diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..375a48d3a05bf4f81ade915c27196f6f27cd71b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/ambv/black
+    rev: 20.8b1
+    hooks:
+      - id: black
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
+    rev: v2.3.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: flake8
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
+    rev: v2.3.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: end-of-file-fixer
+      - id: trailing-whitespace
+  - repo: https://github.com/timothycrosley/isort
+    rev: 5.2.1
+    hooks:
+    - id: isort
+      args: ["--profile", "black"]
diff --git a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
index 8cf15d9db2fbf837b2d4b0bbc973b018339db4fb..03abfec3817c3663668085cbef660bb25df72e26 100644
--- a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
+++ b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
@@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ export CFG
 ${PRJ}_GIT_DESC := $(shell git describe --tags 2> /dev/null || git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null)
 export ${PRJ}_GIT_DESC
 # The formatting here is just to make sure this is properly parseable .yaml data
-${PRJ}_GIT_STATUS := [ $(shell git status --porcelain | grep -v "\.Makefile" | sed 's/^/\\\"/' | sed 's/$$/\\\", /')]
+${PRJ}_GIT_STATUS := [ $(shell git status --porcelain 2> /dev/null | grep -v "\.Makefile" | sed 's/^/\\\"/' | sed 's/$$/\\\", /')]
 export ${PRJ}_GIT_STATUS
 
 else # in O.*