This is a really obscure error thrown by xcodebuild if the incorrect space (as in you pressing the spacebar) in between the -destination flag and the actual destination is used.
Example:
This will not build:
set -o pipefail && xcodebuild -project Carthage-Realm.xcodeproj -scheme Carthage-Realm -destination'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 7,OS=10.2' clean build test | tee $CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS/xcode_raw.log | xcpretty --color --report junit --output $CIRCLE_TEST_REPORTS/xcode/results.xml
but adding a space in between the -destination and 'platform=...will solve the issue.
Example:
set -o pipefail && xcodebuild -project Carthage-Realm.xcodeproj -scheme Carthage-Realm -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 7,OS=10.2' clean build test | tee $CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS/xcode_raw.log | xcpretty --color --report junit --output $CIRCLE_TEST_REPORTS/xcode/results.xml