Prerequisites

A short list of tools to install on the review host before Bubo runs. Nothing is bundled implicitly — a missing tool fails its code path right away.

Runtime — required for any review

Needed for every review path, whatever provider you use. Copy-paste a block:

macOS

# uv — project + dependency manager. Every CLI script invokes `uv run`.
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Python 3.14+ — runtime. Managed by uv so the project version stays pinned.
uv python install 3.14

# Git CLI — the worker runs `git fetch` / `git checkout` against change refs.
brew install git

# Codex CLI or Claude CLI — the configured review agent. Install one and
# authenticate to your LLM provider:
#   Codex:       https://github.com/openai/codex
#   Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code

# Superpowers + `code-reviewer` skill — the review prompt invokes
# /using-superpowers and the $code-reviewer skill. Without Superpowers
# configured in your CLI the agent will not run the review contract.
# Install Superpowers into your Codex/Claude config. The bundled skill
# assets live under plugins/superpowers/ and skills/code-reviewer/.
#   https://github.com/obra/superpowers

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

# uv — same one-liner across platforms.
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Python 3.14+ — uv manages it; distro package is a fallback.
uv python install 3.14

# Git CLI — distro package.
sudo apt install -y git

# Codex CLI / Claude CLI / Superpowers — see the macOS block; install steps
# are platform-agnostic (npm / shell installer / config file).

Per-provider — required for the provider you enable in [scm].provider

Provider	Tools	macOS	Linux
GitLab (provider = "gitlab")	glab (clones each MR) + a GitLab MCP server on PATH as mcp-gitlab / gitlab-mcp (posts inline threads).	brew install glab + npm install -g @zereight/mcp-gitlab	sudo apt install glab (or other distros) + npm install -g @zereight/mcp-gitlab
GitHub (provider = "github")	gh (clones each PR) + a GitHub MCP server on PATH as github-mcp-server / mcp-github / gh-mcp-server (posts inline review comments; falls back to REST if the MCP tool name differs).	brew install gh + install github-mcp-server (release binary or go install)	gh apt setup + install github-mcp-server (release binary or go install)

Authenticate each CLI once so the glab repo clone / gh repo clone paths can reach private repositories:

# GitLab
glab auth login              # paste a PAT or use the web flow
# GitHub
gh auth login                # web flow (recommended) or paste a PAT

These logins are separate from the bot token in config/env.toml: the CLI tokens authorize cloning on the review machine; the bot token authorizes the REST/MCP calls that read MRs/PRs and post comments.

Credentials — required for any review

Credential	What it does	Notes
Bot user + token	The bot account whose name shows on review threads/comments.	GitLab: token with api scope. GitHub: token with pull-request read+write. Use a dedicated bot account and add it to every reviewed project.
LLM API key	OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or whatever model your review CLI runs.	Exported as LLM_API_KEY plus the operator-named variable in [agents].llm_api_key_env (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY).

Optional

Tool	Needed when
OpenTelemetry collector	You set [telemetry].enabled = true. Receives OTLP/gRPC metrics + spans on the configured endpoint.
systemd or cron	You want the poller to run on a schedule beyond a one-shot invocation.

Verify the install

uv tool install checks only uv itself; the rest resolve at the first poll. bubo doctor covers the Python side (workspace, env.toml, DB, Codex profile) but does NOT check that the external CLIs the worker shells out to are on PATH. Run this after bubo init to catch a missing tool before the first cycle — the most common cause of a first-cycle worker failure:

for bin in uv python3 git glab gh codex claude github-mcp-server mcp-gitlab; do
  printf '%-20s %s\n' "$bin" "$(command -v "$bin" 2>/dev/null || echo MISSING)"
done

You only need tools for the providers and agents you've enabled in config/env.toml — MISSING on the rest is fine.