diff --git a/karen b/karen
index c53586c..09486d5 100755
--- a/karen
+++ b/karen
@@ -3,6 +3,17 @@
 # karen watches for signals and executes triggers in the events dir
 # karen gets triggered a lot
 
+check_dependencies () {
+  for cmd in "$@"; do
+    if ! command -v $cmd >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+      echo "This script requires \"${cmd}\" to be installed"
+      exit 1
+    fi
+  done
+}
+
+check_dependencies fswatch readlink dirname
+
 if [[ -n "$1" ]]; then
   root_dir="$(readlink -f $1)"
 else