diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 05e3a77..f855654 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && \
 WORKDIR ${APP_HOME}
 COPY . ./
 
-# Install the package with the optional OCR backend, then pre-fetch NLTK data and
-# warm the bundled OCR models so the service can start fully offline.  Only the
-# model warm-up may fail softly; a failed dependency install fails the build.
-RUN uv sync --frozen --extra ocr --no-dev && \
+# Install the full service runtime with OCR, then pre-fetch NLTK data and warm
+# the bundled OCR models so the service can start fully offline.  Only the model
+# warm-up may fail softly; a failed dependency install fails the build.
+RUN uv sync --frozen --extra all --no-dev && \
   python -m nltk.downloader -d /usr/share/nltk_data punkt punkt_tab stopwords && \
   { python -c "from rapidocr_onnxruntime import RapidOCR; RapidOCR()" || true; }
 
diff --git a/Dockerfile.test b/Dockerfile.test
index 8ad970c..633b1f9 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.test
+++ b/Dockerfile.test
@@ -20,10 +20,11 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
 WORKDIR ${APP_HOME}
 COPY . .
 
-# Dev group provides pytest. The OCR model warm-up alone is allowed to fail
-# (it only pre-fetches; the service degrades gracefully without it) — a failed
-# dependency install must fail the build, so no blanket `|| true` here.
-RUN uv sync --frozen --extra ocr --group dev && \
+# Dev group provides pytest and service test dependencies. The OCR model warm-up
+# alone is allowed to fail (it only pre-fetches; the service degrades gracefully
+# without it) — a failed dependency install must fail the build, so no blanket
+# `|| true` here.
+RUN uv sync --frozen --extra all --group dev && \
   python -m nltk.downloader -d /usr/share/nltk_data punkt punkt_tab stopwords && \
   { python -c "from rapidocr_onnxruntime import RapidOCR; RapidOCR()" || true; }
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6ebe412..6043ed4 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ run_fmt: format
 check: lint
 
 generate_requirements:
-	uv export --format requirements.txt --extra ocr --group dev --output-file requirements.txt
+	uv export --format requirements.txt --extra all --group dev --output-file requirements.txt
 
