diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/build.yml b/.gitea/workflows/build.yml
index 98f5a1d..924b6b4 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/build.yml
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dev dependencies
         run: npm ci || npm install
 
+      - name: Install PyMuPDF (PDF text assertions)
+        run: python3 -m pip install --quiet pymupdf
+
       - name: Run tests
         run: npm test
 
diff --git a/test/pdf.test.js b/test/pdf.test.js
index b02362b..b47799e 100644
--- a/test/pdf.test.js
+++ b/test/pdf.test.js
@@ -38,7 +38,19 @@ function extractPdfText(bytes) {
   return execFileSync('python3', ['-c', script], { encoding: 'utf8' });
 }
 
-test('buildStudyLoadPdf returns valid PDF bytes', async () => {
+// PyMuPDF (fitz) is only needed for the text-extraction assertions below. It is
+// installed in CI, but if it is missing locally we skip those assertions rather
+// than hard-failing.
+function fitzAvailable() {
+  try {
+    execFileSync('python3', ['-c', 'import fitz'], { stdio: 'ignore' });
+    return true;
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
+test('buildStudyLoadPdf returns valid PDF bytes', async (t) => {
   const bytes = await buildStudyLoadPdf(sampleData);
   assert.ok(bytes instanceof Uint8Array);
   const head = Buffer.from(bytes.slice(0, 5)).toString('latin1');
@@ -46,6 +58,11 @@ test('buildStudyLoadPdf returns valid PDF bytes', async () => {
   const doc = await PDFLib.PDFDocument.load(bytes);
   assert.strictEqual(doc.getPageCount(), 1);
 
+  if (!fitzAvailable()) {
+    t.skip('PyMuPDF (fitz) not available; skipping PDF text assertions');
+    return;
+  }
+
   const text = extractPdfText(bytes);
   assert.ok(text.includes('CIS 2101'), 'PDF text should contain course code CIS 2101');
   assert.ok(text.includes("STUDENT'S STUDY LOAD"), 'PDF text should contain the title');