diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_env_run_tests.yml b/.github/workflows/build_env_run_tests.yml
index fb6a0fbd..ba087f37 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_env_run_tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_env_run_tests.yml
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@ jobs:
           python -m venv .venv
           source .venv/bin/activate
           pip install -e .[dev]
-          python -c "import aeon"
+          pip list
+          .venv/bin/python -c "import aeon"
   
   build_env_run_tests:  # checks for building env using mamba and runs codebase checks and tests
     name: Build env and run tests on ${{ matrix.os }}
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6893fe9f..5dd9ef2c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "dotmap",
   "fastparquet",
   "graphviz",
+  "importlib_metadata",
   "ipykernel",
   "jupyter",
   "jupyterlab",