 download_nltk_data:
 	uv run python -m nltk.downloader punkt punkt_tab stopwords
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b2ce059..213cf28 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -69,12 +69,25 @@ reproduction commands are in [benchmarks/parsebench/RESULTS.md](benchmarks/parse
 ## Installation
 
 ```bash
-# install the project and dev tools with uv
+# parser-only install
+pip install "warp-ingest[parser]"
+
+# hosted service runtime (FastAPI/uvicorn)
+pip install "warp-ingest[service]"
+
+# full service runtime with OCR support
+pip install "warp-ingest[all]"
+
+# install the project and dev/test tools with uv
+# (dev includes service dependencies because the test suite covers the API)
 uv sync --group dev
 
 # include the optional OCR backend for scanned PDFs
 uv sync --group dev --extra ocr
 
+# full service runtime with OCR
+uv sync --group dev --extra all
+
 # one-time NLTK data download
 uv run python -m nltk.downloader punkt punkt_tab stopwords
 ```
@@ -82,6 +95,7 @@ uv run python -m nltk.downloader punkt punkt_tab stopwords
 ## Running the service
 
 ```bash
+# install with the `service` or `all` extra first
 python -m warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon      # or: ./run.sh   (FastAPI/uvicorn, port 5001)
 ```
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0ba2b47..4ef272c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -26,16 +26,21 @@ classifiers = [
 ]
 dependencies = [
     "beautifulsoup4>=4.12.0,<5.0.0",
-    "fastapi>=0.115,<1.0",
     "nltk>=3.9.1",
     "numpy>=1.24,<3",
     "pdfplumber>=0.11.4,<0.12.0",
     "pypdfium2>=5",
-    "python-multipart>=0.0.9",
-    "uvicorn>=0.30,<1.0",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
+# Parser dependencies live in the base install. This no-op extra exists so
+# `pip install warp-ingest[parser]` is an explicit parser-only spelling.
+parser = []
+service = [
+    "fastapi>=0.115,<1.0",
+    "python-multipart>=0.0.9",
+    "uvicorn>=0.30,<1.0",
+]
 # opencv is rapidocr's image-ops backend (resize/normalize/perspective-crop
 # around the ONNX models); the headless build has the identical cv2 API without
 # linking GUI libs (libGL), which a server image doesn't have. rapidocr's own
@@ -51,6 +56,22 @@ ocr = [
     "shapely>=2.1.2",
     "six>=1.17.0",
 ]
+# Full runtime install for the hosted ingestion service. The benchmark-only
+# `tables` extra remains separate because it pulls an ablation provider, not a
+# normal production dependency.
+all = [
+    "fastapi>=0.115,<1.0",
+    "onnxruntime>=1.17.0,<1.23; python_version == '3.10'",
+    "onnxruntime>=1.27.0; python_version >= '3.11' and python_version < '3.15'",
+    "opencv-python-headless>=4.13.0.92",
+    "pyclipper>=1.4.0",
+    "python-multipart>=0.0.9",
+    "pyyaml>=6.0.3",
+    "rapidocr-onnxruntime>=1.3.0,<2.0.0",
+    "shapely>=2.1.2",
+    "six>=1.17.0",
+    "uvicorn>=0.30,<1.0",
+]
 # Benchmark-ablation baseline for the pluggable table provider. Warp's own
 # native table engine (warp_ingest/ingestor/table_engine.py) is the default and
 # needs nothing beyond the core install; this extra exists only to reproduce
@@ -67,10 +88,13 @@ Issues = "https://github.com/Open-Source-Legal/Warp-Ingest/issues"
 [dependency-groups]
 dev = [
     "black>=26.3.1",
+    "fastapi>=0.115,<1.0",
     "httpx>=0.27",
     "isort>=5.13.2",
     "pytest>=9.0.3",
+    "python-multipart>=0.0.9",
     "reportlab>=4.0",
+    "uvicorn>=0.30,<1.0",
 ]
 
