diff --git a/packages/core/utils/src/index.ts b/packages/core/utils/src/index.ts
index c7d6a0837..48b901184 100644
--- a/packages/core/utils/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core/utils/src/index.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ const shelljs = require('shelljs');
 const clipboardy = require('clipboardy');
 
 import { canonicalHost } from './host';
+import * as findUp from 'find-up';
+import * as fs from 'fs-extra';
 export { canonicalHost, defaultCorsHost, defaultHost, dockerHostSwap, isDocker } from './host';
 export { downloadFile, findNextPort, getJson, httpGet, httpsGet, httpGetJson, httpsGetJson, pingEndpoint } from './network';
 export { testRpcWithEndpoint, testWsEndpoint } from './check';
@@ -53,6 +55,10 @@ export {
 } from './pathUtils';
 export { setUpEnv } from './env';
 
+import {
+  dappPath
+} from './pathUtils';
+
 const { extendZeroAddressShorthand, replaceZeroAddressShorthand } = AddressUtils;
 
 export { compact, last, recursiveMerge, groupBy } from './collections';
@@ -298,3 +304,23 @@ export function isConstructor(obj) {
 export function isEs6Module(module) {
   return (typeof module === 'function' && isConstructor(module)) || (typeof module === 'object' && typeof module.default === 'function' && module.__esModule);
 }
+
+export function warnIfPackageNotDefinedLocally(packageName, warnFunc) {
+  const packageIsResolvable = findUp.sync("node_modules/" + packageName, {cwd: dappPath()});
+  if (!packageIsResolvable) {
+    return warnFunc("== WARNING: it seems "  + packageName + " is not defined in your dapp package.json; In future versions of embark this package should be a local dependency and configured as a plugin");
+  }
+
+  const dappPackage = fs.readJSONSync(dappPath("package.json"));
+  const { dependencies, devDependencies } = dappPackage;
+  if (!((dependencies && dependencies[packageName]) || (devDependencies && devDependencies[packageName]))) {
+    return warnFunc("== WARNING: it seems "  + packageName + " is not defined in your dapp package.json dependencies; In future versions of embark this package should be a local dependency and configured as a plugin");
+  }
+
+  const embarkConfig = fs.readJSONSync(dappPath("embark.json"));
+  if (!embarkConfig.plugins[packageName]) {
+    return warnFunc("== WARNING: it seems "  + packageName + " is not defined in your dapp embark.json plugins; In future versions of embark this package should be a local dependency and configured as a plugin");
+  }
+
+  return true;
+}
\ No newline at end of file