guardrail-commit-hooks_skill

Overview

This skill helps create, analyze, and manage prek (pre-commit drop-in) git commit hooks to enforce code quality guardrails. It recommends context-aware hooks, generates a .pre-commit-config.yaml, installs prek hooks, and can update hook versions. Use it to prevent formatting, security, and commit-workflow issues before they reach the repo.

How this skill works

The skill inspects your repository for language indicators (package.json, pyproject.toml, go.mod, Cargo.toml, etc.), existing hook tools (.pre-commit-config.yaml, .husky, lefthook), and monorepo layout. It then fetches current prek documentation and upstream release tags to build a tailored hook list: universal hygiene hooks, file-type validators only when matching files exist, language-specific linters/formatters, and security scanners like gitleaks. It can generate the config file, run prek install, execute an initial --all-files run, and optionally update existing hook revs to the latest releases.

When to use it

• Initializing a new git repository and wanting automated guardrails
• You encounter formatting, lint, or secret-detection issues that hooks could prevent
• Your project lacks .pre-commit-config.yaml and you want recommended hooks
• Migrating from other hook managers (husky, lefthook) to prek
• You need to update existing hook versions across the repo

Best practices

• Always fetch latest documentation and release tags instead of hardcoding versions
• Include universal builtin hooks (trailing-whitespace, end-of-file-fixer, detect-private-key, check-merge-conflict)
• Only include file-format validators (check-yaml, check-json, check-toml) when matching files are present
• Ask the team before enabling no-commit-to-branch to avoid disrupting workflows
• Run prek --all-files after install and fix issues before committing the config

Example use cases

• Analyze a new project to produce a recommended prek config with universal and language-specific hooks
• Run the setup wizard to install prek, write .pre-commit-config.yaml, and install git hooks
• Migrate a repository currently using husky to prek and translate selected checks
• Update external hook revs (ruff, biome) to their latest releases and run tests
• Add gitleaks and other security hooks to prevent secrets from entering history