diff --git a/packages/dts-critic/index.js b/packages/dts-critic/index.js
index 85bd1014d1..3780940efd 100644
--- a/packages/dts-critic/index.js
+++ b/packages/dts-critic/index.js
@@ -4,12 +4,17 @@ const fs = require("fs");
 const path = require("path");
 const download = require("download-file-sync");
 const semver = require("semver");
+const commandExistsSync = require("command-exists").sync;
 
 /**
  * @param {string} dtsPath
  * @param {string} [sourcePath]
  */
 function dtsCritic(dtsPath, sourcePath) {
+    if (!commandExistsSync('curl')) {
+        throw new Error("You need to have curl installed to run dts-critic, you can get it from https://curl.haxx.se/download.html")
+    }
+
     const dts = fs.readFileSync(dtsPath, "utf-8");
     let header;
     try {
diff --git a/packages/dts-critic/package-lock.json b/packages/dts-critic/package-lock.json
index 8a534553d0..2efdb6de74 100644
--- a/packages/dts-critic/package-lock.json
+++ b/packages/dts-critic/package-lock.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "dts-critic",
-  "version": "1.2.0",
+  "version": "2.0.0",
   "lockfileVersion": 1,
   "requires": true,
   "dependencies": {
@@ -1028,6 +1028,11 @@
         "delayed-stream": "~1.0.0"
       }
     },
+    "command-exists": {
+      "version": "1.2.8",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/command-exists/-/command-exists-1.2.8.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-PM54PkseWbiiD/mMsbvW351/u+dafwTJ0ye2qB60G1aGQP9j3xK2gmMDc+R34L3nDtx4qMCitXT75mkbkGJDLw=="
+    },
     "commander": {
       "version": "2.20.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.20.0.tgz",
diff --git a/packages/dts-critic/package.json b/packages/dts-critic/package.json
index 233bda98b8..db58eab7eb 100644
--- a/packages/dts-critic/package.json
+++ b/packages/dts-critic/package.json
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     "author": "Nathan Shively-Sanders",
     "description": "Checks a new .d.ts against the Javascript source and tells you what problems it has",
     "dependencies": {
+        "command-exists": "^1.2.8",
         "definitelytyped-header-parser": "^1.2.0",
         "download-file-sync": "^1.0.4",
         "semver": "^6.2.0",