diff --git a/src/io/render.c b/src/io/render.c
index d1d2240..5defc5a 100644
--- a/src/io/render.c
+++ b/src/io/render.c
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 
 #include "../util/vec/float2.h"
 #include "shader.h"
+#include "../error.h"
 
 #define VERTC 6
 GLuint pipe;
@@ -36,6 +37,15 @@ int render_init(void) {
 	glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
 	glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(verts), verts, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
 
+	int len;
+	glGetProgramiv(pipe, GL_INFO_LOG_LENGTH, &len);
+	if (len > 0) {
+		char log[len];
+		glGetProgramInfoLog(pipe, len, &len, log);
+		log[len - 1] = '\0'; // terminate the string one character sooner since the log includes a newline
+		fatal("error whilst linking the pipe: '%s'", log);
+	}
+
 	// init the VAO
 	glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao);
 	glBindVertexArray(vao);
diff --git a/src/io/shader.c b/src/io/shader.c
index b258e4f..439d55f 100644
--- a/src/io/shader.c
+++ b/src/io/shader.c
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 #include <stddef.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
 
+#include "../error.h"
+
 #define NAM_S(name) _binary_res_##name##_start // name of a start variable
 #define NAM_E(name) _binary_res_##name##_end   // name of an end variable
 
@@ -22,6 +24,16 @@ static GLuint shader_compile(GLenum type, char const* src, size_t len) {
 	GLuint shader = glCreateShader(type);
 	glShaderSource(shader, 1, &src, &ilen);
 	glCompileShader(shader);
+
+	// repurposing ilen for the max length of the shader log
+	glGetShaderiv(shader, GL_INFO_LOG_LENGTH, &ilen);
+	if (ilen > 0) {
+		char log[ilen];
+		glGetShaderInfoLog(shader, ilen, &ilen, log);
+		log[ilen - 1] = '\0'; // terminate the string one character sooner since the log includes a newline
+		error("error whilst compiling shader type '0x%x': '%s'", type, log);
+	}
+
 	return shader;
 }