A Git hook to prevent committing directly to main – alexwlchanSkip to main contentA Git hook to prevent committing directly to main<br>Posted 13 July 2026<br>At work, we use a standard Git workflow: develop on a feature branch, push to GitHub, and open a pull request to main. Once somebody else approves the PR, the changes get merged.<br>At least once a week, I forget to branch and commit changes directly to my local main.<br>I only realise my mistake when I try to push and GitHub blocks me. To untangle myself, I have to create a new branch with my current state, push that instead, and then reset my local main back to origin so I can pull other people’s changes. This isn’t difficult to fix, but it’s annoying – especially when I often forget to clean up my local main until the next time I try to pull.<br>To stop me getting into this state, I’ve written a Git pre-commit hook. I saved the following shell script in .git/hooks/pre-commit and made it executable:<br>#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -o errexit<br>set -o nounset

branch="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"

if [ "$branch" = "main" ]; then<br>echo "You can't commit directly to main"<br>exit 1<br>fiThe git rev-parse command prints the short name of the current HEAD. If I’m on a branch, it returns the branch name; if I’m in a detached HEAD state, it returns HEAD.<br>If the hook detects that I’m on main, it exits with an error code. This aborts the commit and prevents it being saved, serving as a friendly reminder to create a feature branch first – and leaving my local main completely clena.<br>Ideally I’d always remember to branch when I start a new piece of work – but since I don’t, I’m happy to let the computer remember instead.