2026-09-03 · Git

Choose between git hooks and CI checks

Fast feedback locally, guaranteed enforcement remotely: you need both, but not the same rules in each place.

Introduction

What belongs in a pre-commit hook, what belongs in CI, how to share hooks across a team without slowing every commit, and why local hooks stay advisory.

The mental model

  • Start from the smallest version that could work, and make it observable.
  • Write down the trade-off you are accepting, not only the feature you are shipping.
  • Revisit the decision when the team grows; most choices in Git have a shelf life.

A practical starting point

  1. Reproduce the situation on a scratch branch, next to a measurement you trust.
  2. Change one variable at a time, and keep the diff small enough to explain in one sentence.
  3. Keep the result, throw away the scaffolding.
Terminal window
git switch -c experiment/one-thing

Closing thoughts

None of this is doctrine. Treat it as a checklist you are allowed to disagree with — ideally with an experiment of your own that settles the argument.