diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index a3a79b9..decb367 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ var app = &cli.Command{
 		syncCmd,
 		spell,
 		profile,
+		validateCmd,
 	},
 	Version: version,
 	Flags: []cli.Flag{
diff --git a/validate.go b/validate.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..586df22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/validate.go
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+
+	"fiatjaf.com/nostr"
+	"fiatjaf.com/nostr/schema"
+	"github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
+)
+
+var validateCmd = &cli.Command{
+	Name:  "validate",
+	Usage: "validates events against the provided RoK YAML schema",
+	Description: `takes a URL to a YAML schema in the same format as that of https://github.com/nostr-protocol/registry-of-kinds (defaults to that one) and validates the event tags and content against it, according to its kind.
+
+example:
+nak event -k 1 -p not_a_pubkey | nak validate
+>> schema validation failed: tag[0][1]: invalid pubkey value 'not_a_pubkey' at tag 'p', index 1: pubkey should be 64-char hex, got 'not_a_pubkey'
+`,
+	DisableSliceFlagSeparator: true,
+	Flags: []cli.Flag{
+		&cli.StringFlag{
+			Name:      "schema",
+			Usage:     "url to download the YAML schema from, or path to the file",
+			Value:     "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nostr-protocol/registry-of-kinds/refs/heads/master/schema.yaml",
+			TakesFile: true,
+		},
+	},
+	Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command) error {
+		var validator schema.Validator
+
+		if schemaURL := c.String("schema"); strings.HasPrefix(schemaURL, "http") {
+			var err error
+			validator, err = schema.NewValidatorFromURL(schemaURL)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("failed to instantiate validator from '%s': %w", schemaURL, err)
+			}
+		} else {
+			var err error
+			validator, err = schema.NewValidatorFromFile(schemaURL)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("failed to instantiate validator from %s: %w", schemaURL, err)
+			}
+		}
+
+		handleEvent := func(stdinEvent string) error {
+			evt := nostr.Event{}
+			if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(stdinEvent), &evt); err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("invalid event JSON: %w", err)
+			}
+
+			if err := validator.ValidateEvent(evt); err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("schema validation failed: %w", err)
+			}
+
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		for stdinEvent := range getJsonsOrBlank() {
+			if stdinEvent == "" {
+				for _, arg := range c.Args().Slice() {
+					if err := handleEvent(arg); err != nil {
+						ctx = lineProcessingError(ctx, "%s", err)
+					}
+				}
+				continue
+			}
+
+			if err := handleEvent(stdinEvent); err != nil {
+				ctx = lineProcessingError(ctx, "%s", err)
+			}
+		}
+
+		exitIfLineProcessingError(ctx)
+		return nil
+	},
+}