// 01 > CONTEXT
Hookpilot is an open-source Git hook manager. It ships a library of ready-to-use hooks (linting, formatting, testing, security checks, commit-message validation, branch protection, large-file checks) plus an interactive CLI for adding, restoring, listing, and removing them.
// 02 > THE_PROBLEM
Pre-commit checks were slow, inconsistent across machines, and trivially skipped, so standards only got enforced after CI, long after the commit.
Every project reinvented its hook setup by hand. Configs drifted between clones, new contributors started with nothing wired up, and a quick override let anyone bypass the gates entirely.
Before
Hand-rolled hooks · drift across clones · checks skipped freely
// 03 > APPROACH
I built a zero-config CLI that wires standard hooks across the full Git lifecycle from one versioned config, with first-class support for custom shell and Node scripts.
Predefined hook library
Ready-made hooks for pre-commit, commit-msg, pre-push, post-merge, and post-checkout tasks.
One versioned config
hooks-config.json is committed once; every clone inherits the same gates with a single init.
// 04 > THE_RESULT
A single init wires the whole team's gates, and the package now sees 50k+ weekly downloads on npm.
Before
- Manual hook setup per repo
- Configs drift between machines
- Checks easy to skip
After
- One npx hookpilot init
- Shared, versioned config
- 50k+ weekly npm downloads
“I wanted hooks to be the easy path, not a chore you bypass. One config, committed once, and the whole team is on the same gates.”