Prek: A better, faster, drop-in pre-commit replacement, engineered in Rust
Prek emerges as a Rust-engineered, dependency-free alternative to the popular pre-commit hook manager, promising significantly faster execution and a smoother developer experience. Its adoption by major projects like CPython and FastAPI underscores its immediate impact, addressing common pain points with existing tooling. The Hacker News discussion centers on the practical value of git hooks, the perceived shortcomings of pre-commit, and Prek's potential to streamline development workflows.
The Lowdown
Prek is introduced as a reimagined, Rust-built successor to the pre-commit framework, designed to offer a faster, more efficient, and dependency-free experience for managing git hooks. It aims to be a drop-in replacement, compatible with existing configurations while introducing several enhancements.
- Performance & Efficiency: Prek is significantly faster than
pre-commit, uses less disk space, and improves resource management by sharing hook environments and toolchains. It leveragesuvfor Python virtual environments and includes Rust-native implementations of common hooks. - Dependency-Free: Packaged as a single binary, Prek eliminates the need for Python or other runtimes, simplifying installation and reducing environmental complexities.
- Enhanced User Experience: Features include built-in monorepo support, improved
prek runcommands (e.g.,--directory,--last-commit), aprek listcommand for hook overview, and shell completions. - Broad Compatibility: It maintains full compatibility with
pre-commitconfigurations and hooks, allowing for a seamless migration. - Early Adoption: Despite being new, Prek is already being used or recommended by notable projects such as CPython, Apache Airflow, and FastAPI.
By offering a substantial leap in performance and user experience without sacrificing compatibility, Prek positions itself as a compelling tool for developers seeking to optimize their code quality and commit workflows.
The Gossip
Git Hook Grumbles & Gains
Commenters debated the fundamental utility of git hooks. Some expressed skepticism, viewing them as easily bypassed 'shell scripts with extra steps' that offer limited value over direct CI/CD integration. Conversely, many staunchly defended hooks, emphasizing their critical role in catching issues early, providing immediate feedback to developers, and harmonizing local checks with CI/CD pipelines to prevent failures and save development time. The consensus was that while hooks can be bypassed, their primary value lies in enforcing standards and efficiency before code even leaves the local machine.
Pre-commit Pain Points & Prek's Promise
The discussion highlighted various frustrations with the original `pre-commit` tool, ranging from perceived performance bottlenecks to architectural design choices. One prominent critique was its tendency to mix tool installation with linting, and its less-than-ideal approach to parallelism. Prek, engineered in Rust, was lauded as a 'breath of fresh air' and a 'seamless drop-in' solution, directly addressing these criticisms with its speed, single-binary distribution, and dependency-free operation. While some users noted they hadn't experienced performance issues with `pre-commit`, the general sentiment leaned towards appreciation for Prek's significant improvements.
Alternative Avenues & Tooling Talk
The introduction of Prek naturally led to comparisons and inquiries about other similar tools in the ecosystem. Users mentioned and discussed alternatives like `hk` (built on Pkl and Rust), `lefthook`, and `husky`, showcasing a broader interest in efficient and robust pre-commit hook managers. This underlined the ongoing developer quest for the 'best' tool to automate code quality and workflow checks, with performance and ease of use being key considerations.