diff --git a/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp b/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp
deleted file mode 100755
index 70efb6f339..0000000000
--- a/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env sh
-if [ "x$npm_config_node_gyp" = "x" ]; then
-  node "`dirname "$0"`/../../node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "$@"
-else
-  "$npm_config_node_gyp" "$@"
-fi
diff --git a/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp.cmd b/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp.cmd
deleted file mode 100644
index bb0a7f7106..0000000000
--- a/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp.cmd
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-if not defined npm_config_node_gyp (
-  node "%~dp0\..\..\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" %*
-) else (
-  node %npm_config_node_gyp% %*
-)
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 3b845db034..e190e7f940 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
     "minimatch": "^3.0.3",
     "mkdirp": "^0.5.1",
     "node-emoji": "^1.0.4",
-    "node-gyp": "^3.2.1",
     "object-path": "^0.11.2",
     "proper-lockfile": "^2.0.0",
     "read": "^1.0.7",
diff --git a/scripts/build-dist.sh b/scripts/build-dist.sh
index 1c62a12580..11d24ddf46 100755
--- a/scripts/build-dist.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-dist.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ cp LICENSE dist/
 cp artifacts/yarn-legacy-*.js dist/lib/yarn-cli.js
 cp bin/yarn-bundle-entry.js dist/bin/yarn.js
 cp bin/{yarn,yarnpkg,*.cmd} dist/bin/
-cp -r bin/node-gyp-bin dist/bin/
 # We cannot bundle v8-compile-cache as it must be loaded separately to be effective.
 cp node_modules/v8-compile-cache/v8-compile-cache.js dist/lib/v8-compile-cache.js
 
diff --git a/src/reporters/lang/en.js b/src/reporters/lang/en.js
index 78dbcc0931..e1a96e23ed 100644
--- a/src/reporters/lang/en.js
+++ b/src/reporters/lang/en.js
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ const messages = {
   possibleCommands: 'Project commands',
   commandQuestion: 'Which command would you like to run?',
   commandFailed: 'Command failed with exit code $0.',
+  packageRequiresNodeGyp: 'This package requires node-gyp, which is not currently installed. Yarn will attempt to automatically install it. If this fails, you can run "yarn global add node-gyp" to manually install it.',
+  nodeGypAutoInstallFailed: 'Failed to auto-install node-gyp. Please run "yarn global add node-gyp" manually. Error: $0',
 
   foundIncompatible: 'Found incompatible module',
   incompatibleEngine: 'The engine $0 is incompatible with this module. Expected version $1.',
diff --git a/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js b/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
index 7270a27cc9..124e92e4b4 100644
--- a/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
+++ b/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
@@ -5,8 +5,13 @@ import type Config from '../config.js';
 import {MessageError, SpawnError} from '../errors.js';
 import * as constants from '../constants.js';
 import * as child from './child.js';
+import {exists} from './fs.js';
 import {registries} from '../resolvers/index.js';
 import {fixCmdWinSlashes} from './fix-cmd-win-slashes.js';
+import {
+  run as globalRun,
+  getBinFolder as getGlobalBinFolder,
+} from '../cli/commands/global.js';
 
 const path = require('path');
 
@@ -116,8 +121,22 @@ export async function executeLifecycleScript(
   // split up the path
   const pathParts = (env[constants.ENV_PATH_KEY] || '').split(path.delimiter);
 
-  // add node-gyp
-  pathParts.unshift(path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'bin', 'node-gyp-bin'));
+  // Include node-gyp version that was bundled with the current Node.js version,
+  // if available.
+  pathParts.unshift(
+    path.join(
+      path.dirname(process.execPath), 'node_modules', 'npm', 'bin', 'node-gyp-bin',
+    ),
+  );
+  pathParts.unshift(
+    path.join(
+      path.dirname(process.execPath), '..', 'lib', 'node_modules', 'npm', 'bin', 'node-gyp-bin',
+    ),
+  );
+
+  // Add global bin folder, as some packages depend on a globally-installed
+  // version of node-gyp.
+  pathParts.unshift(getGlobalBinFolder(config, {}));
 
   // add .bin folders to PATH
   for (const registry of Object.keys(registries)) {
@@ -126,6 +145,8 @@ export async function executeLifecycleScript(
     pathParts.unshift(path.join(cwd, binFolder));
   }
 
+  await checkForGypIfNeeded(config, cmd, pathParts);
+
   // join path back together
   env[constants.ENV_PATH_KEY] = pathParts.join(path.delimiter);
 
@@ -168,6 +189,57 @@ export async function executeLifecycleScript(
 
 export default executeLifecycleScript;
 
+let checkGypPromise: ?Promise<void> = null;
+/**
+ * Special case: Some packages depend on node-gyp, but don't specify this in
+ * their package.json dependencies. They assume that node-gyp is available
+ * globally. We need to detect this case and show an error message.
+ */
+function checkForGypIfNeeded(
+  config: Config,
+  cmd: string,
+  paths: Array<string>,
+): Promise<void> {
+  if (cmd.substr(0, cmd.indexOf(' ')) !== 'node-gyp') {
+    return Promise.resolve();
+  }
+
+  // Ensure this only runs once, rather than multiple times in parallel.
+  if (!checkGypPromise) {
+    checkGypPromise = _checkForGyp(config, paths);
+  }
+  return checkGypPromise;
+}
+
+async function _checkForGyp(
+  config: Config,
+  paths: Array<string>,
+): Promise<void> {
+  const {reporter} = config;
+
+  // Check every directory in the PATH
+  const allChecks = await Promise.all(
+    paths.map((dir) => exists(path.join(dir, 'node-gyp'))),
+  );
+  if (allChecks.some(Boolean)) {
+    // node-gyp is available somewhere
+    return;
+  }
+
+  reporter.info(reporter.lang('packageRequiresNodeGyp'));
+
+  try {
+    await globalRun(
+      config,
+      reporter,
+      {},
+      ['add', 'node-gyp'],
+    );
+  } catch (e) {
+    throw new MessageError(reporter.lang('nodeGypAutoInstallFailed', e.message));
+  }
+}
+
 export async function execFromManifest(config: Config, commandName: string, cwd: string): Promise<void> {
   const pkg = await config.maybeReadManifest(cwd);
   if (!pkg || !pkg.scripts) {
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 6728e7b4af..81fa74be14 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -3295,24 +3295,6 @@ node-emoji@^1.0.4:
   dependencies:
     string.prototype.codepointat "^0.2.0"
 
