⚡ Better `pre-commit`, re-engineered in Rust

pre-commit is a framework to run hooks written in many languages, and it manages the language toolchain and dependencies for running the hooks.

prek is a reimagined version of pre-commit, built in Rust. It is designed to be a faster, dependency-free and drop-in alternative for it, while also providing some additional long-requested features.

• 🚀 A single binary with no dependencies, does not require Python or any other runtime.
• ⚡ Faster than pre-commit and more efficient in disk space usage.
• 🔄 Fully compatible with the original pre-commit configurations and hooks.
• 🏗️ Built-in support for monorepos (i.e. workspace mode).
• 🐍 Integration with uv for managing Python virtual environments and dependencies.
• 🛠️ Improved toolchain installations for Python, Node.js, Bun, Go, Rust and Ruby, shared between hooks.
• 📦 Built-in Rust-native implementation of some common hooks.

• Installation
• Quick start
• Why prek?
• Who is using prek?
• Acknowledgements

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/j178/prek/releases/download/v0.3.1/prek-installer.sh | sh

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://github.com/j178/prek/releases/download/v0.3.1/prek-installer.ps1 | iex"

# Using uv (recommended)
uv tool install prek

# Using uvx (install and run in one command)
uvx prek

# Adding prek to the project dev-dependencies
uv add --dev prek

# Using pip
pip install prek

# Using pipx
pipx install prek

brew install prek

mise use prek

cargo binstall prek

cargo install --locked prek

# As a dev dependency
npm add -D @j178/prek
pnpm add -D @j178/prek
bun add -D @j178/prek

# Or install globally
npm install -g @j178/prek
pnpm add -g @j178/prek
bun install -g @j178/prek

# Or run directly without installing
npx @j178/prek --version
bunx @j178/prek --version

# Choose what's appropriate for your use case.
# One-off in a shell:
nix-shell -p prek

# NixOS or non-NixOS without flakes:
nix-env -iA nixos.prek

# Non-NixOS with flakes:
nix profile install nixpkgs#prek

conda install conda-forge::prek

scoop install main/prek

sudo port install prek

name: Prek checks
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  prek:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: j178/prek-action@v1

If installed via the standalone installer, prek can update itself to the latest version:

prek self update

• I already use pre-commit: follow the short migration checklist in the quickstart guide to swap in prek safely.
• I'm new to pre-commit-style tools: learn the basics—creating a config, running hooks, and installing git hooks—in the beginner quickstart walkthrough.

• It is multiple times faster than pre-commit and takes up half the disk space.
• It redesigned how hook environments and toolchains are managed, they are all shared between hooks, which reduces the disk space usage and speeds up the installation process.
• Repositories are cloned in parallel, and hooks are installed in parallel if their dependencies are disjoint.
• Hooks can run in parallel by priority (hooks with the same priority may run concurrently), reducing end-to-end runtime.
• It uses uv for creating Python virtualenvs and installing dependencies, which is known for its speed and efficiency.
• It implements some common hooks in Rust, built in prek, which are faster than their Python counterparts.
• It supports repo: builtin for offline, zero-setup hooks, which is not available in pre-commit.

• No need to install Python or any other runtime, just download a single binary.
• No hassle with your Python version or virtual environments, prek automatically installs the required Python version and creates a virtual environment for you.
• Built-in support for workspaces (or monorepos), each subproject can have its own .pre-commit-config.yaml file.
• prek run has some nifty improvements over pre-commit run, such as:
  • prek run --directory <dir> runs hooks for files in the specified directory, no need to use git ls-files -- <dir> | xargs pre-commit run --files anymore.
  • prek run --last-commit runs hooks for files changed in the last commit.
  • prek run [HOOK] [HOOK] selects and runs multiple hooks.
• prek list command lists all available hooks, their ids, and descriptions, providing a better overview of the configured hooks.
• prek auto-update supports --cooldown-days to mitigate open source supply chain attacks.
• prek provides shell completions for prek run <hook_id> command, making it easier to run specific hooks without remembering their ids.

For more detailed improvements prek offers, take a look at Difference from pre-commit.

prek is pretty new, but it is already being used or recommend by some projects and organizations:

• apache/airflow
• python/cpython
• pdm-project/pdm
• fastapi/fastapi
• fastapi/typer
• fastapi/asyncer
• astral-sh/ruff
• astral-sh/ty
• openclaw/openclaw
• home-assistant/core
• DetachHead/basedpyright
• OpenLineage/OpenLineage
• authlib/authlib
• django/djangoproject.com
• Future-House/paper-qa
• requests-cache/requests-cache
• Goldziher/kreuzberg
• python-attrs/attrs
• jlowin/fastmcp
• apache/iceberg-python
• apache/lucene
• jcrist/msgspec
• python-humanize/humanize
• MoonshotAI/kimi-cli
• simple-icons/simple-icons
• ast-grep/ast-grep
• commitizen-tools/commitizen
• cocoindex-io/cocoindex

This project is heavily inspired by the original pre-commit tool, and it wouldn't be possible without the hard work of the maintainers and contributors of that project.

And a special thanks to the Astral team for their remarkable projects, particularly uv, from which I've learned a lot on how to write efficient and idiomatic Rust code.