diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 526d5eeb6..495d2fd54 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import logging
 import os
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
 
 from tests.shared.codemod.models import Size
 
@@ -74,3 +77,39 @@ def pytest_configure(config):
             filename=f"build/logs/tests_{worker_id}.log",
             level=config.getini("log_file_level"),
         )
+
+
+def is_git_lfs_pointer(file_path: Path) -> bool:
+    """Check if a file is a git LFS pointer file"""
+    try:
+        with open(file_path) as f:
+            first_line = f.readline().strip()
+            return first_line == "version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1"
+    except Exception:
+        return False
+
+
+@pytest.hookimpl(hookwrapper=True)
+def pytest_runtest_makereport(item, call):
+    outcome = yield
+    report = outcome.get_result()
+
+    if report.when == "call" and report.failed:
+        if "NodeJS or npm is not installed" in str(report.longrepr):
+            pytest.skip("Test requires NodeJS and npm to be installed")
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+def skip_lfs_tests(request):
+    """Skip tests that depend on git LFS files if they haven't been pulled"""
+    # Get the test module path
+    test_path = Path(request.module.__file__)
+
+    # Only run for integration tests
+    if not str(test_path).startswith(str(Path.cwd() / "tests" / "integration")):
+        return
+
+    # Get the expected diff path from the test's expected fixture
+    expected = request.getfixturevalue("expected")
+    if isinstance(expected, Path) and is_git_lfs_pointer(expected):
+        pytest.skip(f"Test requires git LFS file {expected} which hasn't been pulled")
diff --git a/tests/integration/codemod/conftest.py b/tests/integration/codemod/conftest.py
index 33363c3a9..84ff4df0b 100644
--- a/tests/integration/codemod/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/integration/codemod/conftest.py
@@ -141,6 +141,10 @@ def token(request):
 def op(repo: Repo, token: str | None) -> YieldFixture[LocalRepoOperator]:
     with filelock.FileLock(BASE_TMP_DIR / "locks" / repo.name):
         op = repo.to_op(repo.name, token)
+        if isinstance(op, tuple):
+            # This means we got (None, error_message)
+            _, msg = op
+            pytest.skip(msg or "Could not create repo operator")
         yield op
 
 
diff --git a/tests/shared/codemod/models.py b/tests/shared/codemod/models.py
index 35106d27b..62f028fcf 100644
--- a/tests/shared/codemod/models.py
+++ b/tests/shared/codemod/models.py
@@ -60,17 +60,23 @@ class Repo(BaseModel):
     def from_json(cls, json_str: str) -> "Repo":
         return cls.model_validate(json.loads(json_str))
 
-    def to_op(self, name: str, token: str | None) -> LocalRepoOperator:
+    def to_op(self, name: str, token: str | None) -> LocalRepoOperator | tuple[None, str | None]:
         base_path = BASE_TMP_DIR / ("extra_repos" if self.extra_repo else "oss_repos") / name
         base_path.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
         url = self.url
         if token:
             url = url.replace("://", f"://{token}@")
         elif self.repo_id is not None:
-            print("Setting up auth using the github cli")
+            # TODO: this is a very messy hack to check whether we should prompt the user for auth
+            # if REPO_ID_TO_URL is not set, we probably don't need auth. this is assuming that for
+            # OSS repos, we don't need to pull any private repos.
+            if not REPO_ID_TO_URL:
+                return (None, "Could not create repo operator - skipping test")
+
             if not which("gh"):
-                os.system("brew install gh")
+                return (None, "GitHub CLI (gh) is not installed. Please install it first. Skipping test.")
             if '[credential "https://github.codegen.app"]' not in (Path.home() / ".gitconfig").read_text():
+                print("Setting up auth using the github cli")
                 os.system("gh auth login -h github.codegen.app")
                 os.system("gh auth setup-git -h github.codegen.app")
         return LocalRepoOperator.create_from_commit(str(base_path), self.default_branch, self.commit, url)
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index fd229456f..d7df49d4c 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ name = "click"
 version = "8.1.8"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "colorama", marker = "sys_platform == 'win32'" },
+    { name = "colorama", marker = "platform_system == 'Windows'" },
 ]
 sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/b9/2e/0090cbf739cee7d23781ad4b89a9894a41538e4fcf4c31dcdd705b78eb8b/click-8.1.8.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:ed53c9d8990d83c2a27deae68e4ee337473f6330c040a31d4225c9574d16096a", size = 226593 }
 wheels = [
@@ -2554,7 +2554,7 @@ name = "tqdm"
 version = "4.67.1"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "colorama", marker = "sys_platform == 'win32'" },
+    { name = "colorama", marker = "platform_system == 'Windows'" },
 ]
 sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/a8/4b/29b4ef32e036bb34e4ab51796dd745cdba7ed47ad142a9f4a1eb8e0c744d/tqdm-4.67.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:f8aef9c52c08c13a65f30ea34f4e5aac3fd1a34959879d7e59e63027286627f2", size = 169737 }
 wheels = [