diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 680479b..f4e8884 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,29 @@ on:
   workflow_dispatch:
 
 jobs:
+  lint:
+    name: lint (rustfmt + clippy)
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout (with vendored parakeet.cpp + ggml submodules)
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          submodules: recursive
+
+      - name: Ensure rustfmt + clippy components
+        run: rustup component add rustfmt clippy
+
+      - name: rustfmt
+        run: cargo fmt --all --check
+
+      # clippy compiles the vendored ggml (CPU-only here; the GPU backends are
+      # exercised by the build matrix). cmake + a C/C++ toolchain are needed.
+      - name: Install build deps
+        run: sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get install -y cmake ninja-build build-essential
+
+      - name: clippy
+        run: cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
+
   build:
     name: build-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.kind }}
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 88eb271..8308ed9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # parakeet-cpp
 
+[![ci](https://github.com/fiorelorenzo/parakeet-cpp/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/fiorelorenzo/parakeet-cpp/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
+
 Safe Rust bindings for [mudler/parakeet.cpp](https://github.com/mudler/parakeet.cpp) — a
 ggml-based C++ port of NVIDIA's Parakeet and Nemotron ASR models. Provides offline
 one-shot transcription and two streaming modes (real cache-aware streaming and