diff --git a/evaluators/bertscore/__pycache__/bertscore.cpython-314.pyc b/evaluators/bertscore/__pycache__/bertscore.cpython-314.pyc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..551cc69
Binary files /dev/null and b/evaluators/bertscore/__pycache__/bertscore.cpython-314.pyc differ
diff --git a/evaluators/bertscore/bertscore.py b/evaluators/bertscore/bertscore.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebce14d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/evaluators/bertscore/bertscore.py
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+"""BERTScore semantic similarity evaluator.
+
+Computes BERTScore (precision, recall, F1) between each invocation's response
+and a reference text using contextual embeddings and cosine similarity.
+
+Config:
+  expected (str): Required. Reference text to compare against. If omitted, returns NOT_EVALUATED.
+  model_name (str, default "distilbert-base-uncased"): HuggingFace model for embeddings.
+  metric (str, default "f1"): Primary score component: "precision", "recall", or "f1".
+
+Usage:
+    config:
+      expected: "reference answer"
+      metric: "f1"
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import sys
+
+import torch
+from transformers import AutoModel, AutoTokenizer
+
+from agentevals_evaluator_sdk import EvalInput, EvalResult, EvalStatus, evaluator
+
+_VALID_METRICS = ("precision", "recall", "f1")
+
+
+def _compute_bertscore(
+    candidate: str,
+    reference: str,
+    tokenizer: AutoTokenizer,
+    model: AutoModel,
+    device: torch.device,
+) -> dict[str, float]:
+    """Compute BERTScore precision, recall, and F1 for a candidate-reference pair."""
+    cand = tokenizer(candidate, return_tensors="pt", padding=True, truncation=True).to(device)
+    ref = tokenizer(reference, return_tensors="pt", padding=True, truncation=True).to(device)
+
+    with torch.no_grad():
+        cand_emb = torch.nn.functional.normalize(model(**cand).last_hidden_state, dim=-1)
+        ref_emb = torch.nn.functional.normalize(model(**ref).last_hidden_state, dim=-1)
+
+    sim = torch.bmm(cand_emb, ref_emb.transpose(1, 2))
+
+    precision = sim.max(dim=2)[0].mean().item()
+    recall = sim.max(dim=1)[0].mean().item()
+    f1 = 2 * precision * recall / (precision + recall) if (precision + recall) > 0 else 0.0
+
+    return {"precision": precision, "recall": recall, "f1": f1}
+
+
+@evaluator
+def bertscore(input: EvalInput) -> EvalResult:
+    expected = input.config.get("expected")
+    if expected is None:
+        n = len(input.invocations)
+        return EvalResult(
+            score=0.0,
+            status=EvalStatus.NOT_EVALUATED,
+            per_invocation_scores=[None] * n,
+            details={"reason": "missing config: expected"},
+        )
+
+    metric = input.config.get("metric", "f1")
+    if metric not in _VALID_METRICS:
+        print(f"WARNING: invalid metric '{metric}', using 'f1'", file=sys.stderr)
+        metric = "f1"
+
+    model_name = input.config.get("model_name", "distilbert-base-uncased")
+    reference = str(expected)
+
+    device = torch.device("cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu")
+    tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_name)
+    model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(model_name).to(device)
+    model.eval()
+
+    scores: list[float] = []
+    details_rows: list[dict] = []
+
+    for inv in input.invocations:
+        result = _compute_bertscore(inv.final_response or "", reference, tokenizer, model, device)
+        scores.append(result[metric])
+        details_rows.append({"invocation_id": inv.invocation_id, **result})
+
+    overall = sum(scores) / len(scores) if scores else 0.0
+    return EvalResult(
+        score=overall,
+        per_invocation_scores=scores,
+        details={"metric": metric, "model_name": model_name, "per_invocation": details_rows},
+    )
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    bertscore.run()
diff --git a/evaluators/bertscore/evaluator.yaml b/evaluators/bertscore/evaluator.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96231d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/evaluators/bertscore/evaluator.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+name: bertscore
+description: Semantic similarity scoring using BERTScore (precision, recall, F1) between response and reference text
+language: python
+entrypoint: bertscore.py
+tags: [semantic, similarity, bert, nlp]
+author: agentevals-dev
diff --git a/evaluators/bertscore/requirements.txt b/evaluators/bertscore/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99dd060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/evaluators/bertscore/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+--extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
+torch
+transformers
diff --git a/scripts/validate_evaluator.py b/scripts/validate_evaluator.py
index 13379e3..60508ee 100644
--- a/scripts/validate_evaluator.py
+++ b/scripts/validate_evaluator.py
@@ -108,6 +108,15 @@ def validate_syntax(evaluator_dir: Path, manifest: dict) -> bool:
             return False
         _ok("Imports, decorator, and explicit run() present")
 
+        req_file = evaluator_dir / "requirements.txt"
+        if req_file.exists():
+            lines = req_file.read_text().strip().splitlines()
+            valid_lines = [l.strip() for l in lines if l.strip() and not l.strip().startswith("#")]
+            if not valid_lines:
+                _fail("requirements.txt exists but contains no dependencies")
+                return False
+            _ok(f"requirements.txt found ({len(valid_lines)} dependencies)")
+
     elif language in ("javascript", "typescript"):
         ext = Path(entrypoint).suffix
         expected = LANGUAGE_EXTENSIONS.get(language, set())
@@ -124,6 +133,11 @@ def validate_syntax(evaluator_dir: Path, manifest: dict) -> bool:
 
 def validate_smoke_run(evaluator_dir: Path, manifest: dict) -> bool:
     """Run the evaluator with synthetic input and validate the output."""
+    req_file = evaluator_dir / "requirements.txt"
+    if req_file.exists() and req_file.read_text().strip():
+        _ok("Skipping smoke run: evaluator has requirements.txt (deps may not be installed)")
+        return True
+
     language = manifest.get("language", "python")
     entrypoint = manifest["entrypoint"]
     entry_path = evaluator_dir / entrypoint