diff --git a/packages/cli/package.json b/packages/cli/package.json
index 91585c306d..15a231f0c4 100644
--- a/packages/cli/package.json
+++ b/packages/cli/package.json
@@ -35,12 +35,10 @@
     "fontkit": "^2.0.4",
     "giget": "^3.2.0",
     "hono": "^4.0.0",
-    "onnxruntime-node": "^1.20.0",
     "open": "^10.0.0",
     "postcss": "^8.5.8",
     "prettier": "^3.8.1",
-    "puppeteer-core": "^24.39.1",
-    "sharp": "^0.34.5"
+    "puppeteer-core": "^24.39.1"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "@clack/prompts": "^1.1.0",
@@ -62,7 +60,9 @@
     "vitest": "^3.2.4"
   },
   "optionalDependencies": {
-    "@google/genai": "^1.50.1"
+    "@google/genai": "^1.50.1",
+    "onnxruntime-node": "^1.20.0",
+    "sharp": "^0.34.5"
   },
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=22"
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.test.ts
index 719bcab4d9..c69e309631 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 import { MEAN, STD, applyMask } from "./inference.js";
 
 // Regression: the u2net_human_seg model was trained with ImageNet
@@ -125,3 +125,34 @@ describe("background-removal/inference — applyMask invariants", () => {
     expect(bg[7]).toBe(0);
   });
 });
+
+// onnxruntime-node and sharp are optional native modules; when their platform
+// binary can't load, createSession must fail with an actionable install hint
+// (and before touching the network / model download), not a raw module error.
+describe("background-removal/inference — missing optional native modules", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.resetModules();
+  });
+
+  it("createSession throws an actionable error when onnxruntime-node can't load", async () => {
+    vi.doMock("onnxruntime-node", () => {
+      throw new Error("Cannot find module 'onnxruntime-node'");
+    });
+    const { createSession } = await import("./inference.js");
+    await expect(createSession()).rejects.toThrow(
+      /onnxruntime-node.*isn't available[\s\S]*npm i onnxruntime-node/,
+    );
+    vi.doUnmock("onnxruntime-node");
+  });
+
+  it("createSession throws an actionable error when sharp can't load", async () => {
+    vi.doMock("onnxruntime-node", () => ({ InferenceSession: {}, Tensor: {} }));
+    vi.doMock("sharp", () => {
+      throw new Error("Could not load the sharp module");
+    });
+    const { createSession } = await import("./inference.js");
+    await expect(createSession()).rejects.toThrow(/sharp.*isn't available[\s\S]*npm i sharp/);
+    vi.doUnmock("onnxruntime-node");
+    vi.doUnmock("sharp");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.ts b/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.ts
index 605257fc35..0cfdde0d04 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/background-removal/inference.ts
@@ -52,10 +52,26 @@ export interface CreateSessionOptions {
   onProgress?: (message: string) => void;
 }
 
+// onnxruntime-node and sharp are optional native modules — their platform
+// binaries don't install everywhere. Surface an actionable error instead of a
+// raw "Cannot find module" when one can't load.
+async function loadNative<T>(name: string, load: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
+  try {
+    return await load();
+  } catch (err) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `remove-background needs the optional native module '${name}', which isn't available ` +
+        `(${(err as Error).message}). Install it with \`npm i ${name}\`, or reinstall hyperframes with optional dependencies enabled.`,
+    );
+  }
+}
+
 export async function createSession(options: CreateSessionOptions = {}): Promise<Session> {
-  const ort = (await import("onnxruntime-node")) as unknown as OrtModule;
-  const sharpMod = await import("sharp");
-  const sharp = sharpMod.default as Sharp;
+  const ort = (await loadNative(
+    "onnxruntime-node",
+    () => import("onnxruntime-node"),
+  )) as unknown as OrtModule;
+  const sharp = (await loadNative("sharp", () => import("sharp"))).default as Sharp;
 
   const choice = selectProviders(options.device ?? "auto");
   const path = await ensureModel(options.model, { onProgress: options.onProgress });
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/capture/contentExtractor.ts b/packages/cli/src/capture/contentExtractor.ts
index 2a3c0ba0be..8fdd1681e1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/capture/contentExtractor.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/capture/contentExtractor.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 import type { Page } from "puppeteer-core";
 import { existsSync, readdirSync, statSync, readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { join } from "node:path";
-import sharp from "sharp";
+import type sharpType from "sharp";
 import type { CatalogedAsset } from "./assetCataloger.js";
 import type { DesignTokens } from "./types.js";
 
@@ -247,6 +247,20 @@ export async function captionImagesWithGemini(
     }
 
     if (svgFiles.length > 0) {
+      // sharp is an optional native module; its platform binary fails to load
+      // on some installs (omit-optional, musl/glibc, monorepo hoisting, broken
+      // cache). Load it lazily and degrade to skipping SVG captioning rather
+      // than crashing the whole capture command on import.
+      let sharp: typeof sharpType;
+      try {
+        sharp = (await import("sharp")).default as typeof sharpType;
+      } catch (err) {
+        warnings.push(
+          `Skipped ${svgFiles.length} SVG caption(s): sharp could not load (${(err as Error).message}). ` +
+            `Reinstall with optional dependencies enabled (e.g. \`npm i sharp\`) to caption SVG assets.`,
+        );
+        return geminiCaptions;
+      }
       progress("design", `Rasterizing + captioning ${svgFiles.length} SVGs via vision API...`);
       const SVG_BATCH = 20;
       const SVG_RENDER_SIZE = 256; // px — enough resolution for Gemini to read wordmarks, small enough to keep payload sub-MB
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/layout-audit.browser.js b/packages/cli/src/commands/layout-audit.browser.js
index 99f8f8aba8..76ca106a8a 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/layout-audit.browser.js
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/layout-audit.browser.js
@@ -464,13 +464,16 @@
     const area = intersectionArea(a.rect, b.rect);
     if (area <= Math.min(rectArea(a.rect), rectArea(b.rect)) * 0.2) return null;
     return {
+      // Warning, not error: must not fail the exit code (ok = errorCount === 0)
+      // for compositions that intentionally layer text. Re-promote once the
+      // data-layout-allow-overlap opt-out is widely adopted.
       code: "content_overlap",
-      severity: "error",
+      severity: "warning",
       time,
       selector: selectorFor(a.element),
       containerSelector: selectorFor(b.element),
       text: textContentFor(a.element),
-      message: "Two text blocks overlap and render unreadable.",
+      message: "Two text blocks overlap and may render unreadable.",
       rect: a.rect,
       fixHint:
         "Give each block its own zone, or mark intentional layering with data-layout-allow-overlap.",
diff --git a/packages/cli/tsup.config.ts b/packages/cli/tsup.config.ts
index 9208dc9e94..6e3fc00e59 100644
--- a/packages/cli/tsup.config.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/tsup.config.ts
@@ -31,6 +31,11 @@ var __dirname = __hf_dirname(__filename);`,
     "puppeteer-core",
     "puppeteer",
     "@puppeteer/browsers",
+    // Native module — its platform binary (@img/sharp-<os>-<arch>) must be
+    // resolved from node_modules at runtime, never bundled. Loaded lazily by
+    // the capture pipeline; runtime resolution comes from the `dependencies`
+    // entry in package.json.
+    "sharp",
     "open",
     "hono",
     "hono/*",