diff --git a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
index 0d041b2aa9..daa2a7d90a 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ if(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS) # for all pkg libs, mpi_stubs and linalg
 endif()
 
 option(BUILD_TOOLS "Build and install LAMMPS tools (msi2lmp, binary2txt, chain)" OFF)
+option(BUILD_SHELL "Build and install the LAMMPS shell" OFF)
 
 include(GNUInstallDirs)
 file(GLOB ALL_SOURCES ${LAMMPS_SOURCE_DIR}/[^.]*.cpp)
@@ -642,6 +643,23 @@ if(BUILD_TOOLS)
   install(FILES ${LAMMPS_DOC_DIR}/msi2lmp.1 DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR}/man1)
 endif()
 
+if(BUILD_SHELL)
+  include(FindPkgConfig)
+  pkg_check_modules(READLINE IMPORTED_TARGET readline)
+  if(PKG_CONFIG_FOUND AND READLINE_FOUND)
+    if(NOT LAMMPS_EXCEPTIONS)
+      message(FATAL_ERROR "The LAMMPS shell requires LAMMPS_EXCEPTIONS enabled")
+    endif()
+    add_executable(lammps-shell ${LAMMPS_TOOLS_DIR}/lammps-shell/lammps-shell.cpp)
+    target_compile_definitions(lammps-shell PRIVATE -DLAMMPS_LIB_NO_MPI)
+    target_link_libraries(lammps-shell PRIVATE lammps)
+    target_link_libraries(lammps-shell PRIVATE PkgConfig::READLINE)
+    install(TARGETS lammps-shell DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR})
+  else()
+    message(WARNING "PkgConfig info for readline library not found, skipping build of 'lammps-shell'")
+  endif()
+endif()
+
 include(Documentation)
 
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