Hugo's README.md states "The Hugo binaries have no external dependencies." However, running hugo server causes the error Error: failed to download modules: binary with name "go" not found. This is fixed by installing the Go tools. So, it seems Hugo has taken on some external dependencies.

I am the maintainer of the Fedora Hugo package. Changing the Hugo package to depend on golang-bin brought in a large volume of dependencies, such as GCC. This is not optimal for some uses, such as CI pipelines, which benefit from small installs. We are trying to come up with a solution for this, but I thought I would investigate where this dependency came from.

What version of Hugo are you using (hugo version)?

$ hugo version
hugo v0.93.3+extended linux/amd64 BuildDate=unknown

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes.