Running prek for Fast Git Hooks

Table of Contents

• What prek is
• Install prek
• Run prek in an existing pre-commit repo
• Start a new config
• Example .gitignore
• Install Git hooks
• Run hooks manually
• Run prek in GitHub Actions
• Useful prek commands

What prek is

prek is a Rust-based Git hook manager designed as a fast drop-in replacement for pre-commit.

The important part is that existing .pre-commit-config.yaml files continue to work, so migration is mostly a command swap:

• pre-commit run becomes prek run
• pre-commit install becomes prek install
• pre-commit autoupdate becomes prek auto-update

Install prek

Install with uv:

uv tool install prek
prek --version

Other common install options:

brew install prek
pipx install prek
npm add -D @j178/prek

Run prek in an existing pre-commit repo

If the repo already has .pre-commit-config.yaml, you usually do not need to rewrite anything.

Run the hooks:

prek run

If you previously installed Git hooks with pre-commit, reinstall the hook shim once with force:

prek install -f

Run against the whole repository:

prek run --all-files

Start a new config

You can use native prek.toml or keep the ecosystem-standard YAML format.

Example prek.toml:

[[repos]]
repo = "https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks"
rev = "v6.0.0"
hooks = [
  { id = "check-yaml" },
  { id = "end-of-file-fixer" },
]

Equivalent .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
    rev: v6.0.0
    hooks:
      - id: check-yaml
      - id: end-of-file-fixer

If you already use pre-commit, keeping .pre-commit-config.yaml makes migration simplest.

Example .gitignore

prek does not require a special .gitignore, but this is a practical baseline for a Python repo using Git hooks:

# Python
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
.pytest_cache/
.mypy_cache/
.ruff_cache/

# Virtual environments
.venv/
venv/

# Build artifacts
build/
dist/
*.egg-info/

# Editor and OS files
.DS_Store
.idea/
.vscode/

If your hooks generate files locally, ignore those outputs too. The main rule is that prek run --all-files should not waste time scanning generated junk you never intend to commit.

Install Git hooks

Install the Git hook shim into .git/hooks:

prek install

Install hooks and prepare environments immediately:

prek install --install-hooks

After this, Git will run prek automatically during commit for the configured stages.

Run hooks manually

Run the default staged-file workflow:

prek run

Run everything:

prek run --all-files

Run one hook:

prek run end-of-file-fixer --all-files

Update pinned hook revisions:

prek auto-update

Run prek in GitHub Actions

If you install prek with uv, a simple workflow looks like this:

name: prek

on:
  push:
    branches: [master]
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  prek:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Check out code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install uv
        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v7

      - name: Install prek
        run: uv tool install prek

      - name: Run prek
        run: prek run --all-files --show-diff-on-failure

If you keep prek as a project dependency instead, run it through uv run:

- name: Install dependencies
  run: uv sync

- name: Run prek
  run: uv run prek run --all-files --show-diff-on-failure

Useful prek commands

List configured hooks:

prek list

See built-in Rust-native hooks:

prek util list-builtins

A practical migration flow from pre-commit is:

uv tool install prek
prek install -f
prek run --all-files
prek auto-update

This keeps the same hook config while replacing the Python-based runner with a single Rust binary. That is the easiest way to start using prek without changing the rest of your workflow.