Claude Code Hooks: How to Automate Repetitive Tasks and Add Guardrails

You can automate pretty much every task with Claude Code. All you need to do is write clear instructions.

Claude Code can inspect a repository, edit files, run terminal commands, delegate work to subagents, and verify its own changes. But there is an important limitation with this approach: instructions are probabilistic. Even when you write “always run Prettier after editing a file” in CLAUDE.md, Claude may occasionally forget or ignore this instruction. Hooks solve this problem.

In this article, I’ll discuss how we can use hooks to streamline the design process and share 5 practical ready-to-use hooks I personally use in my projects.

What is a hook

A hook is an action that Claude Code runs automatically at a specific point in its lifecycle. Instead of asking Claude to remember to format code, validate a command, run a test, or send a notification, you attach that action to an event. Hooks are triggered at defined moments during a Claude Code session, such as:

• PreToolUse: runs before Claude uses a tool.
• PostToolUse: runs after a tool succeeds.
• UserPromptSubmit runs…