diff --git a/gnu/packages/text-editors.scm b/gnu/packages/text-editors.scm
index 4e2324dbea..3b61d538c4 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/text-editors.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/text-editors.scm
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU
 ;;; Copyright © 2016 José Miguel Sánchez García <jmi2k@openmailbox.org>
+;;; Copyright © 2016 Carlo Zancanaro <carlo@zancanaro.id.au>
 ;;;
 ;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
 ;;;
@@ -19,13 +20,18 @@
 (define-module (gnu packages text-editors)
   #:use-module (guix packages)
   #:use-module (guix download)
+  #:use-module (guix git-download)
   #:use-module (guix utils)
   #:use-module (guix build-system gnu)
   #:use-module ((guix licenses) #:prefix license:)
   #:use-module (gnu packages)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages boost)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages documentation)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages gcc)
   #:use-module (gnu packages lua)
   #:use-module (gnu packages ncurses)
-  #:use-module (gnu packages terminals))
+  #:use-module (gnu packages ruby)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages xml))
 
 (define-public vis
   (package
@@ -75,3 +81,68 @@ based command language.")
     (license (list license:isc               ; Main distribution.
                    license:public-domain     ; map.[ch]
                    license:expat))))         ; lexers and libutf.[ch]
+
+(define-public kakoune
+  (let ((commit "125c8b7e80995732e0d8c87b82040025748f1b4f")
+        (revision "1"))
+    (package
+      (name "kakoune")
+      (version (string-append "0.0.0-" revision "." (string-take commit 7)))
+      (source
+       (origin
+         (file-name (string-append "kakoune-" version "-checkout"))
+         (method git-fetch)
+         (uri (git-reference
+               (url "https://github.com/mawww/kakoune.git")
+               (commit commit)))
+         (sha256
+          (base32
+           "19qs99l8r9p1vi5pxxx9an22fvi7xx40qw3jh2cnh2mbacawvdyb"))))
+      (build-system gnu-build-system)
+      (arguments
+       `(#:make-flags (list (string-append "PREFIX=" (assoc-ref %outputs "out"))
+                            ;; Boost is compiled with the older ABI, so we can't use
+                            ;; the new ABI if we want to link againt it.
+                            "CPPFLAGS=-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0")
+         #:phases
+         (modify-phases %standard-phases
+           (add-after 'unpack 'patch-source
+             (lambda _
+               ;; kakoune uses confstr with _CS_PATH to find out where to find
+               ;; a posix shell, but this doesn't work in the build
+               ;; environment. This substitution just replaces that result
+               ;; with the "sh" path.
+               (substitute* "src/shell_manager.cc"
+                 (("if \\(m_shell.empty\\(\\)\\)" line)
+                  (string-append "m_shell = \"" (which "sh")
+                                 "\";\n        " line)))
+               ;; Kakoune uses 'gzip' to compress its manpages. Make sure
+               ;; timestamps are not preserved for reproducibility.
+               (substitute* "src/Makefile"
+                 (("gzip -f") "gzip -f --no-name"))
+               #t))
+           (delete 'configure)
+           ;; kakoune requires us to be in the src/ directory to build
+           (add-before 'build 'chdir
+             (lambda _ (chdir "src") #t))
+           (add-before 'check 'fix-test-permissions
+             (lambda _
+               ;; Out git downloader doesn't give us write permissions, but
+               ;; without them the tests fail.
+               (zero? (system* "chmod" "-R" "u+w" "../test")))))))
+      (native-inputs `(("gcc" ,gcc-5)
+                       ("libxslt" ,libxslt)
+                       ("asciidoc" ,asciidoc)
+                       ("ruby" ,ruby)))
+      (inputs `(("gcc:lib" ,gcc-5 "lib")
+                ("ncurses" ,ncurses)
+                ("boost" ,boost)))
+      (synopsis "Vim-inspired code editor")
+      (description
+       "Kakoune is a code editor heavily inspired by Vim, as such most of its
+commands are similar to Vi's ones, and it shares Vi's \"keystrokes as a text
+editing language\" model.  Kakoune has a strong focus on interactivity, most
+commands provide immediate and incremental results, while still being
+competitive (as in keystroke count) with Vim.")
+      (home-page "http://kakoune.org/")
+      (license license:unlicense))))