diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3c49e7896..4ec83249c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ dependencies = [
     "sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0.41",                    # server - for conversations
 ]
 
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+client = [
+    "llama-stack-client>=0.3.0",  # Optional for library-only usage
+]
+
 [dependency-groups]
 dev = [
     "pytest>=8.4",
diff --git a/src/llama_stack/core/library_client.py b/src/llama_stack/core/library_client.py
index 42d5d279c..b8f9f715f 100644
--- a/src/llama_stack/core/library_client.py
+++ b/src/llama_stack/core/library_client.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ try:
     )
 except ImportError as e:
     raise ImportError(
-        "llama-stack-client is not installed. Please install it with `pip install llama-stack-client`."
+        "llama-stack-client is not installed. Please install it with `uv pip install llama-stack[client]`."
     ) from e
 
 from pydantic import BaseModel, TypeAdapter
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 07a8f8f62..ba9a862a3 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -1963,6 +1963,11 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "uvicorn" },
 ]
 
+[package.optional-dependencies]
+client = [
+    { name = "llama-stack-client" },
+]
+
 [package.dev-dependencies]
 benchmark = [
     { name = "locust" },
@@ -2089,7 +2094,7 @@ requires-dist = [
     { name = "httpx" },
     { name = "jinja2", specifier = ">=3.1.6" },
     { name = "jsonschema" },
-    { name = "llama-stack-client", specifier = ">=0.3.0" },
+    { name = "llama-stack-client", marker = "extra == 'client'", specifier = ">=0.3.0" },
     { name = "openai", specifier = ">=2.5.0" },
     { name = "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http", specifier = ">=1.30.0" },
     { name = "opentelemetry-sdk", specifier = ">=1.30.0" },
@@ -2107,6 +2112,7 @@ requires-dist = [
     { name = "tiktoken" },
     { name = "uvicorn", specifier = ">=0.34.0" },
 ]
+provides-extras = ["client"]
 
 [package.metadata.requires-dev]
 benchmark = [{ name = "locust", specifier = ">=2.39.1" }]