diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-macos-bootstrap.yml b/.github/workflows/test-macos-bootstrap.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7535da777
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-macos-bootstrap.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Contributors to the p4lang/behavioral-model project
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+name: Test macOS bootstrap script
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - main
+    paths:
+      - 'tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh'
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+    paths:
+      - 'tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh'
+
+# Cancel any preceding run on the pull request.
+concurrency:
+  group: test-macos-bootstrap-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: ${{ github.ref != 'refs/heads/main' }}
+
+jobs:
+  check-changes:
+    name: Check whether tests need to be run based on diff
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+    - uses: antrea-io/has-changes@v2
+      id: check_diff
+      with:
+        paths-ignore: docs/* *.md
+    outputs:
+      has_changes: ${{ steps.check_diff.outputs.has_changes }}
+
+  test-macos-bootstrap:
+    needs: check-changes
+    if: ${{ needs.check-changes.outputs.has_changes == 'yes' }}
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    name: test-macos-bootstrap (${{ matrix.os }})
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        os:
+          - macos-15    # arm64 (Apple Silicon, latest)
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+      with:
+        submodules: 'recursive'
+
+    - name: Run macOS bootstrap script
+      run: |
+        bash tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh
+
+    - name: Verify key dependencies were installed
+      run: |
+        brew list automake
+        brew list autoconf
+        brew list cmake
+        brew list boost
+        brew list gmp
+        brew list openssl
+        brew list pkg-config
+        python3 --version
+        pip3 --version
+
+    - name: Build BMv2
+      run: |
+        export PATH="$(brew --prefix bison)/bin:$PATH"
+        export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib/pkgconfig:$(brew --prefix jsoncpp)/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
+        export LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib -L$(brew --prefix thrift)/lib -L$(brew --prefix nanomsg)/lib -L$(brew --prefix gmp)/lib -L$(brew --prefix xxhash)/lib -L$(brew --prefix jsoncpp)/lib -L$(brew --prefix boost)/lib"
+        export CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include -I$(brew --prefix thrift)/include -I$(brew --prefix nanomsg)/include -I$(brew --prefix gmp)/include -I$(brew --prefix xxhash)/include -I$(brew --prefix jsoncpp)/include -I$(brew --prefix boost)/include"
+        ./autogen.sh
+	 mkdir -p build && cd build
+        ../configure
+        make -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
+
diff --git a/tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh b/tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh
index 0ee232b33..2e13ffb58 100755
--- a/tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh
+++ b/tools/macos/bootstrap_mac.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #! /bin/bash
-
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2016 Barefoot Networks, Inc.
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
@@ -7,58 +6,58 @@
 set -e
 set -x
 
-tools_dir=`dirname $0`
-
-# check for brew,
-if [[ -z `which brew` ]]; then
-    # install homebrew
-    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
-    # python pip installs in /usr/local/tests
-    sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/tests
-    sudo chown ${USER}:admin /usr/local/tests
-fi
-
-# check for pip
-if [[ -z `which pip` ]]; then
-    (>&2 echo 'Please install pip by "curl -O https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | sudo python3 get-pip.py"')
-    exit 1
+# Installation helper: skip already-installed packages.
+brew_install() {
+    if brew list "$1" &>/dev/null; then
+        echo "$1 is already installed, skipping"
+    else
+        brew install "$1"
+    fi
+}
+
+# Check if Homebrew is already installed.
+if ! command -v brew &>/dev/null; then
+    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
 fi
 
-# check for clang version
-cxx_full_version=`clang++ --version | grep version`
-cxx_version=`echo $cxx_full_version | cut -f 4 -d " "`
-if [[ $cxx_version < "8.0.0" ]]; then
-    echo "Please install Xcode 8 or command line tools v8 or higher."
-    echo "It is a requirement for thread_local support"
-    echo ""
-    echo "You have: $cxx_full_version"
-    exit 1
+# Add Homebrew to PATH for both arm64 (Apple Silicon) and x86_64.
+if [[ $(uname -m) == 'arm64' ]]; then
+    eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
+else
+    eval "$(/usr/local/bin/brew shellenv)"
 fi
 
+# Fetch the latest formulae.
 brew update
 
-# install basic tools
-brew install automake autoconf bison boost clang-format cmake coreutils \
-     doxygen gcc@5 gmp libevent openssl pkg-config wget
-# bison needs a bit more nudging
-brew link --overwrite --force bison
-
-# we need realpath from coreutils
-brews_dir=`realpath $tools_dir`/brews
-
-# thrift
-brew install --HEAD ${brews_dir}/thrift.rb --with-python --with-libevent
-
-brew install python
-/usr/local/bin/pip install pcapy
-
-# nanomsg
-brew install nanomsg
-
-# # scapy
-pip install scapy
-
-# pynng
-/usr/local/bin/pip install pynng==0.9.0
-
-/usr/local/bin/pip install PyYAML
+# Required packages for bmv2.
+REQUIRED_PACKAGES=(
+    autoconf
+    automake
+    cmake
+    libtool
+    boost
+    bison
+    pkg-config
+    libevent
+    openssl
+    coreutils
+    gmp
+    nanomsg
+    thrift
+    xxhash
+    jsoncpp
+    python3
+)
+
+for package in "${REQUIRED_PACKAGES[@]}"; do
+    brew_install "${package}"
+done
+
+# bison installed via Homebrew must appear before system bison on PATH.
+export PATH="$(brew --prefix bison)/bin:$PATH"
+
+# Install Python dependencies.
+# --break-system-packages is required on modern macOS (PEP 668) to allow
+# pip to install into the system Python environment.
+pip3 install --user --break-system-packages scapy pynng==0.9.0 PyYAML