We present a setup based on the optical klystron concept, consisting of two undulator modules separated by a magnetic chicane, that addresses two issues in free-electron-laser (FEL) facilities. On the one hand, it allows increasing the intrinsic energy spread of the beam at the source, which is useful to counteract the harmful microbunching instability. This represents an alternative method to the more conventional laser heater with the main advantage that no laser system is required. On the other hand, the setup can be used to reconstruct the initial beam energy spread, whose typical values in FEL injectors around 1 keV are very difficult to measure with standard procedures.