Install lefthook with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• lefthook

Project history

Evil Martians introduced Lefthook publicly in 2019 as part of a developer-experience workflow around Git hooks, CI, and test automation. The project's official materials describe it as a Git hooks manager for Node.js, Ruby, Python, and many other project types, with speed from Go and parallel command execution.

By 2024 Evil Martians described Lefthook as having grown from a wrapper around custom Git hook scripts into a broader automation tool for local development routines. The docs centered the normal workflow around creating `lefthook.yml` and running `lefthook install`, which writes hook shims under `.git/hooks/`.

Adoption history

Evil Martians' 2019 launch material named Discourse, Logux, and OpenStax as adopters, which placed Lefthook in the practical Git-hook-manager niche rather than as a toy demo. Later official pages emphasized package-manager installation through project ecosystems and system package managers, including Homebrew, npm, RubyGems, winget, yum, apt, apk, and Scoop.

How it is used

Package users usually install the `lefthook` binary, commit `lefthook.yml`, run `lefthook install`, and let Git invoke Lefthook on events such as pre-commit, pre-push, or commit-msg. A common package-nerd use is replacing language-specific hook wrappers with a single binary that can dispatch linters, formatters, tests, and custom scripts in parallel.

Why package nerds care

Lefthook matters in package-manager culture because it sits at the boundary between Git, local automation, and language ecosystems: it is distributed as a native CLI while still fitting naturally into npm, Ruby, Python, and Homebrew workflows. Its appeal is the small, boring promise package nerds like: one config file, one binary, fewer per-language hook stacks.

Timeline

• 2019-07-10: Evil Martians published an early Lefthook workflow article with Crystalball and Git automation.
• 2019-07-30: Evil Martians published the main Lefthook introduction article.
• 2019-08-28: Evil Martians described using Lefthook in documentation automation workflows.
• 2024-01-18: Evil Martians described Lefthook's evolution beyond a simple Git-hook script wrapper.

Related projects

• Related Git-hook tools include Husky, pre-commit, lint-staged, Overcommit, and language-specific package scripts. Evil Martians' surrounding open-source ecosystem also includes projects such as AnyCable, imgproxy, PostCSS-related tooling, and Crystalball.

Sources

• https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/5-cool-and-surprising-ways-to-configure-lefthook-for-automation-joy
• https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/lefthook-crystalball-and-git-magic
• https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/lefthook-knock-your-teams-code-back-into-shape
• https://evilmartians.com/opensource/lefthook
• https://github.com/evilmartians/lefthook
• https://lefthook.dev/