diff --git a/src/spikeinterface/curation/tests/test_sortingview_curation.py b/src/spikeinterface/curation/tests/test_sortingview_curation.py
index f712f39f5f..d7d2a5cc5c 100644
--- a/src/spikeinterface/curation/tests/test_sortingview_curation.py
+++ b/src/spikeinterface/curation/tests/test_sortingview_curation.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import os
 import json
 import numpy as np
+import importlib.util
 
 import spikeinterface as si
 from spikeinterface.core import generate_sorting
@@ -20,6 +21,14 @@
 ON_GITHUB = bool(os.getenv("GITHUB_ACTIONS"))
 KACHERY_CLOUD_SET = bool(os.getenv("KACHERY_API_KEY"))
 
+kachery_spec = importlib.util.find_spec("kachery")
+if kachery_spec is not None:
+    HAVE_KACHERY = True
+else:
+    HAVE_KACHERY = False
+
+
+SKIP_KACHERY_REMOTE = not HAVE_KACHERY or (ON_GITHUB and not KACHERY_CLOUD_SET)
 
 # this needs to be run only once: if we want to regenerate we need to start with sorting result
 # TODO : regenerate the
@@ -43,7 +52,7 @@
 #     # https://figurl.org/f?v=npm://@fi-sci/figurl-sortingview@12/dist&d=sha1://058ab901610aa9d29df565595a3cc2a81a1b08e5
 
 
-@pytest.mark.skipif(ON_GITHUB and not KACHERY_CLOUD_SET, reason="Kachery cloud secrets not available")
+@pytest.mark.skipif(SKIP_KACHERY_REMOTE, reason="Kachery cloud secrets not available")
 def test_gh_curation():
     """
     Test curation using GitHub URI.
@@ -73,7 +82,7 @@ def test_gh_curation():
     assert len(sorting_curated_gh_art_mua.unit_ids) == 5
 
 
-@pytest.mark.skipif(ON_GITHUB and not KACHERY_CLOUD_SET, reason="Kachery cloud secrets not available")
+@pytest.mark.skipif(SKIP_KACHERY_REMOTE, reason="Kachery cloud secrets not available")
 def test_sha1_curation():
     """
     Test curation using SHA1 URI.