awsPractitioner

Streamline Your Git Workflow with Kiro CLI Pre-Commit Hooks

5 min read AWS DevOps BlogSep 29, 2026Reviewed for accuracy

Practitioner — Hands-on experience recommended

In today's fast-paced development environment, ensuring code quality before it reaches your repository is crucial. Kiro CLI acts as a pre-commit hook agent, analyzing staged changes for security vulnerabilities, bugs, and performance issues. By automating this process, you can catch critical problems early, saving time and reducing the risk of deploying flawed code.

Git hooks run automatically at specific points in your workflow. The pre-commit hook executes after you type git commit but before Git creates the commit object. If the hook exits with a non-zero code, the commit is aborted. With Kiro CLI, you can set the KIRO_API_KEY as an environment variable, allowing it to run in non-interactive contexts like Git hooks. The script checks for staged files, retrieves their diffs, and runs Kiro CLI analysis to identify issues such as hardcoded secrets or potential bugs. If Kiro finds a blocking issue, the commit is halted, ensuring only clean code makes it into your repository.

However, be mindful of data privacy. The hooks send your staged code diffs to the Kiro API for analysis, so review your organization’s policies on sharing source code with external services. For sensitive repositories, consult your security team before adopting this workflow. Additionally, ensure you have Kiro CLI installed and your API key configured correctly to avoid unnecessary delays in your commit process.

Key takeaways

→Set the KIRO_API_KEY as an environment variable for Kiro CLI to work in Git hooks.
→Use pre-commit hooks to analyze staged files for security and performance issues before committing.
→Review your organization's data privacy policies when sending code diffs to the Kiro API.
→Handle non-blocking warnings from Kiro CLI to improve code quality without blocking commits.
→Install Kiro CLI and configure your API key to enable local analysis in any Git repository.

Why it matters

Integrating Kiro CLI into your pre-commit workflow significantly reduces the chances of introducing critical issues into your codebase, enhancing overall code quality and team productivity.

Code examples

Bash

1#!/bin/bash
2set -e
3# Skip hook if KIRO_API_KEY is not set
4if [ -z "$KIRO_API_KEY" ]; then
5  echo "⚠️  KIRO_API_KEY not set. Skipping Kiro pre-commit analysis."
6  exit 0
7fi
8
9# Get list of staged files (only added, modified, or renamed)
10STAGED_FILES=$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=AMR)
11
12if [ -z "$STAGED_FILES" ]; then
13  echo "No staged files to analyze."
14  exit 0
15fi
16
17# Get the actual diff content for context
18DIFF_CONTENT=$(git diff --cached)
19
20echo "???? Kiro CLI: Analyzing $(echo "$STAGED_FILES" | wc -l | tr -d ' ') staged file(s)..."
21
22# Run Kiro CLI analysis on staged changes (timeout after 30s to avoid hanging offline)
23RESULT=$(timeout 30 kiro-cli chat --no-interactive "You are a pre-commit code reviewer. Analyze ONLY the following staged changes for critical issues that should block this commit.
24STAGED FILES:$STAGED_FILES
25
26DIFF:$DIFF_CONTENT
27
28Check for:
291. SECURITY: Hardcoded secrets, API keys, passwords, tokens in the diff
302. SECURITY: SQL injection, XSS, or command injection vulnerabilities
313. BUGS: Obvious logic errors, null pointer risks, off-by-one errors
324. PERFORMANCE: Accidentally committed debug code, console.log statements, sleep calls
33
34Rules:
35- Only flag issues that are clearly problems. Do not flag style preferences.
36- If you find a SECURITY issue, output a line starting with BLOCK: followed by the reason.
37- If you find a BUG or PERFORMANCE issue, output a line starting with WARN: followed by the reason.
38- If everything looks clean, output a single line: PASS
39
40Be concise. This runs on every commit - speed matters." 2>&1) || {
41  EXIT_CODE=$?
42  if [ $EXIT_CODE -eq 124 ]; then
43    echo "⚠️  Kiro CLI timed out (network issue?). Allowing commit."
44    exit 0
45  fi
46  echo "⚠️  Kiro CLI returned an error. Allowing commit."
47  exit 0
48}
49
50echo "$RESULT"
51
52# Block commit if BLOCK issues found
53if echo "$RESULT" | grep -q "BLOCK:"; then
54  echo ""
55  echo "❌ Commit blocked by Kiro CLI. Fix the issues above and try again."
56  echo "   To bypass this hook: git commit --no-verify"
57  exit 1
58fi
59
60# Warn but allow commit for non-blocking issues
61if echo "$RESULT" | grep -q "WARN:"; then
62  echo ""
63  echo "⚠️  Warnings found. Commit will proceed. Consider fixing before push."
64fi
65
66echo "✅ Kiro CLI pre-commit check passed."
67exit 0

Bash

1#!/bin/bash
2
3set -e
4COMMIT_MSG_FILE="$1"
5COMMIT_MSG=$(cat "$COMMIT_MSG_FILE")
6
7# Skip hook if KIRO_API_KEY is not set
8if [ -z "$KIRO_API_KEY" ]; then
9exit 0
10fi
11
12# Skip for merge commits and fixup commits
13if echo "$COMMIT_MSG" | grep -qE "^(Merge|fixup!|squash!)"; then
14exit 0
15fi
16
17echo "???? Kiro CLI: Validating commit message..."
18
19RESULT=$(timeout 15 kiro-cli chat --no-interactive "Validate this commit message against Conventional Commits format.
20COMMIT MESSAGE:$COMMIT_MSG
21
22Rules:1. Must start with a type: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, build, ci, chore, revert2. Type may have an optional scope in parentheses: feat(auth), fix(api)3. Must have a colon and space after type/scope: feat: or feat(auth):4. Description must start with lowercase letter5. Description must not end with a period6. Subject line must be under 72 characters7. If a Jira ticket pattern exists (e.g., PROJ-123), that is acceptable in the scope or body
23If the message is valid, output exactly: VALIDIf the message is invalid, output: INVALID: followed by what is wrong and a corrected example.
24Be concise. One line for valid, two lines max for invalid." 2>&1) || {
25echo "⚠️‍ Kiro CLI unavailable. Skipping commit message validation."
26exit 0
27}
28
29echo "$RESULT"
30
31if echo "$RESULT" | grep -q "INVALID:"; then
32echo ""
33echo "❌ Commit message does not follow conventions."
34echo "⚠️ Examples: feat: add login page"
35echo "⚠️⚠️ fix(auth): resolve token expiry bug"
36echo "⚠️ To bypass: git commit --no-verify"
37fi