diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index a96dbf57..242448cb 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 Upcoming (TBD)
 ==============
 
+Features
+---------
+* Show purpose in tabular `--checkup` output.
+* Add optional dependencies to `--checkup`.
+
+
 Documentation
 ---------
 * Add `.|` and `.>` to TIPS.
diff --git a/mycli/main_modes/checkup.py b/mycli/main_modes/checkup.py
index a1b5d18d..551fbf5f 100644
--- a/mycli/main_modes/checkup.py
+++ b/mycli/main_modes/checkup.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 import urllib.error
 import urllib.request
 
+from tabulate import tabulate
+
 from mycli.constants import REPO_URL
 
 PYPI_API_BASE = 'https://pypi.org/pypi'
@@ -24,15 +26,20 @@ def pypi_api_fetch(fragment: str) -> dict:
 
 def _dependencies_checkup() -> None:
     print('\n### Key Python dependencies:\n')
-    for dependency in [
-        'cli_helpers',
-        'click',
-        'prompt_toolkit',
-        'pygments',
-        'pymysql',
-        'sqlglot',
-        'sqlglotc',
-        'tabulate',
+    table = []
+    for dependency, purpose in [
+        ('cli_helpers', 'required'),
+        ('click', 'required'),
+        ('prompt_toolkit', 'required'),
+        ('pygments', 'required'),
+        ('pymysql', 'required'),
+        ('sqlglot', 'required'),
+        ('sqlglotc', 'required'),
+        ('tabulate', 'required'),
+        ('llm', 'optional for /llm command'),
+        ('polars', 'optional for .| operator'),
+        ('altair', 'optional for .| operator'),
+        ('vl-convert-python', 'optional for .| operator'),
     ]:
         try:
             installed_version = importlib.metadata.version(dependency)
@@ -40,32 +47,38 @@ def _dependencies_checkup() -> None:
             installed_version = None
         pypi_profile = pypi_api_fetch(f'/{dependency}/json')
         latest_version = pypi_profile.get('info', {}).get('version', None)
-        print(f'{dependency} version {installed_version} (latest {latest_version})')
+        table.append([dependency, installed_version, latest_version, purpose])
+    print(tabulate(table, headers=['library', 'version', 'latest', 'purpose']))
 
 
 def _executables_checkup() -> None:
     print('\n### External executables:\n')
-    for executable in [
-        'less',
-        'fzf',
-        'pygmentize',
+    table = []
+    for executable, purpose in [
+        ('less', 'required for paging'),
+        ('fzf', r'optional for history search and \x'),
+        ('pygmentize', 'optional for history search'),
     ]:
+        # executable, purpose = external
         if shutil.which(executable):
-            print(f'The "{executable}" executable was found — good!')
+            table.append([executable, 'found', purpose])
         else:
-            print(f'The recommended "{executable}" executable was not found — some functionality will suffer.')
+            table.append([executable, 'MISSING', purpose])
+    print(tabulate(table, headers=['executable', 'status', 'purpose']))
 
 
 def _environment_checkup() -> None:
     print('\n### Environment variables:\n')
-    for variable in [
-        'EDITOR',
-        'VISUAL',
+    table = []
+    for variable, purpose in [
+        ('EDITOR', r'optional for \edit and C-x C-e'),
+        ('VISUAL', r'optional for \edit and C-x C-e'),
     ]:
         if value := os.environ.get(variable):
-            print(f'The ${variable} environment variable was set to "{value}" — good!')
+            table.append([f'${variable}', value, purpose])
         else:
-            print(f'The ${variable} environment variable was not set — some functionality will suffer.')
+            table.append([f'${variable}', 'UNSET', purpose])
+    print(tabulate(table, headers=['variable', 'setting', 'purpose']))
 
 
 def _configuration_checkup(mycli) -> None:
diff --git a/test/pytests/test_checkup.py b/test/pytests/test_checkup.py
index c0d65f59..a27e8ef7 100644
--- a/test/pytests/test_checkup.py
+++ b/test/pytests/test_checkup.py
@@ -50,6 +50,11 @@ def test_dependencies_checkup(monkeypatch, capsys) -> None:
         'pygments': '2.19.2',
         'sqlglot': '30.7.0',
         'sqlglotc': '30.7.0',
+        'tabulate': '0.10.0',
+        'llm': '0.30',
+        'polars': '1.42.1',
+        'altair': '6.2.2',
+        'vl-convert-python': '1.9.0',
     }
 
     def fake_version(name: str) -> str:
@@ -68,11 +73,12 @@ def fake_pypi_api_fetch(fragment: str) -> dict:
     output = capsys.readouterr().out
 
     assert '### Key Python dependencies:' in output
-    assert 'cli_helpers version 1.0.0 (latest latest-cli_helpers)' in output
-    assert 'click version 2.0.0 (latest latest-click)' in output
-    assert 'prompt_toolkit version 3.0.0 (latest latest-prompt_toolkit)' in output
-    assert 'pymysql version 4.0.0 (latest latest-pymysql)' in output
-    assert 'tabulate version None (latest latest-tabulate)' in output
+    rows = [line.split() for line in output.splitlines()]
+    assert ['cli_helpers', '1.0.0', 'latest-cli_helpers', 'required'] in rows
+    assert ['click', '2.0.0', 'latest-click', 'required'] in rows
+    assert ['prompt_toolkit', '3.0.0', 'latest-prompt_toolkit', 'required'] in rows
+    assert ['pymysql', '4.0.0', 'latest-pymysql', 'required'] in rows
+    assert ['tabulate', 'latest-tabulate', 'required'] in rows
 
 
 def test_executables_checkup(monkeypatch, capsys) -> None:
@@ -86,9 +92,10 @@ def test_executables_checkup(monkeypatch, capsys) -> None:
     output = capsys.readouterr().out
 
     assert '### External executables:' in output
-    assert 'The "less" executable was found' in output
-    assert 'The recommended "fzf" executable was not found' in output
-    assert 'The "pygmentize" executable was found' in output
+    rows = [line.split() for line in output.splitlines()]
+    assert ['less', 'found', 'required', 'for', 'paging'] in rows
+    assert ['fzf', 'MISSING', 'optional', 'for', 'history', 'search', 'and', r'\x'] in rows
+    assert ['pygmentize', 'found', 'optional', 'for', 'history', 'search'] in rows
 
 
 def test_environment_checkup(monkeypatch, capsys) -> None:
@@ -99,8 +106,9 @@ def test_environment_checkup(monkeypatch, capsys) -> None:
     output = capsys.readouterr().out
 
     assert '### Environment variables:' in output
-    assert 'The $EDITOR environment variable was set to "vim" ' in output
-    assert 'The $VISUAL environment variable was not set' in output
+    rows = [line.split() for line in output.splitlines()]
+    assert ['$EDITOR', 'vim', 'optional', 'for', r'\edit', 'and', 'C-x', 'C-e'] in rows
+    assert ['$VISUAL', 'UNSET', 'optional', 'for', r'\edit', 'and', 'C-x', 'C-e'] in rows
 
 
 def test_configuration_checkup_missing_file(capsys) -> None: