Git Hooks

What are Git hooks?

Git hooks are scripts that Git executes before or after events such as: commit, push, and receive. Git hooks are a built-in feature - no need to download anything. Git hooks are run locally.

These hook scripts are only limited by a developer's imagination. Some example hook scripts include:

  • pre-commit: Check the commit message for spelling errors.
  • pre-receive: Enforce project coding standards.
  • post-commit: Email/SMS team members of a new commit.
  • post-receive: Push the code to production.

How do git hooks work?

Every Git repository has a .git/hooks folder with a script for each hook you can bind to. You're free to change or update these scripts as necessary, and Git will execute them when those events occur.

Here's a full list of hooks you can attach scripts to:

Why should I care?

Fair question! Git hooks can greatly increase your productivity as a developer. For example, being able to push to your staging or production environment without ever leaving Git is just plain awesome. Update your code, make a commit and push, and your code can be running in any environment you specify. No need to mess with ssh or ftp.

How do I implement Git hooks?

The short and easy: Overwrite (or create) one of the scripts in .git/hooks and make it executable.

Reading

Projects

  • overcommit - A well-maintained, up-to-date, flexible Git hook manager.
  • Lolcommits - Takes a snapshot with your webcam every time you git commit code, and archives a lolcat style image with it.
  • podmena - Enhance your commit messages adding random emoji to it.
  • pre-commit - A framework for managing and maintaining multi-language pre-commit hooks.
  • Hooks is a command line git hook management tool.
  • Git Hooks Manager - A tool to manage project, user, and global Git hooks for multiple Git repositories.
  • Git::Hooks - A framework for implementing Git (and Gerrit) hooks.
  • git-pre-commit-hook - Hook that blocks bad commits. Useful for Python-development.
  • App::GitHooks - A modular and easy to configure git hooks framework, supporting many plugins.
  • Jig - A pre-commit hook on steroids
  • GitPHPHooks - Write your hooks in PHP, manage and organize them on a task and project level. Has an additional Hooks library on GitHub
  • Grunt GitHooks - Setup, manage and update your hooks with Grunt. Can be used with all languages, supports templates.
  • git-hooks - Hook manager.
  • Husky - Git hooks for Node.js, manage your hooks from your package.json.
  • git-hooks-php - Git hooks for PHP based projects.
  • commandbox-githooks - Git hooks for CommandBox CFML based projects.
  • Autohook - A very, very small Git hook manager with focus on automation.
  • hooks4git - A simple, flexible and language agnostic git hook management approach.
  • Githooks - Auto-install Git hook, that supports hooks in any language checked into Git and also shared repos.
  • Awesome Git Hooks - A collection of awesome Git Hooks
  • ghooks - Simple git hooks for Javascript. Manage your hooks via package.json.
  • ghooks.cr - Simple git hooks for Crystal. Keep your hooks in a versioned ".githooks/" directory
  • ghooks.gradle - Simple git hooks for Gradle. Keep your hooks in a versioned ".githooks/" directory
  • Lefthook - The fastest polyglot Git hooks manager

Snippets

  • Prevent Direct Push to Master - A pre-push hook that prevents direct code push to master branch and notify with a message in Amazon Chime group.

Contribute

If you have a Git hook you love, or a resource you've written for the community - please create a pull request here.

Maintainer

Howdy, my name is Matthew Hudson and I created this guide to help myself and others wrap our head around integrating Git hooks with WebHooks and WebPipes.