diff --git a/.gometalinter.json b/.gometalinter.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4cd25d5ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gometalinter.json
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+{
+    "Enable": [
+        "deadcode",
+        "errcheck",
+        "goimports",
+        "golint",
+        "ineffassign",
+        "structcheck",
+        "varcheck",
+        "vet"
+    ],
+    "EnableGC": true,
+    "Vendor": true
+}
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2835626b2..366115625 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -56,6 +56,16 @@ else
 	@echo Skipping source quality tests as version of go too old
 endif
 
+gometalinter_install:
+	go get -u github.com/alecthomas/gometalinter
+	gometalinter --install --update
+
+# We aren't using gometalinter as the default linter yet because
+# 1. it doesn't support build tags: https://github.com/alecthomas/gometalinter/issues/275
+# 2. can't get -printfuncs working with the vet linter
+gometalinter:
+	gometalinter ./...
+
 # Get the build dependencies
 build_dep:
 ifdef FULL_TESTS