 [build-system]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index e802f91..3bf5a2e 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # This file was autogenerated by uv via the following command:
-#    uv export --format requirements.txt --extra ocr --group dev --output-file requirements.txt
+#    uv export --format requirements.txt --extra all --group dev --output-file requirements.txt
 -e .
 annotated-doc==0.0.4 \
     --hash=sha256:571ac1dc6991c450b25a9c2d84a3705e2ae7a53467b5d111c24fa8baabbed320 \
diff --git a/tests/test_package_metadata.py b/tests/test_package_metadata.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d244f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_package_metadata.py
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+"""Package metadata guards for optional install profiles."""
+
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+try:
+    import tomllib
+except ModuleNotFoundError:  # Python 3.10
+    import tomli as tomllib
+
+from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon import __main__ as service_main
+from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.service_dependencies import (
+    MissingServiceExtraError,
+    require_service_dependency,
+)
+
+PROJECT_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+
+
+def _metadata():
+    return tomllib.loads((PROJECT_ROOT / "pyproject.toml").read_text())
+
+
+def _requirement_names(requirements):
+    names = set()
+    for requirement in requirements:
+        name = re.split(r"\s*(?:\[|[<>=!~; ])", requirement, maxsplit=1)[0]
+        names.add(name.lower().replace("_", "-"))
+    return names
+
+
+def test_base_install_is_parser_only():
+    project = _metadata()["project"]
+    base = _requirement_names(project["dependencies"])
+
+    assert {
+        "beautifulsoup4",
+        "nltk",
+        "numpy",
+        "pdfplumber",
+        "pypdfium2",
+    } <= base
+    assert {"fastapi", "python-multipart", "uvicorn"}.isdisjoint(base)
+    assert project["optional-dependencies"]["parser"] == []
+
+
+def test_service_and_all_extras_are_explicit_profiles():
+    extras = _metadata()["project"]["optional-dependencies"]
+    service = _requirement_names(extras["service"])
+    ocr = _requirement_names(extras["ocr"])
+    all_extra = _requirement_names(extras["all"])
+
+    assert {"fastapi", "python-multipart", "uvicorn"} <= service
+    assert service <= all_extra
+    assert ocr <= all_extra
+    assert "pymupdf4llm" not in all_extra
+
+
+def test_missing_service_dependency_has_extra_install_hint():
+    def missing_dependency(_module_name):
+        raise ModuleNotFoundError(name="uvicorn")
+
+    with pytest.raises(MissingServiceExtraError) as exc:
+        require_service_dependency("uvicorn", importer=missing_dependency)
+
+    message = str(exc.value)
+    assert 'pip install "warp-ingest[service]"' in message
+    assert 'pip install "warp-ingest[all]"' in message
+    assert "Missing dependency: uvicorn." in message
+
+
+def test_transitive_import_errors_are_not_masked():
+    def missing_transitive(_module_name):
+        raise ModuleNotFoundError(name="h11")
+
+    with pytest.raises(ModuleNotFoundError) as exc:
+        require_service_dependency("uvicorn", importer=missing_transitive)
+
+    assert exc.value.name == "h11"
+
+
+def test_service_launcher_exits_with_install_hint(monkeypatch):
+    def missing_service_dependency(_module_name, package_name=None):
+        raise MissingServiceExtraError(
+            f"install service extra for {package_name or _module_name}"
+        )
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        service_main,
+        "require_service_dependency",
+        missing_service_dependency,
+    )
+
+    with pytest.raises(SystemExit) as exc:
+        service_main.main()
+
+    assert str(exc.value) == "install service extra for uvicorn"
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index f192de7..0ed03f5 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -1885,18 +1885,28 @@ version = "1.0.2"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "beautifulsoup4" },
-    { name = "fastapi" },
     { name = "nltk" },
     { name = "numpy", version = "2.2.6", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "numpy", version = "2.4.6", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version == '3.11.*'" },
     { name = "numpy", version = "2.5.0", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version >= '3.12'" },
     { name = "pdfplumber" },
     { name = "pypdfium2" },
-    { name = "python-multipart" },
-    { name = "uvicorn" },
 ]
 
 [package.optional-dependencies]
+all = [
+    { name = "fastapi" },
+    { name = "onnxruntime", version = "1.22.1", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
+    { name = "onnxruntime", version = "1.27.0", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version >= '3.11'" },
+    { name = "opencv-python-headless" },
+    { name = "pyclipper" },
+    { name = "python-multipart" },
+    { name = "pyyaml" },
+    { name = "rapidocr-onnxruntime" },
+    { name = "shapely" },
+    { name = "six" },
+    { name = "uvicorn" },
+]
 ocr = [
     { name = "onnxruntime", version = "1.22.1", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "onnxruntime", version = "1.27.0", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, marker = "python_full_version >= '3.11'" },
@@ -1907,6 +1917,11 @@ ocr = [
     { name = "shapely" },
     { name = "six" },
 ]
+service = [
+    { name = "fastapi" },
+    { name = "python-multipart" },
+    { name = "uvicorn" },
+]
 tables = [
     { name = "markdown2" },
     { name = "pymupdf4llm" },
@@ -1915,40 +1930,57 @@ tables = [
 [package.dev-dependencies]
 dev = [
     { name = "black" },
+    { name = "fastapi" },
     { name = "httpx" },
     { name = "isort" },
     { name = "pytest" },
+    { name = "python-multipart" },
     { name = "reportlab" },
+    { name = "uvicorn" },
 ]
 
