diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 27804172b502..ce1815670919 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -56,9 +56,11 @@ Other notes:
 
 - Looking for a good place to start contributing? How about checking out some
   [good first issues](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22)
-- Please make sure to use `gofmt` before every commit - the easiest way to do
-  this is have your editor run it for you upon saving a file. Additionally
-  please ensure that your code is lint compliant by running `make lint`
+- Please make sure to run `make format` before every commit - the easiest way
+  to do this is have your editor run it for you upon saving a file. Additionally
+  please ensure that your code is lint compliant by running `golangci-lint run`.
+  A convenience git `pre-commit` hook that runs the formatters automatically
+  before each commit is available in the `contrib/githooks/` directory.
 
 ## Architecture Decision Records (ADR)
 
diff --git a/contrib/githooks/README.md b/contrib/githooks/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..83057835d49a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/githooks/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Git hooks
+
+Installation:
+
+```
+$ git config core.hooksPath contrib/githooks
+```
+
+## pre-commit
+
+The hook automatically runs `gofmt`, `goimports`, and `misspell`
+to correctly format the `.go` files included in the commit, provided
+that all the aforementioned commands are installed and available
+in the user's search `$PATH` environment variable:
+
+```
+$ go get golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports
+$ go get github.com/golangci/misspell/cmd/misspell@master
+```
+
+It also runs `go mod tidy` and `golangci-lint` if available.
diff --git a/contrib/githooks/pre-commit b/contrib/githooks/pre-commit
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..b80fd291f1bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/githooks/pre-commit
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+CMDS='git go gofmt goimports misspell'
+STAGED_GO_FILES=$(git diff --cached --name-only -- '*.go')
+
+f_echo_stderr() {
+  echo $@ >&2
+}
+
+f_exit_success() {
+  [ x"$@" != "x" ] && f_echo_stderr $@ || exit 0
+}
+trap f_exit_success EXIT
+
+f_check_cmds() {
+  for cmd in ${CMDS}; do
+    which ${cmd} &>/dev/null || f_exit_success "couldn't find ${cmd}, skipping"
+  done
+}
+
+f_check_cmds
+
+if [[ $STAGED_GO_FILES != "" ]]; then
+  f_echo_stderr "[pre-commit] fmt'ing staged files..."
+  for file in $STAGED_GO_FILES; do
+    if [[ $file =~ vendor/ ]] || [[ $file =~ client/lcd/statik/ ]] || [[ $file =~ tests/mocks/ ]] || [[ $file =~ \.pb\.go ]]; then
+      continue
+    fi
+
+    gofmt -w -s $file
+    misspell -w $file
+    goimports -w -local github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk $file
+    git add $file
+
+  done
+fi
+
+# Run go mod tidy
+go mod tidy && git add go.mod go.sum