[iOS EAS Build] pod install fails with spawn pod ENOENT although CocoaPods is present

[sunshineLixun]

Summary

EAS iOS cloud builds consistently fail before pod install emits any CocoaPods output. The worker reports CocoaPods 1.16.2 as installed and its logged PATH includes /Users/expo/.gems/arm64/bin, but the build-tools process fails with spawn pod ENOENT.

An eas-build-pre-install hook that executes pod --version succeeds in the same VM. The immediately following EAS INSTALL_PODS phase fails while spawning pod. This suggests a builder process/environment regression rather than a Podfile or dependency-resolution failure.

Affected builds

• 3a876387-1105-4cf8-97c2-7242c7ba88f6 — SDK 56 image, with EXPO_USE_PRECOMPILED_MODULES=0
• fbe5d9b1-ef7d-46ad-8ac0-1bfee410424e — macos-tahoe-26.5-xcode-26.6
• 47a9d02f-96e8-4c6a-a206-60cb6c5f5fb5 — default SDK 56 image

All fail in INSTALL_PODS within milliseconds. A build of the same project succeeded on macos-tahoe-26.4-xcode-26.4 on July 16, 2026.

Environment

• Expo: 56.0.17
• React Native: 0.85.3
• EAS build profile: production, managed remote credentials
• Images tested: macos-tahoe-26.4-xcode-26.4 and macos-tahoe-26.5-xcode-26.6
• Reported worker software: CocoaPods 1.16.2, Ruby 3.2

Relevant logs

Using VM template "macos-tahoe-26.5-xcode-26.6" running macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
- CocoaPods 1.16.2
PATH=/Users/expo/workingdir/bin:...:/Users/expo/.gems/arm64/bin:...:/opt/homebrew/bin:...

Start phase: INSTALL_PODS
EXPO_USE_PRECOMPILED_MODULES=0 is set; not enabling precompiled modules use.
Error: spawn pod ENOENT
End phase: INSTALL_PODS

The original SDK 56 precompiled-modules path fails identically:

Detected expo=56.0.17; enabling precompiled modules use.
Installing pods with additional environment variables.
...
Error: spawn pod ENOENT

Expected behavior

The EAS worker should be able to spawn the CocoaPods executable that it reports as installed, so dependency resolution can proceed.