[BUG] "error: metadata-generation-failed" when installing smolagents[transformers]

[dereklei]

Describe the bug
Running "pip install smolagents[transformers]" on my mac failed. The error I received was "error: metadata-generation-failed" ... debugging found error is triggered when trying to build install the "accelerate" package.

I have fixed the problem by installing smolagents[torch] first, then smolagents[transformers]. So I propose to update smolagents pyproject.toml to install these dependencies in such order. I'm making a PR with such proposal for your review.

I'm running in a newly python virtual environment using venv. Python version 3.13. MacOS Sequoia 15.3.1.

Code to reproduce the error
Steps to reproduce:
0. Make sure your don't have Pytorch installed globally

1. Start with a new Python virtual environment
2. Install smolagents[all] (ie. pip install smolagents[all])
3. You should see the error come up when trying to insteall "accelerate" python package

Error logs (if any)
(ai_agent) MacBook-Pro-8:~ USER$ pip install smolagents[transformers]
Requirement already satisfied: smolagents[transformers] in ./.python_venv/ai_agent/lib/python3.13/site-packages (1.10.0)
....[redacted for conciseness]...
Collecting accelerate (from smolagents[transformers])
Using cached accelerate-1.4.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Collecting transformers<4.49.0,>=4.0.0 (from smolagents[transformers])
Using cached transformers-4.48.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (44 kB)
....[redacted for conciseness]...
INFO: pip is looking at multiple versions of accelerate to determine which version is compatible with other requirements. This could take a while.
Collecting accelerate (from smolagents[transformers])
Using cached accelerate-1.3.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.2.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.1.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.1.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
INFO: pip is still looking at multiple versions of accelerate to determine which version is compatible with other requirements. This could take a while.
Using cached accelerate-0.34.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-0.34.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-0.34.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Using cached accelerate-0.33.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (18 kB)
Collecting numpy>=1.26.0 (from pandas>=2.2.3->smolagents[transformers])
Using cached numpy-1.26.4.tar.gz (15.8 MB)
Installing build dependencies ... done
Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
Installing backend dependencies ... done
Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> [342 lines of output]
....[redacted for conciseness]...

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

Expected behavior
I expect smolagents[all] and smolagents[transformers] to install successfully.

Packages version:
smolagents==1.3.0

Additional context
I'm running in a newly python virtual environment using venv. Python version 3.13. MacOS Sequoia 15.3.1.

I have found a potential solution by switching the order of package installations in pyproject.toml. I'll open a PR for your consideration.