macOS: How to Fix the "Your CLT does not support macOS 11" error in macOS

Join the AI Workshop to learn more about AI and how it can be applied to web development. Next cohort February 1st, 2026

The AI-first Web Development BOOTCAMP cohort starts February 24th, 2026. 10 weeks of intensive training and hands-on projects.


I recently got this error while using Homebrew to install a package on macOS, in my case rbenv:

➜ brew install rbenv

...

Error: Your CLT does not support macOS 11.
It is either outdated or was modified.
Please update your CLT or delete it if no updates are available.
Update them from Software Update in System Preferences or run:
  softwareupdate --all --install --force

If that doesn't show you an update run:
  sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
  sudo xcode-select --install

Alternatively, manually download them from:
  ~https://developer.apple.com/download/more/~.

Error: An exception occurred within a child process:
  SystemExit: exit

Weird!

Running softwareupdate --all --install --force as suggested in the message didn’t help, so I ran sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/ and then sudo xcode-select --install:

That’s it.

After doing this, brew install rbenv worked fine.

Lessons in this unit:

0: Introduction
1: How to use the macOS terminal
2: Productivity gains of using a Mac and an iOS device
3: A way to set up automations in macOS easily
4: How to hide a file or folder in macOS Finder
5: How to install a local SSL certificate in macOS
6: Reverting a file to a previous version, on a Mac
7: Take screenshots as JPG on macOS
8: Convert an image or resize it using macOS Shortcuts
9: Concatenating videos on macOS
10: Fix files creation date in macOS
11: Freeing space on a Mac
12: How to add an “Open in Terminal” icon in macOS Finder
13: How to add an “Open in VS Code” icon in macOS Finder
14: How to find the bundle ID of a Mac app
15: ▶︎ How to Fix the "Your CLT does not support macOS 11" error in macOS
16: How to play a sound from the macOS command line
17: How to remove the shadow from window screenshots in macOS
18: Removing all Homebrew stuff
19: Run a Node.js script from your macOS menu bar