Save 10% on Every Git Commit by Migrating from Husky to Lefthook

#git #husky #lefthook #webdev

Recently, I migrated our project from Husky to Lefthook — and the difference was immediately noticeable.

🤔 Why Lefthook?

A few key reasons:

⚡ Written in Go → extremely fast execution
🔀 Parallel execution → run tasks concurrently instead of sequentially
🧩 Simple & powerful config → less boilerplate, easier to maintain
🧠 Smarter workflow control → flexible hook-level optimization

⸻

⏱️ Real impact (our case)

Before (Husky)

Pre-commit runs everything:
- lint
- type-check
- unit tests
⏳ ~17 seconds per commit

After (Lefthook)

pre-commit:
- only lint + prettier on staged files
pre-push:
- type-check + unit tests

👉 Result:

⏱️ ~2s faster per commit (~10% improvement)
💡 Much smoother dev experience (less waiting, more flow)

⸻

🧠 Key takeaway

Don’t overload your pre-commit hook.

Split responsibilities:

✅ Fast checks → pre-commit
🔍 Heavy validation → pre-push / CI

📦 Example Lefthook config (simplified)

---
# https://lefthook.dev/configuration/glob_matcher/
glob_matcher: doublestar
# https://lefthook.dev/configuration/assert_lefthook_installed/
assert_lefthook_installed: true

pre-commit:
  parallel: true
  jobs:
    - name: lint
      glob: '**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}'
      run: pnpm exec eslint --quiet --fix {staged_files}
      # https://lefthook.dev/examples/stage_fixed
      stage_fixed: true

    - name: prettier
      glob: '**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx,json,md,yml,yaml}'
      run: pnpm exec prettier --write --ignore-unknown -- {staged_files}
      stage_fixed: true

pre-push:
  parallel: true
  jobs:
    - name: type-check
      run: pnpm type-check
    - name: test
      run: pnpm test