Git Hooks: 3 Practical Scripts to Automate Your Dev Workflow 🚀

#git #automation #productivity #beginners

Why manual checks when you can automate? Git hooks are small scripts that run automatically at key points in the Git lifecycle.

Here are 3 scripts you can drop into your .git/hooks folder right now to save time and prevent broken code from shipping.

1. pre-commit: Auto-format Your Code

Stop committing messy code. Use this hook to run a formatter like Prettier or Black before every commit.

File: .git/hooks/pre-commit

#!/bin/sh
# Run your formatter
npm run format
# Check if formatting changed files
git diff --exit-code
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo \"❌ Error: Formatting issues found. Please fix them before committing.\"
  exit 1
fi

2. commit-msg: Enforce Conventional Commits

Keep your history clean. This hook checks if your commit message starts with a valid type like feat:, fix:, or chore:.

File: .git/hooks/commit-msg

#!/bin/sh
MSG=$(cat $1)
REGEX=\"^(feat|fix|chore|docs|style|refactor|perf|test)(\\(.*\\))?!?: .*\"
if ! [[ \"$MSG\" =~ $REGEX ]]; then
  echo \"❌ Error: Commit message doesn't follow Conventional Commits (e.g., feat: add login).\"
  exit 1
fi

3. pre-push: Run Your Tests

Don't break the build for everyone else. This hook ensures your tests pass before you're allowed to push to the server.

File: .git/hooks/pre-push

#!/bin/sh
echo \"Running tests before push...\"
npm test
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo \"❌ Error: Tests failed. Push aborted.\"
  exit 1
fi

Pro Tip: Sharing Hooks

Local hooks in .git/hooks aren't committed to the repo. To share them with your team, create a hooks/ directory in your project root and run:
git config core.hooksPath hooks

What’s the one thing you always forget to check before committing? Let’s automate it! 🌙

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