We had a comment on our zippy HackerNews post, “Curious, How is this different from pre-commit hooks?”. This is an unexpected but quite smart question. Let’s start with explaining what a pre-commit hook actually does, and what it is ment for.

A pre-commit hook

The idea of a pre-commit hook is that it gives you the ability to run commands before your code is commited. The main premise is that you could fix issues before they end up in your git repository. It helps automating code quality checks, think in this case about formatting, linting, or even leaking secrets and passwords. With pre-commit hooks you could capture these mistakes so your git repository does not get compromised.

What Zippy does

We understand that it seems zippy does the same thing, you see the git commit and it will run likewise your code quality checks. However zippy only runs on code that is in your git repository, so after a push. If you leaked secrets, they are in your git repository.

Zippy is a continuous integration / continuous deployment tool, this means it will run your code quality checks, but unlike gitlab/github it will give immediate feedback in your terminal. Which makes it feel like a commit hook, but unlike a hook we are fully integrated with your team/organisation.

The key difference: where and when

Pre-commit = local. Zippy = remote. Pre-commit protects your repo history, zippy builds and deploys your software. They live on other sides of the git workflow.

Why Zippy matters

Zippy replaces github actions, gitlab CI, Jenkins, etc. You could absolutely use both, use your pre-commit hook for local checks. Use zippy for your pipeline. Unlike gitlab pipeline, github actions, Jenkins, etc, the main goal of zippy is to keep your development focus. You stay in the terminal, and do not lose track of your build.

So, allthough pre-commit hooks and zippy have the same interface ( terminal ), they serve different goals. The pre-commit to safeguard your local repository. Zippy to run your CI pipeline