For some reason my MacBook is constantly complaining that it needs to install Xcode tools, even if I just installed them seconds before.

[![dialog box where the computer complains that it needs to install the command line tools](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BPmAI.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BPmAI.png)

If I hit "Cancel", the same dialog box can reappear in a matter of seconds. (This is effectively Apple DDOSing my brain, but that's a tangential problem.) If I hit "Install" (even though I know it won't work) it start out telling me that it will take some ridiculously long time like 111 hours,

[![dialog box predicting 111 hours to download and install the command line tools](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iOiSQ.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iOiSQ.png)

and eventually it will finish in perhaps 20 minutes. But it will inevitably return, usually seconds later.

I can look at System Preferences and sometimes it will also say I have updates waiting:

[![System Preferences Software Update window with phantom updates to the Command Line Tools](https://i.stack.imgur.com/z432c.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/z432c.png)

But this never solves the problem either.

[![the damned computer can't make up its mind](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5SGmP.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5SGmP.png)

After hitting "Ok", it might even momentarily act like everything is fine:

[![laptop pretending it doesn't know what the problem is](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uZzec.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uZzec.png)

But the problem always returns.

I'm on 12.6 (21G115).

And yes, I've tried rebooting.