Lefthook

The fastest polyglot Git hooks manager out there

A Git hooks manager for Node.js, Ruby, Python and many other types of projects.

• Fast. It is written in Go. Can run commands in parallel.
• Powerful. It allows to control execution and files you pass to your commands.
• Simple. It is single dependency-free binary which can work in any environment.

📖 Read the introduction post

Install

With Go (>= 1.23):

go install github.com/evilmartians/lefthook@latest

With NPM:

npm install lefthook --save-dev

For Ruby:

gem install lefthook

For Python:

pip install lefthook

Installation guide with more ways to install lefthook: apt, brew, winget, and others.

Usage

Configure your hooks, install them once and forget about it: rely on the magic underneath.

TL;DR

# Configure your hooks
vim lefthook.yml

# Install them to the git project
lefthook install

# Enjoy your work with git
git add -A && git commit -m '...'

More details

• Configuration for lefthook.yml config options.
• Usage for lefthook CLI options, supported ENVs, and usage tips.
• Discussions for questions, ideas, suggestions.

Why Lefthook

• Parallel execution

Gives you more speed. Example

pre-push:
  parallel: true

• Flexible list of files

If you want your own list. Custom and prebuilt examples.

pre-commit:
  commands:
    frontend-linter:
      run: yarn eslint {staged_files}
    backend-linter:
      run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}
    frontend-style:
      files: git diff --name-only HEAD @{push}
      run: yarn stylelint {files}

• Glob and regexp filters

If you want to filter list of files. You could find more glob pattern examples here.

pre-commit:
  commands:
    backend-linter:
      glob: "*.rb" # glob filter
      exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes)\.rb$' # regexp filter
      run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}

• Execute in sub-directory

If you want to execute the commands in a relative path

pre-commit:
  commands:
    backend-linter:
      root: "api/" # Careful to have only trailing slash
      glob: "*.rb" # glob filter
      run: bundle exec rubocop {all_files}

• Run scripts

If oneline commands are not enough, you can execute files. Example.

commit-msg:
  scripts:
    "template_checker":
      runner: bash

• Tags

If you want to control a group of commands. Example.

pre-push:
  commands:
    packages-audit:
      tags: frontend security
      run: yarn audit
    gems-audit:
      tags: backend security
      run: bundle audit

• Support Docker

If you are in the Docker environment. Example.

pre-commit:
  scripts:
    "good_job.js":
      runner: docker run -it --rm <container_id_or_name> {cmd}

• Local config

If you a frontend/backend developer and want to skip unnecessary commands or override something into Docker. Description.

# lefthook-local.yml
pre-push:
  exclude_tags:
    - frontend
  commands:
    packages-audit:
      skip: true

• Direct control

If you want to run hooks group directly.

$ lefthook run pre-commit

• Your own tasks

If you want to run specific group of commands directly.

fixer:
  commands:
    ruby-fixer:
      run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion --safe-auto-correct {staged_files}
    js-fixer:
      run: yarn eslint --fix {staged_files}

$ lefthook run fixer

• Optional output

If you don't want to see supporting information:

skip_output:
  - meta #(version and which hook running)
  - success #(output from runners with exit code 0)

---

Guides

• Install with Node.js
• Install with Ruby
• Install with Homebrew
• Install with Winget
• Install for Debian-based Linux
• Install for RPM-based Linux
• Install for Arch Linux
• Usage
• Configuration

Examples

• Simple script
• Full features

Articles

• 5 cool (and surprising) ways to configure Lefthook for automation joy
• Lefthook: Knock your team’s code back into shape
• Lefthook + Crystalball
• Keeping OSS documentation in check with docsify, Lefthook, and friends
• Automatically linting docker containers
• Smooth PostgreSQL upgrades in DockerDev environments with Lefthook
• Lefthook for React/React Native apps