diff --git a/rc/base/lint.kak b/rc/base/lint.kak
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dc8bb4f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rc/base/lint.kak
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+# your linter should output in this format:
+# {filename}:{line}:{column}: {kind}: {message}
+decl str lintcmd
+
+decl -hidden line-flags lint_flags
+decl -hidden str        lint_errors
+
+def lint -docstring 'Parse the current buffer with a linter' %{
+    %sh{
+        dir=$(mktemp -d -t kak-lint.XXXXXXXX)
+        mkfifo "$dir"/fifo
+        printf '%s\n' "eval -no-hooks write $dir/buf"
+
+        printf '%s\n' "eval -draft %{
+                  edit! -fifo $dir/fifo *lint-output*
+                  set buffer filetype make
+                  set buffer _make_current_error_line 0
+                  hook -group fifo buffer BufCloseFifo .* %{
+                      nop %sh{ rm -r '$dir' }
+                      rmhooks buffer fifo
+                  }
+              }"
+
+        { # do the parsing in the background and when ready send to the session
+
+        eval "$kak_opt_lintcmd '$dir'/buf" | sort -t: -k2 -n > "$dir"/stderr
+        printf '%s\n' "eval -client $kak_client echo 'linting done'" | kak -p "$kak_session"
+
+        # Flags for the gutter:
+        #   line3|{red}:line11|{yellow}
+        # Contextual error messages:
+        #   l1,c1,err1
+        #   ln,cn,err2
+        awk -F: -v file="$kak_buffile" -v stamp="$kak_timestamp" '
+            /:[0-9]+:[0-9]+: ([Ff]atal )?[Ee]rror/ {
+                flags = flags $2 "|{red}█:"
+            }
+            /:[0-9]+:[0-9]+:/ {
+                if ($4 !~ /[Ee]rror/) {
+                    flags = flags $2 "|{yellow}█:"
+                }
+            }
+            /:[0-9]+:[0-9]+:/ {
+                errors = errors $2 "," $3 "," substr($4,2) ":"
+                # fix case where $5 is not the last field because of extra :s in the message
+                for (i=5; i<=NF; i++) errors = errors $i ":"
+                errors = substr(errors, 1, length(errors)-1) "\n"
+            }
+            END {
+                print "set \"buffer=" file "\" lint_flags  %{" stamp ":" substr(flags,  1, length(flags)-1)  "}"
+                print "set \"buffer=" file "\" lint_errors %{"           substr(errors, 1, length(errors)-1) "}"
+            }
+        ' "$dir"/stderr | kak -p "$kak_session"
+
+        cut -d: -f2- "$dir"/stderr | sed "s@^@$kak_bufname:@" > "$dir"/fifo
+
+        } >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null &
+    }
+}
+
+def -hidden lint-show %{ %sh{
+    desc=$(printf '%s\n' "$kak_opt_lint_errors" | sed -ne "/^$kak_cursor_line,.*/ { s/^[[:digit:]]\+,[[:digit:]]\+,//g; s/'/\\\\'/g; p }")
+    if [ -n "$desc" ]; then
+        printf '%s\n' "info -anchor $kak_cursor_line.$kak_cursor_column '$desc'"
+    fi
+}}
+
+def lint-enable -docstring "Activate automatic diagnostics of the code" %{
+    addhl flag_lines default lint_flags
+    hook window -group lint-diagnostics NormalIdle .* %{ lint-show }
+    hook window -group lint-diagnostics WinSetOption ^lint_errors=.* %{ info; lint-show }
+}
+
+def lint-disable -docstring "Disable automatic diagnostics of the code" %{
+    rmhl hlflags_lint_flags
+    rmhooks window lint-diagnostics
+}
+
+def lint-next -docstring "Jump to the next line that contains an error" %{ %sh{
+    printf '%s\n' "$kak_opt_lint_errors" | {
+        while read -r line
+        do
+            # get line,column pair
+            coords="${line%,*}"
+            candidate="${coords%,*}"
+            if [ "$candidate" -gt "$kak_cursor_line" ]
+            then
+                break
+            fi
+        done
+        if [ "$candidate" -gt "$kak_cursor_line" ]
+        then
+            col="${coords#*,}"
+        else
+            candidate="${kak_opt_lint_errors%%,*}"
+            col=$(printf '%s\n' "$kak_opt_lint_errors" | head -n1 | cut -d, -f2)
+        fi
+        printf '%s\n' "select $candidate.$col,$candidate.$col"
+    }
+}}