diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate.yml b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
index a5de9db..ddcb9c7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ jobs:
             python3 -m pytest "$dir" -o "addopts=-ra --strict-markers --tb=short" -o "python_files=test_*.py" -v --durations=10
           done < <(git ls-files | grep -E '/scripts/test_[^/]*\.py$' | sed 's#/[^/]*$##' | sort -u)
       - name: Install epub skill test deps (EbookLib is AGPL; test-only)
-        run: python3 -m pip install EbookLib beautifulsoup4
+        run: python3 -m pip install -r requirements-epub-test.txt
       - name: Run skill-local shell test scripts
         run: python3 scripts/check-skill-tests.py --run
       - name: Check skill test coverage
diff --git a/epub/scripts/test_epub_skill.sh b/epub/scripts/test_epub_skill.sh
index 14fda02..2734f70 100755
--- a/epub/scripts/test_epub_skill.sh
+++ b/epub/scripts/test_epub_skill.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ SKILL_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
 SCRIPTS="$SKILL_DIR/scripts"
 PASS=0
 FAIL=0
+SKIP=0
 TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
 TEST_EPUB="$TMPDIR/test-book.epub"
 
@@ -25,6 +26,11 @@ pass() {
   PASS=$((PASS + 1))
 }
 
+skip() {
+  echo "  SKIPPED: $1"
+  SKIP=$((SKIP + 1))
+}
+
 # ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 # 1. epub-scaffold — create a valid test EPUB
 # ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
@@ -307,8 +313,7 @@ if python3 -c "import epublib" 2>/dev/null; then
     fail "edit metadata: exits non-zero"
   fi
 else
-  pass "edit: epublib not installed — skipping"
-  pass "edit metadata: epublib not installed — skipping"
+  skip "epub-edit (requires epublib; Python 3.13+)"
 fi
 
 # Test dry-run on metadata (works without epublib)
@@ -368,7 +373,7 @@ if python3 -c "import epublib" 2>/dev/null; then
     fail "convert: exits non-zero"
   fi
 else
-  pass "convert: epublib not installed — skipping"
+  skip "epub-convert (requires epublib; Python 3.13+)"
 fi
 
 CONVERT_OUT="$TMPDIR/converted.epub"  # always set
@@ -452,7 +457,7 @@ done
 # ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 echo ""
 echo "═══════════════════════════════════════"
-echo "  PASS: $PASS  FAIL: $FAIL  TOTAL: $((PASS + FAIL))"
+echo "  PASS: $PASS  FAIL: $FAIL  SKIP: $SKIP  TOTAL: $((PASS + FAIL + SKIP))"
 echo "═══════════════════════════════════════"
 
 if [ "$FAIL" -gt 0 ]; then
diff --git a/requirements-epub-test.txt b/requirements-epub-test.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fcfe33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements-epub-test.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# epub-skill test-only deps (not in requirements-dev.txt); EbookLib is AGPL.
+EbookLib==0.20.0
+beautifulsoup4==4.15.0
diff --git a/scripts/check-skill-tests.py b/scripts/check-skill-tests.py
index 30d2b64..47e5818 100644
--- a/scripts/check-skill-tests.py
+++ b/scripts/check-skill-tests.py
@@ -36,8 +36,10 @@ RUN_TESTS: list[tuple[str, list[str]]] = [
     ("data-scientist/scripts/test_detect_compute.sh", ["--local"]),
     ("brand-designer/scripts/brand-book_test.sh", []),
     ("flaresolverr/scripts/test-flaresolverr.sh", []),
-    # Requires EbookLib (AGPL) and beautifulsoup4, installed test-only in CI
-    # before this script runs.
+    # Requires EbookLib (AGPL) and beautifulsoup4 (installed test-only in CI
+    # before this script runs); epub-edit/epub-convert additionally require
+    # epublib (Python 3.13+) and are skipped, and surfaced as skips, on the
+    # Python 3.12 CI runner.
     ("epub/scripts/test_epub_skill.sh", []),
 ]