diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr-flowvault.yml b/.github/workflows/pr-flowvault.yml
index 0ff1241..5b44ed3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr-flowvault.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr-flowvault.yml
@@ -82,3 +82,33 @@ jobs:
           flags: flowvault
           name: codecov-skyflow-python-flowvault
           verbose: true
+
+  smoke:
+    name: Clean-install smoke test
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.9'
+
+      # Build the wheel (it bundles the sibling common/ tree via setup.py's
+      # custom build_py), then install ONLY that wheel into a fresh virtualenv
+      # and import it. The venv contains just the wheel's declared runtime
+      # dependencies, so a dependency missing from setup.py fails the import
+      # here -- the unit-test job installs dev deps and would mask it.
+      - name: Build the flowvault wheel
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
+          cd flowvault
+          python setup.py bdist_wheel
+
+      - name: Install the wheel in a clean venv and import
+        run: |
+          python -m venv /tmp/smoke
+          /tmp/smoke/bin/pip install --upgrade pip
+          /tmp/smoke/bin/pip install flowvault/dist/*.whl
+          # Import from outside the repo so the source tree (flowvault/skyflow,
+          # ./common) is not on sys.path -- this exercises the installed wheel.
+          cd /tmp
+          /tmp/smoke/bin/python -c "import skyflow, common; from skyflow import Skyflow, Env, LogLevel; from skyflow.vault.data import InsertRequest, GetRequest, UpdateRequest, DeleteRequest, DetokenizeRequest, InsertOptions, GetOptions, UpdateOptions, DeleteOptions, DetokenizeOptions; from skyflow.vault.controller import VaultController; print('clean-install import OK')"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/shared-build-and-deploy.yml b/.github/workflows/shared-build-and-deploy.yml
index 7b142de..4bbcab5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/shared-build-and-deploy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/shared-build-and-deploy.yml
@@ -123,6 +123,28 @@ jobs:
           cd "$MODULE"
           python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
 
+      # Gate: install each freshly built artifact into its own clean virtualenv
+      # (only the package's DECLARED runtime deps present) and import it from
+      # outside the repo. This runs before either publish step and even on a
+      # dry run, so a missing runtime dependency in setup.py or a
+      # non-self-contained sdist fails here rather than shipping a broken
+      # release (both packages import as `skyflow` and bundle `common`).
+      - name: Smoke test the built package (clean install + import)
+        run: |
+          set -e
+          WHEEL=$(ls "$MODULE"/dist/*.whl)
+          SDIST=$(ls "$MODULE"/dist/*.tar.gz)
+
+          python -m venv /tmp/smoke-wheel
+          /tmp/smoke-wheel/bin/pip install --upgrade pip
+          /tmp/smoke-wheel/bin/pip install "$WHEEL"
+          (cd /tmp && /tmp/smoke-wheel/bin/python -c "import skyflow, common; from skyflow import Skyflow, Env, LogLevel; print('wheel clean-install import OK')")
+
+          python -m venv /tmp/smoke-sdist
+          /tmp/smoke-sdist/bin/pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
+          /tmp/smoke-sdist/bin/pip install "$SDIST"
+          (cd /tmp && /tmp/smoke-sdist/bin/python -c "import skyflow, common; from skyflow import Skyflow, Env, LogLevel; print('sdist clean-install import OK')")
+
       - name: Publish to PyPI
         if: ${{ (inputs.tag == 'beta' || inputs.tag == 'public') && inputs.dry-run != true }}
         env:
diff --git a/flowvault/setup.py b/flowvault/setup.py
index 6dd86cf..f9d4a0a 100644
--- a/flowvault/setup.py
+++ b/flowvault/setup.py
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ def run(self):
         'PyJWT >= 2.12, < 3',
         'cryptography >= 44.0.2',
         'httpx >= 0.21.2',
+        'python-dotenv >= 1.1.0, < 2',
         # NOTE: 'requests' intentionally omitted -- only used today by v2's Connection
         # controller, which isn't part of v3's scope this round.
     ],