-node-gyp@^3.2.1:
-  version "3.5.0"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/node-gyp/-/node-gyp-3.5.0.tgz#a8fe5e611d079ec16348a3eb960e78e11c85274a"
-  dependencies:
-    fstream "^1.0.0"
-    glob "^7.0.3"
-    graceful-fs "^4.1.2"
-    minimatch "^3.0.2"
-    mkdirp "^0.5.0"
-    nopt "2 || 3"
-    npmlog "0 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4"
-    osenv "0"
-    request "2"
-    rimraf "2"
-    semver "2.x || 3.x || 4 || 5"
-    tar "^2.0.0"
-    which "1"
-
 node-int64@^0.4.0:
   version "0.4.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/node-int64/-/node-int64-0.4.0.tgz#87a9065cdb355d3182d8f94ce11188b825c68a3b"
@@ -3368,7 +3350,7 @@ node-pre-gyp@^0.6.29:
     tar "~2.2.1"
     tar-pack "~3.3.0"
 
-"nopt@2 || 3", nopt@~3.0.6:
+nopt@~3.0.6:
   version "3.0.6"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/nopt/-/nopt-3.0.6.tgz#c6465dbf08abcd4db359317f79ac68a646b28ff9"
   dependencies:
@@ -3387,7 +3369,7 @@ normalize-path@^2.0.1:
   version "2.0.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/normalize-path/-/normalize-path-2.0.1.tgz#47886ac1662760d4261b7d979d241709d3ce3f7a"
 
-"npmlog@0 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4", npmlog@^4.0.1:
+npmlog@^4.0.1:
   version "4.0.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/npmlog/-/npmlog-4.0.2.tgz#d03950e0e78ce1527ba26d2a7592e9348ac3e75f"
   dependencies:
@@ -3501,13 +3483,6 @@ os-tmpdir@^1.0.0, os-tmpdir@^1.0.1, os-tmpdir@~1.0.1:
   version "1.0.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/os-tmpdir/-/os-tmpdir-1.0.2.tgz#bbe67406c79aa85c5cfec766fe5734555dfa1274"
 
-osenv@0:
-  version "0.1.4"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/osenv/-/osenv-0.1.4.tgz#42fe6d5953df06c8064be6f176c3d05aaaa34644"
-  dependencies:
-    os-homedir "^1.0.0"
-    os-tmpdir "^1.0.0"
-
 p-limit@^1.1.0:
   version "1.1.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/p-limit/-/p-limit-1.1.0.tgz#b07ff2d9a5d88bec806035895a2bab66a27988bc"
@@ -3903,7 +3878,7 @@ request-capture-har@^1.2.2:
   version "1.2.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/request-capture-har/-/request-capture-har-1.2.2.tgz#cd692cfb2cc744fd84a3358aac6ee51528cf720d"
 
-request@2, request@^2.79.0, request@^2.81.0:
+request@^2.79.0, request@^2.81.0:
   version "2.81.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/request/-/request-2.81.0.tgz#c6928946a0e06c5f8d6f8a9333469ffda46298a0"
   dependencies:
@@ -4054,7 +4029,7 @@ sax@^1.2.1:
   version "1.2.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/sax/-/sax-1.2.2.tgz#fd8631a23bc7826bef5d871bdb87378c95647828"
 
-"semver@2 || 3 || 4 || 5", "semver@2.x || 3.x || 4 || 5", semver@^5.1.0, semver@^5.3.0, semver@~5.3.0:
+"semver@2 || 3 || 4 || 5", semver@^5.1.0, semver@^5.3.0, semver@~5.3.0:
   version "5.3.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/semver/-/semver-5.3.0.tgz#9b2ce5d3de02d17c6012ad326aa6b4d0cf54f94f"
 
@@ -4352,7 +4327,7 @@ tar-stream@^1.1.2, tar-stream@^1.5.2:
     readable-stream "^2.0.0"
     xtend "^4.0.0"
 
-tar@^2.0.0, tar@~2.2.1:
+tar@~2.2.1:
   version "2.2.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/tar/-/tar-2.2.1.tgz#8e4d2a256c0e2185c6b18ad694aec968b83cb1d1"
   dependencies:
@@ -4705,7 +4680,7 @@ which-module@^1.0.0:
   version "1.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/which-module/-/which-module-1.0.0.tgz#bba63ca861948994ff307736089e3b96026c2a4f"
 
-which@1, which@^1.1.1, which@^1.2.12:
+which@^1.1.1, which@^1.2.12:
   version "1.2.12"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/which/-/which-1.2.12.tgz#de67b5e450269f194909ef23ece4ebe416fa1192"
   dependencies: