diff --git a/src/Streamly/Coreutils/Tail.hs b/src/Streamly/Coreutils/Tail.hs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0dd665
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Streamly/Coreutils/Tail.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE QuasiQuotes #-}
+-- |
+-- Module      : Streamly.Coreutils.Tail
+-- Copyright   : (c) 2025 Composewell Technologies
+-- License     : BSD-3-Clause
+-- Maintainer  : streamly@composewell.com
+-- Stability   : experimental
+-- Portability : GHC
+--
+-- Read last N lines from a file.
+
+-- TODO: we can add a tail1 or last to read the last line.
+-- TODO: tail/head can be replaced with a single file reading utility which can
+-- read lines or bytes in a range.
+module Streamly.Coreutils.Tail
+    (
+      tail
+
+    -- * Options
+    , Tail
+    , follow
+    , lines
+    , bytes
+    , fromLine
+    , fromByte
+    )
+where
+
+import Data.Word (Word8)
+import Streamly.Data.Array (Array)
+import Streamly.Data.Stream.Prelude (Stream)
+import Streamly.FileSystem.Path (Path)
+import Streamly.Unicode.String (str)
+
+import qualified Streamly.FileSystem.Path as Path
+import qualified Streamly.System.Command as Command
+
+
+import Prelude hiding (tail, lines)
+
+data Tail = Tail
+    { _follow :: Bool
+    , _offset :: Either Int Int -- Left = lines, Right = bytes
+    , _reverse :: Bool
+    }
+
+defaultConfig :: Tail
+defaultConfig = Tail
+    { _follow = False
+    , _offset = Left 10
+    , _reverse = False -- False means default i.e. from the end
+    }
+
+-- | Run forever following any appends to the file.
+--
+-- Same as @--follow@ flag in the standard tail command.
+follow :: Bool -> Tail -> Tail
+follow opt cfg = cfg {_follow = opt}
+
+-- Note we could have used negative offset to indicate from the end and
+-- positive from the beginning. But in that case 0 becomes ambiguous, is it
+-- from the end or from the beginning.
+
+-- | Read the specified number of lines at the end of the file.
+--
+lines :: Int -> Tail -> Tail
+lines x cfg = cfg {_offset = Left x, _reverse = False}
+
+-- | Read the specified number of bytes at the end of the file.
+--
+bytes :: Int -> Tail -> Tail
+bytes x cfg = cfg {_offset = Right x, _reverse = False}
+
+-- | Read from the specified line number up to the end of file.
+fromLine :: Int -> Tail -> Tail
+fromLine x cfg = cfg {_offset = Left x, _reverse = True}
+
+-- | Read from the specified byte count up to the end of file.
+fromByte :: Int -> Tail -> Tail
+fromByte x cfg = cfg {_offset = Right x, _reverse = True}
+
+-- XXX Replace the "tail" shell command with Haskell native implementation. A
+-- portable implementation of "--follow" would use a sleep and poll, on linux
+-- we can use streamly-fsevents (inotify).
+--
+-- XXX We can have a configurable option to return chunks of one line each. Or
+-- line splitting can also be done by the user, unless we are getting it for
+-- free here. We can also have an option to emit chunks with or without the
+-- newline chars.
+
+-- | Same as the standard @tail@ command. Returns byte arrays.
+--
+-- Note: currently this function depends on the @tail@ executable being
+-- installed in the PATH.
+tail :: (Tail -> Tail) -> Path -> Stream IO (Array Word8)
+tail modifier path =
+    let p = Path.toString path
+        cfg = modifier defaultConfig
+        -- XXX make portable
+        foll = if _follow cfg then "-f" else ""
+        dir = if _reverse cfg then "+" else ""
+        loc =
+            case _offset cfg of
+                Left x -> "-n " ++ dir ++ show x
+                Right x -> "-c " ++ dir ++ show x
+        in Command.toChunks [str|tail #{foll} #{loc} #{p}|]
+     {-
+        if _follow cfg
+        then Command.toChunks [str|tail #{foll} #{loc} #{p}|]
+        -- The following is a generic implementation that works for all types
+        -- of files including a fifo where we cannot determine the size and
+        -- seek to the end.
+        --
+        -- Note that with this implementation @yes | tail -n 10@ may never
+        -- terminate because we may never reach the EOF. Even @yes | tail -f -n
+        -- 10@ does not terminate.
+        --
+        -- However, if the file is not a FIFO we can work on a snapshot, and we
+        -- can read the file in reverse from the end. In case of a seekable
+        -- file we can stat and determine the size of the file and then print
+        -- the last n lines from that point.
+        else Stream.concatEffect $ do
+              r <- FileIO.readChunks path
+                    & Array.compactEndByLn_ -- XXX need compactEndByLn
+                    & Stream.fold (GArray.createOfLast (_lines cfg))
+              pure (GArray.read r)
+      -}
diff --git a/streamly-coreutils.cabal b/streamly-coreutils.cabal
index 8c5faed..7bb3bae 100644
--- a/streamly-coreutils.cabal
+++ b/streamly-coreutils.cabal
@@ -133,6 +133,7 @@ library
     , Streamly.Coreutils.Sleep
     , Streamly.Coreutils.Stat
     , Streamly.Coreutils.String
+    , Streamly.Coreutils.Tail
     , Streamly.Coreutils.Touch
     , Streamly.Coreutils.Uniq
     , Streamly.Coreutils.Which