 [package.metadata]
 requires-dist = [
     { name = "beautifulsoup4", specifier = ">=4.12.0,<5.0.0" },
-    { name = "fastapi", specifier = ">=0.115,<1.0" },
+    { name = "fastapi", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=0.115,<1.0" },
+    { name = "fastapi", marker = "extra == 'service'", specifier = ">=0.115,<1.0" },
     { name = "markdown2", marker = "extra == 'tables'", specifier = ">=2.4.0" },
     { name = "nltk", specifier = ">=3.9.1" },
     { name = "numpy", specifier = ">=1.24,<3" },
+    { name = "onnxruntime", marker = "python_full_version == '3.10.*' and extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=1.17.0,<1.23" },
     { name = "onnxruntime", marker = "python_full_version == '3.10.*' and extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=1.17.0,<1.23" },
+    { name = "onnxruntime", marker = "python_full_version >= '3.11' and python_full_version < '3.15' and extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=1.27.0" },
     { name = "onnxruntime", marker = "python_full_version >= '3.11' and python_full_version < '3.15' and extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=1.27.0" },
+    { name = "opencv-python-headless", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=4.13.0.92" },
     { name = "opencv-python-headless", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=4.13.0.92" },
     { name = "pdfplumber", specifier = ">=0.11.4,<0.12.0" },
+    { name = "pyclipper", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=1.4.0" },
     { name = "pyclipper", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=1.4.0" },
     { name = "pymupdf4llm", marker = "extra == 'tables'", specifier = ">=0.0.17" },
     { name = "pypdfium2", specifier = ">=5" },
-    { name = "python-multipart", specifier = ">=0.0.9" },
+    { name = "python-multipart", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=0.0.9" },
+    { name = "python-multipart", marker = "extra == 'service'", specifier = ">=0.0.9" },
+    { name = "pyyaml", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=6.0.3" },
     { name = "pyyaml", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=6.0.3" },
+    { name = "rapidocr-onnxruntime", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=1.3.0,<2.0.0" },
     { name = "rapidocr-onnxruntime", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=1.3.0,<2.0.0" },
+    { name = "shapely", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=2.1.2" },
     { name = "shapely", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=2.1.2" },
+    { name = "six", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=1.17.0" },
     { name = "six", marker = "extra == 'ocr'", specifier = ">=1.17.0" },
-    { name = "uvicorn", specifier = ">=0.30,<1.0" },
+    { name = "uvicorn", marker = "extra == 'all'", specifier = ">=0.30,<1.0" },
+    { name = "uvicorn", marker = "extra == 'service'", specifier = ">=0.30,<1.0" },
 ]
-provides-extras = ["ocr", "tables"]
+provides-extras = ["parser", "service", "ocr", "all", "tables"]
 
 [package.metadata.requires-dev]
 dev = [
     { name = "black", specifier = ">=26.3.1" },
+    { name = "fastapi", specifier = ">=0.115,<1.0" },
     { name = "httpx", specifier = ">=0.27" },
     { name = "isort", specifier = ">=5.13.2" },
     { name = "pytest", specifier = ">=9.0.3" },
+    { name = "python-multipart", specifier = ">=0.0.9" },
     { name = "reportlab", specifier = ">=4.0" },
+    { name = "uvicorn", specifier = ">=0.30,<1.0" },
 ]
diff --git a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/__main__.py b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/__main__.py
index eed6477..04ed241 100644
--- a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/__main__.py
+++ b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/__main__.py
@@ -11,14 +11,23 @@
 
 import os
 
-import uvicorn
-
 import warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.config as cfg
-from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.auth import DEFAULT_API_KEY, expected_api_key
 from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.autotune import compute_settings
+from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.service_dependencies import (
+    MissingServiceExtraError,
+    require_service_dependency,
+)
 
 
 def main():
+    try:
+        uvicorn = require_service_dependency("uvicorn")
+        require_service_dependency("fastapi")
+    except MissingServiceExtraError as exc:
+        raise SystemExit(str(exc)) from None
+
+    from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.auth import DEFAULT_API_KEY, expected_api_key
+
     settings = compute_settings()
     # Export the computed budget for the worker processes (a user-set variable
     # is already reflected in `settings` and setdefault leaves it alone).
diff --git a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/app.py b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/app.py
index 1140a13..6cefc52 100644
--- a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/app.py
+++ b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/app.py
@@ -19,9 +19,21 @@
 from importlib import metadata
 from typing import Literal
 
