Aliphatic hyperbranched poly(amide-imide) was facilely prepared by employing a functional thiolactone-maleimide monomer. Highly efficient, selective and quantitative properties of amine-maleimide Michael addition and aminolysis of a thiolactone guaranteed the generation of an ABB' thiol-yne intermediate without side products, followed by consecutive thiol-yne click reaction in one-pot. The hyperbranched structure of the poly(amide-imide) was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy and triple-detector GPC/SEC analysis. Additionally, due to the presence of aminosuccinimide fluorophores and intrinsic physical property of hyperbranched polymers, this aliphatic hyperbranched poly(amide-imide) possessed solvent-dependent emission and presented good solubility in various organic solvents. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 2053-2060