diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ke/kent/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ke/kent/package.nix
index c716287b77e4..7a8861dd4c2e 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ke/kent/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ke/kent/package.nix
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@
   bash,
   fetchFromGitHub,
   which,
+  writeShellScript,
+  jq,
+  nix-update,
 }:
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "kent";
@@ -85,6 +88,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     runHook postInstall
   '';
 
+  passthru.updateScript = writeShellScript "update-kent" ''
+    latestVersion=$(curl ''${GITHUB_TOKEN:+-u ":$GITHUB_TOKEN"} --fail --silent https://api.github.com/repos/ucscGenomeBrowser/kent/releases/latest | ${lib.getExe jq} --raw-output .tag_name | grep -oP '(?<=v)\d+')
+    ${lib.getExe nix-update} kent --version $latestVersion
+  '';
+
   meta = {
     description = "UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Group's suite of biological analysis tools, i.e. the kent utilities";
     homepage = "http://genome.ucsc.edu";