diff --git a/parser-test/Makefile b/parser-test/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..72953fa3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/parser-test/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# Standalone build for the cmd-parse.y AST parser.
+#
+# Compiles only ../cmd-parse.y + ../tmux-parser.h against the local stub tmux.h
+# and tiny helper stubs. The rest of tmux is not needed.
+
+YACC ?= bison -y
+CC ?= cc
+
+CFLAGS += -D_GNU_SOURCE -I. -I.. -g -Wall
+
+OBJS = y.tab.o main.o xstubs.o
+
+parsetest: $(OBJS)
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $(OBJS)
+
+y.tab.c: ../cmd-parse.y
+	$(YACC) -d ../cmd-parse.y
+
+y.tab.o: y.tab.c
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o $@ y.tab.c
+
+main.o: main.c tmux.h
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o $@ main.c
+
+xstubs.o: xstubs.c tmux.h
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o $@ xstubs.c
+
+clean:
+	rm -f parsetest y.tab.c y.tab.h $(OBJS)
+
+.PHONY: clean