lk app create requires uv but never checks for it; the error doesn't name the missing tool

[Propconnect-ai]

What happened

On a clean Windows 11 machine, lk app create --template agent-starter-python <name> fails to install dependencies:

⚠  Installation failed — dependencies were NOT installed
┃ "uv": executable file not found in $PATH
┃ Fix your toolchain, then re-run the install step manually in ./speed-to-lead.

The command then proceeds to tell the user to run:

cd speed-to-lead
uv sync
uv run src\agent.py dev

uv is the only documented way to run the generated project, but the CLI:

1. never checks whether uv is installed before relying on it,
2. doesn't offer to install it, and
3. tells the user to "fix your toolchain" without naming what the toolchain is, what uv is, or where to get it.

Why it matters

A developer who has never used uv has to stop, search, and work out that they need to winget install --id=astral-sh.uv -e (and then restart their shell, since it modifies PATH). That's a hard stop roughly four minutes into a first-run experience that is otherwise excellent.

The rest of the onboarding is unusually good — the starter agent runs with zero model API keys, which is a genuinely hard problem to have solved. This one missing preflight check is out of step with the rest of it.

Environment

• Windows 11
• LiveKit CLI 2.17.0 (winget install LiveKit.LiveKitCLI)
• PowerShell
• Template: agent-starter-python

Steps to reproduce

1. On a machine without uv installed
2. winget install LiveKit.LiveKitCLI
3. Restart shell
4. lk cloud auth
5. lk app create --template agent-starter-python <name>
6. Observe the install failure

Suggested fix

Any one of these would close it:

• Preflight check for uv before template install, with a clear message naming it and linking to https://docs.astral.sh/uv/
• Offer to install it (winget / brew / curl depending on platform)
• At minimum, change "Fix your toolchain" to "uv is required — install it from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ and re-run"