installed, you can use the compilers right away, or proceed with whatever your next task is, like installing Homebrew

While the Command Line Tools are aimed at advanced users and developers, even more casual yet still savvy Mac users who want to use cask or access access some of the handy Homebrew packages will find it useful to install on their Mac. And because you can install Command Line Tools separately without having to install all of Xcode, it’s relatively easy to get the many benefits of having compilers at the command line, without needing to install the Xcode IDE which you might not need or want.

Help, Xcode Command Line Tools won’t install on my Mac! Now what?

If the above method using the xcode-select command line utility fails to successfully install Command Line Tools for whatever reason, you’re not completely out of luck.

Assuming you have an Apple ID registered as a developer (which is free to do), you can access Command Line Tools as a download, where you can mount the disk image file and install it manually through the GUI using a familiar package installer.

You can snag it from the downloads page on developer.apple.com here if you need to.

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Do you use Command Line Tools on your Mac, whether as a prerequisite for Homebrew and cask, or to be able to compile software at the command line, or any other purpose? Share your experiences in the comments!