crewAIInc/crewAI · error · ImportError

`boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`

Error message

`boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`

What it means

Identical lazy-import guard to the reader, but in S3WriterTool._run(): when boto3 is not importable at write time, the ImportError is re-raised with the message telling the user to run `uv add boto3`. Note the S3 tools also rely on CREW_AWS_* env vars for credentials, which is a separate concern after this error is resolved.

Source

Thrown at lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/aws/s3/writer_tool.py:27

    file_path: str = Field(
        ..., description="S3 file path (e.g., 's3://bucket-name/file-name')"
    )
    content: str = Field(..., description="Content to write to the file")


class S3WriterTool(BaseTool):
    name: str = "S3 Writer Tool"
    description: str = "Writes content to a file in Amazon S3 given an S3 file path"
    args_schema: type[BaseModel] = S3WriterToolInput
    package_dependencies: list[str] = Field(default_factory=lambda: ["boto3"])

    def _run(self, file_path: str, content: str) -> str:
        try:
            import boto3
            from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
        except ImportError as e:
            raise ImportError(
                "`boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`"
            ) from e

        try:
            bucket_name, object_key = self._parse_s3_path(file_path)

            s3 = boto3.client(
                "s3",
                region_name=os.getenv("CREW_AWS_REGION", "us-east-1"),
                aws_access_key_id=os.getenv("CREW_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"),
                aws_secret_access_key=os.getenv("CREW_AWS_SEC_ACCESS_KEY"),
            )

            s3.put_object(
                Bucket=bucket_name, Key=object_key, Body=content.encode("utf-8")
            )
            return f"Successfully wrote content to {file_path}"
        except ClientError as e:

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Install boto3 in the running environment (uv add boto3 / pip install boto3)
2. Smoke-test tool availability at app startup: try import boto3 and fail fast with a clear message
3. Pin boto3 in the project's dependency file so deployments include it

Example fix

# before: S3WriterTool()._run('s3://b/k', 'data') raises ImportError
# after (startup check):
try:
    import boto3  # noqa: F401
except ImportError:
    raise SystemExit('boto3 required for S3 tools: run `uv add boto3`')

try:
    import boto3  # noqa: F401
except ImportError:
    raise SystemExit('S3WriterTool needs boto3: run `uv add boto3`')

try:
    S3WriterTool()._run('s3://bucket/key', 'data')
except ImportError as e:
    if 'boto3' in str(e):
        logger.error('missing dependency: uv add boto3')
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling S3WriterTool._run(file_path, content) in an environment lacking boto3 — e.g. agent writes to S3 only late in a run, so the dependency gap surfaces at write time rather than at startup.

Common situations: Agent pipelines where S3 write is an optional branch; production images built without AWS deps; notebook environments where the tool was never exercised before deploy.

Related errors

• `boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`
• boto3 is required for Bedrock S3 file uploads. Install with:
• `boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`
• aioboto3 is required for async Bedrock S3 file uploads. Inst
• `boto3` package not found, please run `uv add boto3`

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ac6bb40d0501a7d. Report an issue: GitHub.