prek

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.

Warning

prek is not production-ready yet. Some subcommands and languages are not implemented. See the current gaps for drop-in parity: TODO.

It's already being adopted by some projects, please give it a try - we'd love your feedback!

Features

• 🚀 A single binary with no dependencies, does not require Python or any other runtime.
• ⚡ About 10x faster than pre-commit and uses only a third of disk space.
• 🔄 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, Go, Rust and Ruby, shared between hooks.
• 📦 Built-in Rust-native implementation of some common hooks.

How to migrate

prek is designed as a drop-in replacement:

• Install prek
• Replace pre-commit with prek in your commands
• Your existing .pre-commit-config.yaml works unchanged

$ prek run
trim trailing whitespace.................................................Passed
fix end of files.........................................................Passed
typos....................................................................Passed
cargo fmt................................................................Passed
cargo clippy.............................................................Passed

For configuring .pre-commit-config.yaml and writing hooks, you can refer to the pre-commit documentation as prek is fully compatible with it.

Why prek?

prek is way faster

• It is about 10x faster than pre-commit and uses only a third of 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.
• 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.

prek provides a better user experience

• 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 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.

Who is using prek?

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

• Airflow
• PDM
• basedpyright
• OpenLineage
• Authlib

Installation

Standalone installer

prek provides a standalone installer script to download and install the tool,

On Linux and macOS:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/j178/prek/releases/download/v0.2.0-alpha.4/prek-installer.sh | sh

On Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://github.com/j178/prek/releases/download/v0.2.0-alpha.4/prek-installer.ps1 | iex"

PyPI

prek is published as Python binary wheel to PyPI, you can install it using pip, uv (recommended), or pipx:

pip install prek

# or

uv tool install prek

# or

pipx install prek

Homebrew

brew install prek

mise

To use prek with mise:

mise use prek

Cargo

Build from source using Cargo:

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/j178/prek

GitHub Releases

prek release artifacts can be downloaded directly from the GitHub releases.

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

prek self update

Acknowledgements

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.