diff --git a/GNUmakefile b/GNUmakefile
index 7e24146e3..ad9d3b917 100644
--- a/GNUmakefile
+++ b/GNUmakefile
@@ -183,6 +183,9 @@ check: ## Lint the source code
 	@$(MAKE) proto
 	@if (git status | grep -q .pb.go); then echo the following proto files are out of sync; git status |grep .pb.go; exit 1; fi
 
+	@echo "==> Check API package is isolated from rest"
+	@! go list -f '{{ join .Deps "\n" }}' ./api | grep github.com/hashicorp/nomad/ | grep -v -e /vendor/ -e /nomad/api/
+
 .PHONY: checkscripts
 checkscripts: ## Lint shell scripts
 	@echo "==> Linting scripts..."