diff --git a/app-shells/atuin/atuin-18.4.0.ebuild b/app-shells/atuin/atuin-18.4.0.ebuild
index 6b9bb0371321f..23dba724e34cf 100644
--- a/app-shells/atuin/atuin-18.4.0.ebuild
+++ b/app-shells/atuin/atuin-18.4.0.ebuild
@@ -622,6 +622,10 @@ src_install() {
 	dozshcomp "completions/_${PN}"
 	dofishcomp "completions/${PN}.fish"
 
+	if use daemon; then
+		systemd_douserunit "${FILESDIR}"/atuin-daemon.{service,socket}
+	fi
+
 	if ! use client; then
 		return 0
 	fi
diff --git a/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.service b/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..28ebf65a7874c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.service
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=atuin shell history daemon
+Requires=atuin-daemon.socket
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=atuin daemon
+
+[Install]
+Also=atuin-daemon.socket
+WantedBy=default.target
diff --git a/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.socket b/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.socket
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6868675409d77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app-shells/atuin/files/atuin-daemon.socket
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Unix socket activation for atuin shell history daemon
+
+[Socket]
+ListenStream=%t/atuin.sock
+SocketMode=0600
+RemoveOnStop=true
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=sockets.target