What hooks are (and why you probably don't need them yet)

A hook is a way of telling Claude Code to automatically do something before or after a specific action — always re-run a check after a file’s edited, for example, without you having to ask each time.

This is mostly an engineering-flavored feature. Most founder-relevant workflows (drafting an update, synthesizing feedback, writing a JD) don’t need one — you’re already in the loop reviewing each step, which is the same thing a hook would otherwise automate. Where it becomes useful is repetitive technical housekeeping: always running your test suite after a change, always formatting a file a certain way.

The founder-relevant version of this concept: if you notice yourself manually doing the same small check after every Claude Code session — rereading a file, re-running something — that’s worth knowing hooks exist for. You don’t need to set one up to use Claude Code well; it’s a depth feature, not a starting one.