Compatibility with pre-commit¶

prek is a practical drop-in replacement for pre-commit, with support for its repositories, configuration files, hooks, and command-line workflows.

What works unchanged¶

Existing .pre-commit-config.yaml and .pre-commit-config.yml files work in prek. See Configuration.
Existing hook repositories and .pre-commit-hooks.yaml manifests work in prek.
The main user-facing subcommands keep their upstream names: install, run, sample-config, try-repo, uninstall, validate-config, and validate-manifest.

Command compatibility¶

For a smaller and more consistent command tree, prek hides some compatibility spellings from prek --help and groups some operations under cache or util. Hidden commands are still callable; hiding only keeps them out of the help output.

`pre-commit` spelling	Preferred `prek` spelling	Availability in `prek`
`pre-commit install-hooks`	`prek prepare-hooks`	`prek install-hooks` remains available as a hidden alias.
`pre-commit install --install-hooks`	`prek install --prepare-hooks`	`--install-hooks` remains available as a hidden alias.
`pre-commit autoupdate`	`prek update`	`prek autoupdate` remains available as a hidden alias.
`pre-commit gc`	`prek cache gc`	`prek gc` remains available but is hidden.
`pre-commit clean`	`prek cache clean`	`prek clean` remains available but is hidden.
`pre-commit init-templatedir`	`prek util init-template-dir`	`prek init-templatedir` remains available but is hidden.
`pre-commit migrate-config`	`prek util yaml-to-toml`	Configuration migration lives under `prek util` and targets the native `prek.toml` format.
`pre-commit help <command>`	`prek <command> --help`	Help uses the standard `--help` flag instead of a separate subcommand.
`pre-commit hook-impl`	`prek hook-impl`	Available but hidden because installed Git hooks invoke it internally.

Why the CLI is reorganized¶

pre-commit keeps many maintenance commands as separate top-level entries. prek reorganizes some of them so the command tree is easier to navigate:

related cache operations live under prek cache
helper and migration commands live under prek util
prepare-hooks describes what the command actually does more clearly than install-hooks

This organization keeps the primary help output focused without removing the underlying functionality or compatibility entry points.

Not implemented¶

pre-commit hazmat is not implemented in prek.

If you need strict upstream portability¶

If the same config must continue working in upstream pre-commit, keep the YAML format. Upstream pre-commit does not read prek.toml or discover nested projects through prek's workspace mode.

Prek-only configuration extensions¶

These entries are implemented by prek and are not part of the documented upstream pre-commit configuration surface. They work in both YAML and TOML, but they only matter for compatibility if you share a YAML config with upstream pre-commit.

See Configuration for config format guidance, Configuration Reference for key-level details, and Differences for broader behavior and CLI differences.