Git Hooks Cheat Sheet

Git hooks automation — client-side and server-side hooks for linting, testing, commit message validation, and deployment triggers.

Last Updated: May 1, 2025

Common Client Hooks

Hook	When It Runs	Common Use
pre-commit	Before commit message editor	Lint, format, run unit tests
prepare-commit-msg	After editor, before commit	Auto-generate message template
commit-msg	After message is written	Validate commit message format
post-commit	After commit completes	Notification, update issue tracker
pre-rebase	Before rebase starts	Prevent rebase of protected branches
post-checkout	After checkout/switch	Set up project-specific config
post-merge	After a successful merge	Run migrations, update dependencies
pre-push	Before push to remote	Run full test suite, security scan

#!/bin/sh

Every hook starts with a shebang line

npm run lint

Pre-commit: run linter, reject on failure

npm test

Pre-push: run full test suite before allowing push

grep -qE '^(feat|fix|docs)' $1

Commit-msg: enforce conventional commit format

branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)

Post-checkout: detect current branch

npm install

Post-merge: auto-install new dependencies

git diff --cached --name-only

Pre-commit: list files about to be committed

exec < /dev/tty

Pre-commit: enable interactive prompts in hooks

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Make a hook executable (required!)

cp hooks/pre-commit .git/hooks/

Copy a custom hook into place

nano .git/hooks/commit-msg

Create or edit a hook with any editor

git config core.hooksPath hooks/

Redirect Git to look for hooks in hooks/ dir

ls -la .git/hooks/

List all hooks (sample hooks end in .sample)

cp -r hooks/ .git/hooks/ && chmod +x .git/hooks/*

Bulk install shared hooks

Item	Description
`pre-receive`	Runs on remote before refs are updated — gatekeeper for pushes
`update`	Runs once per branch being pushed; can reject per-branch
`post-receive`	Runs after push completes — trigger CI, deploy, notifications
`Bare Repositories`	Server hooks only work in bare repos (git init --bare)
`Protected Branches`	Use pre-receive to block force-push to main/master
`Deploy on Push`	post-receive: checkout to web root for simple deployments
`Email Notifications`	post-receive: send email to team on push
`Audit Logging`	update: log who pushed what to which branch

Pro Tip: Share hooks with your team using a script in the repo that symlinks .git/hooks/ to a tracked hooks/ directory.