-from fastapi import Depends, FastAPI, File, HTTPException, Query, UploadFile
-
 import warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.config as cfg
+from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.service_dependencies import (
+    require_any_service_dependency,
+    require_service_dependency,
+)
+
+_fastapi = require_service_dependency("fastapi")
+require_any_service_dependency(("python_multipart", "multipart"), "python-multipart")
+Depends = _fastapi.Depends
+FastAPI = _fastapi.FastAPI
+File = _fastapi.File
+HTTPException = _fastapi.HTTPException
+Query = _fastapi.Query
+UploadFile = _fastapi.UploadFile
+
 from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.auth import require_api_key
 from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.autotune import compute_settings
 from warp_ingest.ingestor import ingestor_api
diff --git a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/auth.py b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/auth.py
index bd7a5a9..262e61c 100644
--- a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/auth.py
+++ b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/auth.py
@@ -10,8 +10,13 @@
 import os
 import secrets
 
-from fastapi import HTTPException, Security
-from fastapi.security import APIKeyHeader
+from warp_ingest.ingestion_daemon.service_dependencies import require_service_dependency
+
+_fastapi = require_service_dependency("fastapi")
+_fastapi_security = require_service_dependency("fastapi.security", "fastapi")
+HTTPException = _fastapi.HTTPException
+Security = _fastapi.Security
+APIKeyHeader = _fastapi_security.APIKeyHeader
 
 DEFAULT_API_KEY = "abc123"
 
diff --git a/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/service_dependencies.py b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/service_dependencies.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a91138b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/warp_ingest/ingestion_daemon/service_dependencies.py
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+"""Helpers for optional service-runtime dependencies."""
+
+import importlib
+from collections.abc import Callable, Sequence
+from types import ModuleType
+
+SERVICE_EXTRA_INSTALL_HINT = (
+    "Warp-Ingest service dependencies are not installed. "
+    'Install them with `pip install "warp-ingest[service]"` '
+    'or `pip install "warp-ingest[all]"`.'
+)
+
+
+class MissingServiceExtraError(RuntimeError):
+    """Raised when the service extra is needed but not installed."""
+
+
+def _missing_service_dependency(package_name: str) -> MissingServiceExtraError:
+    return MissingServiceExtraError(
+        f"{SERVICE_EXTRA_INSTALL_HINT} Missing dependency: {package_name}."
+    )
+
+
+def require_service_dependency(
+    module_name: str,
+    package_name: str | None = None,
+    importer: Callable[[str], ModuleType] = importlib.import_module,
+) -> ModuleType:
+    """Import a service dependency or raise an install-extra error.
+
+    Only the top-level requested module is converted to the install-extra error;
+    missing transitive imports are left untouched because they indicate a broken
+    or incompatible installation rather than a missing optional extra.
+    """
+    try:
+        return importer(module_name)
+    except ModuleNotFoundError as exc:
+        root_module = module_name.partition(".")[0]
+        if exc.name == root_module:
+            raise _missing_service_dependency(package_name or root_module) from None
+        raise
+
+
+def require_any_service_dependency(
+    module_names: Sequence[str],
+    package_name: str,
+    importer: Callable[[str], ModuleType] = importlib.import_module,
+) -> ModuleType:
+    """Import the first available module for a service dependency package."""
+    last_missing = None
+    for module_name in module_names:
+        try:
+            return require_service_dependency(module_name, package_name, importer)
+        except MissingServiceExtraError as exc:
+            last_missing = exc
+    if last_missing is not None:
+        raise last_missing
+    raise ValueError("module_names must not be empty")