Setup Pre-Commit

When to use this skill

• Setting up a new project's commit-time quality gates
• Adding formatting and type checking to an existing project
• Standardizing pre-commit behavior across a team

When not to use this skill

• CI pipeline setup → use

  deployment-automation

• Git workflow strategy → use

  git-workflow

• Full testing strategy → use

  testing-strategies

Installation process

Step 1 — Detect package manager

# Check for lockfiles in order of precedence
ls package-lock.json  # npm
ls yarn.lock          # yarn
ls pnpm-lock.yaml     # pnpm
ls bun.lockb          # bun

Step 2 — Install dependencies

# npm
npm install --save-dev husky lint-staged prettier

# pnpm
pnpm add -D husky lint-staged prettier

# yarn
yarn add -D husky lint-staged prettier

Step 3 — Initialize Husky

npx husky init

.husky/

prepare

package.json

Step 4 — Create the pre-commit hook

.husky/pre-commit

npx lint-staged
npm run typecheck  # omit if script doesn't exist
npm test           # omit if script doesn't exist

Step 5 — Configure lint-staged

.lintstagedrc

{
  "**/*": "prettier --write --ignore-unknown"
}

Step 6 — Configure Prettier (if absent)

.prettierrc

{
  "tabWidth": 2,
  "printWidth": 80,
  "singleQuote": false,
  "trailingComma": "es5",
  "semi": true,
  "arrowParens": "always"
}

Step 7 — Verify

git add -A
git commit -m "test: verify pre-commit hooks"

Execution order

typecheck

test

package.json

Instructions

1. Identify the task trigger and expected output.
2. Follow the workflow steps in this skill from top to bottom.
3. Validate outputs before moving to the next step.
4. Capture blockers and fallback path if any step fails.

Examples

• Example: Apply this skill to a small scope first, then scale to full scope after validation passes.

Best practices

• Keep outputs deterministic and auditable.
• Prefer small reversible changes over broad risky edits.
• Record assumptions explicitly.

References

• Project standards:

  .agent-skills/skill-standardization/SKILL.md

• Validator script:

  .agent-skills/skill-standardization/scripts/validate_skill.sh