Environment Variables

Environment variables can be used to configure hk.

HK_CACHE_DIR

Type: path Default: ~/.cache/hk

The cache directory to use.

HK_CHECK_FIRST

Type: bool Default: true

If true, hk will run check commands first then run fix commands if check fails iff there are multiple linters with the same file in a matching glob pattern.

The reason for this is to make hk able to parallelize as much as possible. We can have as many check commands running in parallel against the same file as we want without them interfering with each other—however we can't have 2 fix commands potentially writing to the same file. So we optimistically run the check commands in parallel, then if any fail we run their fix commands potentially in series.

If this is disabled hk will have simpler logic that just uses fix commands in series in this situation.

HK_PROFILE

Type: string[] (comma-separated list)

The profile(s) to use.

HK_FILE

Type: string Default: hk.pkl | hk.toml | hk.yaml | hk.yml | hk.json

The file to use for the configuration.

HK_FIX

Type: bool Default: true

If set to false, hk will not run fix steps.

HK_JOBS

Type: usize Default: (number of cores)

The number of jobs to run in parallel.

HK_LOG

Type: trace | debug | info | warn | error Default: info

The log level to use.

HK_LOG_FILE

Type: path Default: ~/.local/state/hk/hk.log

The log file to use.

HK_LOG_FILE_LEVEL

Type: trace | debug | info | warn | error Default: HK_LOG

The log level to use for the log file.

HK_MISE

Type: bool Default: false

If set to true:

• When installing hooks with hk install, hk will use mise x to execute hooks which won't require activating mise to use mise tools
• When generating files with hk generate, hk will create a mise.toml file with hk configured

HK_SKIP_STEPS

Type: string[] (comma-separated list)

A comma-separated list of step names to skip when running pre-commit and pre-push hooks. For example: HK_SKIP_STEPS=lint,test would skip any steps named "lint" or "test".

HK_SKIP_HOOK

Type: string[] (comma-separated list) Default: (empty)

A comma-separated list of hook names to skip entirely. This allows you to disable specific git hooks from running. For example: HK_SKIP_HOOK=pre-commit,pre-push would skip running those hooks completely.

This is useful when you want to temporarily disable certain hooks while still keeping them configured in your hk.pkl file. Unlike HK_SKIP_STEPS which skips individual steps, this skips the entire hook and all its steps.

HK_STASH

Type: git | patch-file | none Default: patch-file

• git: Use git stash to stash unstaged changes before running hooks.
• patch-file: Use an hk generated patch file to stash unstaged changes before running hooks (typically faster and avoids index is locked errors).
• none: Do not stash unstaged changes before running hooks. Much faster but will stage unstaged changes if they are in the same file as staged changes with fix modifications.

HK_STASH_UNTRACKED

Type: bool Default: true

If set to true, hk will stash untracked files when stashing before running hooks.

HK_FAIL_FAST

Type: bool Default: true

If true, hk will abort running steps after the first one fails.

HK_STATE_DIR

Type: path Default: ~/.local/state/hk

The state directory to use.

HK_HIDE_WHEN_DONE

Type: bool Default: false

If set to true, hk will hide the progress output when the hook finishes if there are no errors.

HK_LIBGIT2

Type: bool Default: true

If set to false, hk will not use libgit2 to interact with git and instead use shelling out to git commands. This may provide better performance in some cases such as when using fsmonitor to watch for changes.