diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 0c31cdb99ff..bf9d67755da 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -3,3 +3,10 @@ repos:
     rev: "v2.7.1"
     hooks:
       - id: prettier
+  - repo: https://github.com/python-jsonschema/check-jsonschema
+    rev: 0.21.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: check-jsonschema
+        # match meta.ymls in one of the subdirectories of modules/nf-core
+        files: ^modules/nf-core/.*/meta\.yml$
+        args: ["--schemafile", "yaml-schema.json"]
diff --git a/yaml-schema.json b/yaml-schema.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..350ad1bcb4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/yaml-schema.json
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+{
+    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
+    "title": "Meta yaml",
+    "description": "Validate the meta yaml file for an nf-core module",
+    "type": "object",
+    "properties": {
+        "name": {
+            "type": "string",
+            "description": "Name of the module"
+        },
+        "description": {
+            "type": "string",
+            "description": "Description of the module"
+        },
+        "keywords": {
+            "type": "array",
+            "description": "Keywords for the module",
+            "items": {
+                "type": "string"
+            },
+            "minItems": 3
+        },
+        "authors": {
+            "type": "array",
+            "description": "Authors of the module",
+            "items": {
+                "type": "string"
+            }
+        },
+        "input": {
+            "type": "array",
+            "description": "Input channels for the module",
+
+            "items": {
+                "type": "object",
+                "patternProperties": {
+                    ".*": {
+                        "type": "object",
+                        "properties": {
+                            "type": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Type of the input channel",
+                                "enum": ["map", "file", "directory", "string", "integer", "float"]
+                            },
+                            "description": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Description of the input channel"
+                            },
+                            "pattern": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Pattern of the input channel, given in Java glob syntax"
+                            },
+                            "default": {
+                                "type": ["string", "number", "boolean", "array", "object"],
+                                "description": "Default value for the input channel"
+                            }
+                        },
+                        "required": ["type", "description"]
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        },
+        "output": {
+            "type": "array",
+            "description": "Output channels for the module",
+            "items": {
+                "type": "object",
+                "patternProperties": {
+                    ".*": {
+                        "type": "object",
+                        "properties": {
+                            "type": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Type of the output channel",
+                                "enum": ["map", "file", "directory", "string", "integer", "float"]
+                            },
+                            "description": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Description of the output channel"
+                            },
+                            "pattern": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Pattern of the input channel, given in Java glob syntax"
+                            }
+                        },
+                        "required": ["type", "description"]
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        },
+        "tools": {
+            "type": "array",
+            "description": "Tools used by the module",
+            "items": {
+                "type": "object",
+                "patternProperties": {
+                    ".*": {
+                        "type": "object",
+                        "properties": {
+                            "description": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Description of the output channel"
+                            },
+                            "homepage": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Homepage of the tool",
+                                "pattern": "^(http|https)://.*$"
+                            },
+                            "documentation": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "Documentation of the tool",
+                                "pattern": "^(http|https)://.*$"
+                            },
+                            "tool_dev_url": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "URL of the development version of the tool's documentation",
+                                "pattern": "^(http|https)://.*$"
+                            },
+                            "doi": {
+                                "type": "string",
+                                "description": "DOI of the tool",
+                                "pattern": "^10.\\d{4,9}\\/[^,]+$"
+                            },
+                            "licence": {
+                                "type": ["array", "string"],
+                                "description": "Licence of the tool",
+                                "items": {
+                                    "type": "string"
+                                },
+                                "uniqueItems": true
+                            }
+                        },
+                        "required": ["description"],
+                        "anyOf": [
+                            { "required": ["homepage"] },
+                            { "required": ["documentation"] },
+                            { "required": ["tool_dev_url"] },
+                            { "required": ["doi"] }
+                        ]
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    },
+    "required": ["name", "description", "keywords", "authors", "output", "tools"]
+}