diff --git a/llama_hub/tools/openapi/base.py b/llama_hub/tools/openapi/base.py
index 43e37ed894..083277900b 100644
--- a/llama_hub/tools/openapi/base.py
+++ b/llama_hub/tools/openapi/base.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 
 from llama_index.readers.schema.base import Document
 from llama_index.tools.tool_spec.base import BaseToolSpec
-import jsonschema
 
 
 class OpenAPIToolSpec(BaseToolSpec):
@@ -61,6 +60,13 @@ def reduce_details(details: dict) -> dict:
 
         def dereference_openapi(openapi_doc):
             """Dereferences a Swagger/OpenAPI document by resolving all $ref pointers."""
+            try: 
+                import jsonschema
+            except ImportError:
+                raise ImportError(
+                    "The jsonschema library is required to parse OpenAPI documents. "
+                    "Please install it with `pip install jsonschema`."
+                )
             resolver = jsonschema.RefResolver.from_schema(openapi_doc)
 
             def _dereference(obj):