diff --git a/rc/tools/spell.kak b/rc/tools/spell.kak
index 121fe3dd..49bee50c 100644
--- a/rc/tools/spell.kak
+++ b/rc/tools/spell.kak
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 declare-option -hidden range-specs spell_regions
 declare-option -hidden str spell_last_lang
-declare-option -hidden str spell_tmp_file
 
 declare-option -docstring "default language to use when none is passed to the spell-check command" str spell_lang
 
@@ -13,16 +12,10 @@ define-command -params ..1 -docstring %{
       - language code above followed by a dash or underscore with an ISO country code, e.g. 'en-US'
     } spell %{
     try %{ add-highlighter window/ ranges 'spell_regions' }
-    evaluate-commands %sh{
-        file=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}"/kak-spell.XXXXXXXX)/buffer
-        printf 'eval -no-hooks write -sync %s\n' "${file}"
-        printf 'set-option buffer spell_tmp_file %s\n' "${file}"
-    }
     evaluate-commands %sh{
         use_lang() {
             if ! printf %s "$1" | grep -qE '^[a-z]{2,3}([_-][A-Z]{2})?$'; then
                 echo "fail 'Invalid language code (examples of expected format: en, en_US, en-US)'"
-                rm -rf "$(dirname "$kak_opt_spell_tmp_file")"
                 exit 1
             else
                 options="-l '$1'"
@@ -36,8 +29,10 @@ define-command -params ..1 -docstring %{
             use_lang "${kak_opt_spell_lang}"
         fi
 
+        printf 'eval -no-hooks write %s\n' "${kak_response_fifo}" > $kak_command_fifo
+
         {
-            sed 's/^/^/' "$kak_opt_spell_tmp_file" | eval "aspell --byte-offsets -a $options" 2>&1 | awk '
+            sed 's/^/^/' | eval "aspell --byte-offsets -a $options" 2>&1 | awk '
                 BEGIN {
                     line_num = 1
                     regions = ENVIRON["kak_timestamp"]
@@ -83,8 +78,7 @@ define-command -params ..1 -docstring %{
                     close(server_command)
                 }
             '
-            rm -rf $(dirname "$kak_opt_spell_tmp_file")
-        } </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
+        } <$kak_response_fifo >/dev/null 2>&1 &
     }
 }