diff --git a/localcppcheck.sh b/localcppcheck.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..52c9077536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/localcppcheck.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#formatted with shfmt v3.6.0 https://github.com/mvdan/sh/releases
+function usage() {
+    echo "${0#*/} Runs cppcheck ONLY on the files in src that have changed from the selected base branch"
+    echo 'By default it uses "master" as the base branch, but you can change it with --base=REV:'
+    echo ""
+    echo "usage: ${0#*/} [--base=REV] change the base branch/commit to use as base for the diff"
+    echo "       ${0#*/} -h|--help   print this help"
+    echo ""
+    echo "for example \`${0#*/} --base=upstream/master\`"
+    echo "for example \`${0#*/} --base=380bb46eea1bc2a38fba94f3f72af2d8d6e41669\`"
+    echo ""
+    echo "you can also export the variable PLMD_MYCCPCHECK_REV to change the base branch/commit"
+    echo "the option --base has precedence over PLMD_MYCCPCHECK_REV"
+}
+
+baserev=${PLMD_MYCCPCHECK_REV:-master}
+
+for arg; do
+    case $arg in
+    --base=*) baserev=${arg#*=} ;;
+    -h | --help)
+        usage
+        exit 0
+        ;;
+    *)
+        usage
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+    esac
+done
+srcdir=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+
+cd "$srcdir" >/dev/null || {
+    echo "Could not cd to $srcdir"
+    exit 1
+}
+
+files=$(
+    git diff-index --diff-filter=ACMR "$baserev" | awk '/src.*(\.h|\.cpp|\.inc\.in)/{print $6}'
+)
+# shellcheck disable=SC2086
+cppcheck --std=c++17 -j 4 --platform=unix64 --language=c++ \
+    -U__GNUG__ -U__PLUMED_HAS_EXTERNAL_LAPACK -U__PLUMED_HAS_EXTERNAL_BLAS \
+    -UGMX_CYGWIN -UF77_NO_UNDERSCORE -U_GLIBCXX_DEBUG -DNDEBUG -U__PLUMED_PBC_WHILE \
+    -U__PLUMED_HAS_ASMJIT \
+    -D__PLUMED_WRAPPER_CXX_EXPLICIT=explicit \
+    --config-exclude=small_vector/ \
+    --template='[{file}:{line}] ({severity}) :{id}: {message}' --enable=all --suppress=missingIncludeSystem --inline-suppr --force \
+    $files