What Are Claude Code Hooks?

Claude Code Hooks let you attach custom logic to Claude Code’s lifecycle events — enabling automated validation, approval gates, and self-running AI development pipelines.

Last verified: March 29, 2026

Key Concepts

Feature	Detail
What	Lifecycle event hooks for Claude Code
Trigger points	Before/after commands, file writes, tool calls
Hook types	Shell commands, API calls, AI model prompts
Use cases	Auto-approve, validate, test, notify

Example: AI-Powered Safety Check

{
  "type": "prompt",
  "prompt": "Is this Bash command safe to run in production? $ARGUMENTS",
  "model": "haiku"
}

This hook sends each bash command to Haiku for a fast safety check before execution.

Common Hook Patterns

• Auto-approve safe commands — Skip manual approval for known-safe operations (npm install, git status, etc.)
• Validate generated code — Run linters or type checkers after every file write
• Auto-test — Trigger test suites after code changes
• Notify — Send Slack/Discord messages when significant changes happen
• Gate deployments — Require AI or human approval before deploy commands

Why It Matters

Hooks turn Claude Code from an interactive coding assistant into a self-running development pipeline. Instead of manually approving every command, you define rules once and let the system enforce them automatically.

Combined with custom agents, hooks enable multi-step workflows where specialized agents handle different parts of development (coding, testing, reviewing, deploying) with automated handoffs.