diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 55f26ece5..0f5696369 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -62,15 +62,10 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/setup-python@v2
         with:
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        run: |
-          python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
-          if [ -f requirements_py.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements_py.txt; fi
-          pip install pylint
       - name: Lint with Pylint
         run: |
           # In the future we should have (minimum score of 8.0/10.0 or 9.0/10.0)
-          pylint --rcfile=.pylintrc $(git ls-files '*.py') --fail-under=5.0
+          scripts/pylint.sh 5.0
   unit-and-integration-test:
     name: Unit and Integration Tests
     runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 71f3f5701..66a2cde54 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -47,7 +47,6 @@ ethash*/
 lua-*/
 benchmark-results/
 CMakeFiles/
-Python-*/
 plots/
 .deps/
 .libs/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 36104729f..86c9606c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ Then it runs clang-format and clang-tidy on `.cpp` files in the following direct
 
 ### Python
 Lint all python files according to ruleset defined in `.pylintrc`.
+Optional code quality value >= 5.0 and <= 10.0 can be entered as a threshold of failure.
 ```console
-pylint --rcfile=.pylintrc $(git ls-files '*.py') --fail-under=8.0
+scripts/pylint.sh 8.0
 ```
diff --git a/scripts/install-build-tools.sh b/scripts/install-build-tools.sh
index 258e7611a..36736ba22 100755
--- a/scripts/install-build-tools.sh
+++ b/scripts/install-build-tools.sh
@@ -14,41 +14,21 @@ if (( $EUID != 0 )); then
     SUDO='sudo'
 fi
 
-# Function to check if a version of Python >= 3.10 is installed
-check_python_version() {
-  if command -v python3 &>/dev/null; then
-    # Get the version of Python
-    PYTHON_VERSION=$(python3 --version | awk '{print $2}')
-    IFS='.' read -r -a version_parts <<< "$PYTHON_VERSION"
-    echo "Python version: ${version_parts[0]}.${version_parts[1]}"
-    # >= 3.10
-    if (( ${version_parts[0]} >= 3 && ${version_parts[1]} >= 10 )); then
-      return 0
-    fi
-  fi
-  return 1
-}
-
 if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
   CPUS=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
   # ensure development environment is set correctly for clang
   $SUDO xcode-select -switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
-  # see if homebrew is installed and install if not
-  if ! [[ -f /opt/homebrew/bin/brew ]]; then
-    echo -e "${green}Installing Homebrew...${end}"
-    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
+
+  # need homebrew to install dependencies
+  if ! command -v brew &>/dev/null; then
+    # exit with error if user does not have homebrew installed
+    echo -e "${cyan}Homebrew is required to install dependencies.${end}"
+    exit 1
   fi
-  export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
 
-  brew install llvm@14 googletest google-benchmark lcov make wget cmake curl bash python3 pylint python-matplotlib
+  brew install llvm@14 googletest google-benchmark lcov make wget cmake bash python3 pylint python-matplotlib
   brew upgrade bash
 
-  # Add Python 3 to PATH
-  echo "export PATH=\"/opt/homebrew/opt/python@3/bin:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bash_profile
-  # Make python3 default
-  echo "alias python=python3" >> ~/.bash_profile
-  . ~/.bash_profile
-
   CLANG_TIDY=/usr/local/bin/clang-tidy
   if [ ! -L "$CLANG_TIDY" ]; then
     $SUDO ln -s $(brew --prefix)/opt/llvm@14/bin/clang-tidy /usr/local/bin/clang-tidy
@@ -68,8 +48,8 @@ elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "linux-gnu"* ]]; then
   $SUDO ln -s -f $(which clang-format-14) /usr/local/bin/clang-format
   $SUDO ln -s -f $(which clang-tidy-14) /usr/local/bin/clang-tidy
 
-  # Python 3.10+ not installed so get the latest version
-  if ! check_python_version; then
+  # if Python 3.10+ is not installed, get the latest version
+  if ! python3 --version | grep -E 'Python 3.1[0-9]+'; then
     $SUDO add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
     $SUDO apt update
 
diff --git a/scripts/pylint.sh b/scripts/pylint.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..0388f8eeb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/pylint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# minimum standard of code quality (up to 10.0)
+MIN_QUALITY=8.0
+
+# set minimum quality to user input if provided if > 5.0
+if [ -n "$1" ]; then
+  if (( $(echo "$1 >= 5.0" | bc -l) )); then
+    MIN_QUALITY=$1
+  else
+    echo "Minimum code quality must be greater than 5.0"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+fi
+
+echo "Linting Python code with minimum quality of $MIN_QUALITY/10.0..."
+
+pylint --rcfile=.pylintrc $(git ls-files '*.py') --fail-under=$MIN_QUALITY
+
+if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+  echo "Linting failed, please fix the issues above."
+  exit 1
+else
+  echo "Linting passed."
+fi