Pre-commit Hook Generator

Overview

Pick from a list of common hooks (linters, formatters, secret scanners, file-size checks, language-specific tools) and the generator produces a ready-to-commit .pre-commit-config.yaml. Drop the file at your repo root, run pre-commit install, and Git will run the chosen checks on every commit.

It's for teams adopting pre-commit as a quality gate - the project that wraps any tool into a Git hook with a single YAML file. Reach for it when standardising a polyglot repo, replacing a hand-rolled .git/hooks/pre-commit, or onboarding a new project to a CI-friendly local check workflow.

How it works

pre-commit (the python framework at pre-commit.com) reads a YAML config that lists repositories of hooks plus the specific hook IDs to run from each. The generator emits the canonical structure: repos: at top level, each repo with repo:, rev: (the commit/tag the hook is pinned to), and hooks: (a list of id: entries).

Hooks ship with sensible defaults and the generator picks ecosystem-appropriate ones - black, isort, mypy for Python; prettier, eslint for JavaScript; gofmt, go-vet for Go; cargo fmt for Rust; plus the cross-cutting pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks (whitespace, EOF, JSON/YAML syntax).

Examples

• Minimal cross-language config:

  repos:
    - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
      rev: v4.5.0
      hooks:
        - id: trailing-whitespace
        - id: end-of-file-fixer
        - id: check-yaml
  

• Python project:

    - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
      rev: 24.4.0
      hooks: [{id: black}]
    - repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/isort
      rev: 5.13.2
      hooks: [{id: isort}]
  

• JavaScript / Prettier:

    - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/mirrors-prettier
      rev: v4.0.0-alpha.8
      hooks: [{id: prettier}]
  

• Secret scanning:

    - repo: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks
      rev: v8.18.4
      hooks: [{id: gitleaks}]
  

FAQ

How do I install pre-commit?

pip install pre-commit, then run pre-commit install in the repo. After that, Git invokes the hooks automatically on git commit.

Should I pin to a rev:?

Yes - pinning to a specific tag ensures every developer runs the same version. Update with pre-commit autoupdate periodically.

What if a hook fails?

The commit is rejected. Fix the issue, re-stage the files, and try again. Use --no-verify to bypass in an emergency (and only then).

Can I run hooks in CI?

Yes - pre-commit run --all-files in CI catches anyone who bypassed the local hook. Most teams run pre-commit in CI as a backstop.

Try Pre-commit Hook Generator