diff --git a/Dockerfile.dapper b/Dockerfile.dapper
index 158a099..4561f45 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.dapper
+++ b/Dockerfile.dapper
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ RUN export K8S_VERSION=1.24.2 && \
     mkdir /usr/local/kubebuilder && \
     tar -C /usr/local/kubebuilder --strip-components=1 -zvxf envtest-bins.tar.gz
 
+RUN curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/golangci/golangci-lint/master/install.sh | sh -s v1.55.2
+
 ENV DAPPER_ENV REPO TAG DRONE_TAG CROSS
 ENV DAPPER_SOURCE /go/src/github.com/harvester/vm-import-controller
 ENV DAPPER_OUTPUT ./bin
diff --git a/scripts/ci b/scripts/ci
index 6607ef3..0be4c44 100755
--- a/scripts/ci
+++ b/scripts/ci
@@ -3,5 +3,6 @@ set -e
 
 cd $(dirname $0)
 
+./validate
 ./build
 ./test
diff --git a/scripts/validate b/scripts/validate
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5cb8a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/validate
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+cd $(dirname $0)/..
+
+echo "Running validation"
+
+if [[ -z "$(command -v golangci-lint)" ]]; then
+	echo "no golangci-lint available, using go fmt/vet instead"
+	echo "Running: go fmt"
+	go fmt ./...
+	echo "Running: go vet"
+	go vet -tags=test ./...
+	exit
+fi
+
+echo "Running: golangci-lint run"
+golangci-lint run