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emet

Dependencies

What emet needs on the machine, and which command checks each item. Terms follow GLOSSARY.md. Back to the README.

Required

  • bun: only for source installs. The standalone binary needs no runtime.

  • rsync and sha256sum or shasum: required by install.sh.

  • git: required at runtime. Nearly every subcommand shells out to it.

  • gh CLI, authenticated: required when the tracker is github or landing is pr. PRs always use it. With tracker.kind: "local" and landing.mode: "merge", gh is not required.

  • The mattpocock-skills plugin (claude-plugins-official marketplace): the interview, spec and ticket phases of /emet call skills that live there.

    Terminal window
    claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official
    claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official

  • The emet-worker and emet-reviewer agents in ~/.claude/agents/: installed by install.sh. Phase 6 and Phase 8 dispatch by subagent_type, so either one missing breaks dispatch. See Models & effort.

  • A Linear MCP server declared in .mcp.json (or at user scope): only if the repo uses the linear tracker. emet verifies the declaration. Whether the connection is authenticated lives in Claude Code’s own credential store and cannot be checked from here. If a run fails to read tickets, restart Claude Code and approve the connection.

None of the above is ever installed or logged in on your behalf. What differs is who checks it and how hard.

What checks what

emet init emet doctor emet preflight
plugin missing/disabled prints the install command reports it (once, fleet-wide) blocks dispatch
emet-worker/emet-reviewer agent missing — reports it (once, fleet-wide) blocks dispatch
gh missing/unauthenticated (tracker: github) prints what to run reports it blocks dispatch
Linear server undeclared (tracker: linear) prints a note reports it blocks dispatch
claude not on PATH, or a probe timing out prints a note reports it warns, never blocks: this is “couldn’t check”, not “verified broken”
a flag emet relies on missing from --help — reports it —

Flag checks

emet doctor checks the flags themselves, not only that the binaries exist. It reads --help for gh issue view and gh repo view (--json), gh issue edit (--add-label, --remove-label), claude (--bg) and claude agents (--json), and reports any flag a newer or older CLI no longer documents. A renamed flag would otherwise fail a wave midway.

Timeouts and skipping a block

Every probe is capped at 5s so a stalled gh auth status (no network) cannot hang a wave. If a preflight block is itself wrong for your environment, EMET_SKIP_DEPENDENCY_CHECKS=1 emet preflight downgrades it to a warning for that one run. Set it in your own shell, not in anything the /emet coordinator runs unattended. See Environment variables.

Repo-owned binaries

A repo’s preflight.requiredCommands (in emet.config.json) is a separate, repo-owned list of binaries that emet preflight and emet doctor require on PATH. It is useful for rg and sg, which the worker prompts offer as faster alternatives to reading a file whole. gh does not need to be listed there; the check above already covers it. See preflight.

For failures and fixes, see troubleshooting.