diff --git a/scripts/check_deps.sh b/scripts/check_deps.sh
index 66add091eba..115280e01be 100755
--- a/scripts/check_deps.sh
+++ b/scripts/check_deps.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,28 @@
-#!/bin/bash -e
+#!/bin/bash
 
 # Copyright IBM Corp All Rights Reserved.
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# create temporary directory for go.mod and clean it
+# up when the script exists.
+dep_tempdir="$(mktemp -d "$(basename "$0")"-XXXXX)"
+trap 'rm -rf "$dep_tempdir"' EXIT
+
+# copy go.mod and go.sum to the temporary directory we created
+fabric_dir="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
+cp "${fabric_dir}/go.mod" "${dep_tempdir}/"
+cp "${fabric_dir}/go.sum" "${dep_tempdir}/"
+
+# check if we have unused requirements
+go mod tidy -modfile="${dep_tempdir}/go.mod"
+
+for f in go.mod go.sum; do
+    if ! diff -q "${fabric_dir}/$f" "${dep_tempdir}/$f"; then
+        echo "It appears $f is stale. Please run 'go mod tidy' and 'go mod vendor'."
+        diff -u "${fabric_dir}/$f" "${dep_tempdir}/$f"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+done