diff --git a/cmake/clang-tidy.cmake b/cmake/clang-tidy.cmake
index a7573ed0..ce61faad 100644
--- a/cmake/clang-tidy.cmake
+++ b/cmake/clang-tidy.cmake
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
-option(ENABLE_CLANG_TIDY "Add run-clang-tidy automatically to builds" OFF)
+option(SPDLOG_ENABLE_TIDY "Add clang-tidy automatically as prebuild step" OFF)
+
 find_program(CLANG_TIDY_EXE
-        NAMES run-clang-tidy.py run-clang-tidy run-clang-tidy-7
-        HINTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/scripts
+        NAMES clang-tidy clang-tidy-7
         DOC "Path to clang-tidy executable")
+find_program(CLANG_TIDY_RUNNER
+        NAMES run-clang-tidy run-clang-tidy-7 run-clang-tidy.py
+        HINTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/scripts)
 if(CLANG_TIDY_EXE)
     message(STATUS "clang-tidy found: ${CLANG_TIDY_EXE}")
     set(DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)
     set(CLANG_TIDY_CMD ${CLANG_TIDY_EXE})
     message(STATUS "cmake source dir: ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}")
 
-    if(ENABLE_CLANG_TIDY)
+    if(SPDLOG_ENABLE_TIDY)
         # NOTE: the project config file .clang-tidy is not found if the
         # binary tree is not part of the source tree! CK
         set(CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY ${CLANG_TIDY_CMD} CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
@@ -17,20 +20,22 @@ if(CLANG_TIDY_EXE)
         set(CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY "" CACHE STRING "" FORCE) # delete it
     endif()
 
-    if(NOT TARGET check)
-        add_custom_target(check)
-        message(STATUS "check target added")
-        set_target_properties(check PROPERTIES EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL TRUE)
-    endif()
+    if(CLANG_TIDY_RUNNER)
+        if(NOT TARGET check)
+            add_custom_target(check)
+            message(STATUS "check target added")
+            set_target_properties(check PROPERTIES EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL TRUE)
+        endif()
 
-    add_custom_command(TARGET check PRE_BUILD
-        # -p BUILD_PATH Path used to read a compile command database (compile_commands.json).
-        # NOTE: we use defaults checks from .clang-tidy and examples only!
-        COMMAND ${CLANG_TIDY_EXE} -p ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR} ### ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/example
-        WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"   # location of compile_commands.json
-        COMMENT "Running check on targets at ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} ..."
-        VERBATIM
-    )
+        add_custom_command(TARGET check PRE_BUILD
+            # -p BUILD_PATH Path used to read a compile command database (compile_commands.json).
+            # NOTE: we use defaults checks from .clang-tidy and examples only!
+            COMMAND ${CLANG_TIDY_RUNNER} -p ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR} ### ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/example
+            WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"   # location of compile_commands.json
+            COMMENT "Running check on targets at ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} ..."
+            VERBATIM
+        )
+    endif()
 else()
-    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "run-clang-tidy not found!")
+    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "clang-tidy not found!")
 endif()