Hook events

DocWriter is a wrapper around the Claude Agent SDK. Hooks fire on the SDK’s standard events, configured through the hooks panel. The events most useful for writing workflows:

Event	When it fires	Typical use
`PostToolUse`	After a tool finishes successfully	Build, lint, format, log
`PreToolUse`	Before a tool runs	Validate input, short-circuit a tool
`PostToolUseFailure`	After a tool errors	Notify, retry
`UserPromptSubmit`	When you send a prompt	Start a timer, log the prompt
`Stop`	When the agent finishes its response	Compile, open preview, commit
`SessionStart`	When a new agent session begins	Initialize state, print a banner
`SessionEnd`	When a session ends	Flush logs, tear down

PostToolUse is the default for most “do something after the agent edits a file” hooks. Pair it with a matcher like Edit|Write to filter to file mutations. For the full event list, JSON schemas, return-value semantics, and advanced configuration, see the Claude Agent SDK hooks reference. Anything the SDK supports works in DocWriter.

Matching on tool name

PreToolUse, PostToolUse, and PostToolUseFailure are scoped to a particular tool. Use the matcher field (a regex, case-insensitive) to narrow which tools the hook applies to:

Matcher	What it matches
(empty)	Every tool
`Edit\|Write`	File mutations (both built-in `Edit`/`Write` and `edit_doc`/`write_doc`)
`Edit`	Edits only (not writes)
`Bash`	Shell commands the agent runs
`Read`	The agent reading a file
`mcp__.*`	Any MCP-server tool (custom tools you have added)

For non-tool events (Stop, UserPromptSubmit, Session*, Notification), the matcher is ignored.

Common patterns

Rebuild on every edit

Event:   PostToolUse
Matcher: Edit|Write
Command: pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -synctex=1 main.tex
Output:  main.pdf

Commit at the end of a turn

Event:   Stop
Command: git add -A && (git diff --cached --quiet || git commit -m "docwriter: auto-commit" && git push)

Lint before the agent writes

Event:   PreToolUse
Matcher: Write
Command: ruff check {{file}} || (echo "ruff failed; not writing" && exit 1)

When a PreToolUse hook exits non-zero, the SDK blocks the tool call. The agent sees the failure and can adapt.

Notify on failure

Event:   PostToolUseFailure
Command: terminal-notifier -title "DocWriter" -message "Tool failed: {{tool}}"

Where to go next

Hooks. The hooks panel and how to add them.
Preview. Connect a hook’s output to a live preview window.

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Matching on tool name

Common patterns

Rebuild on every edit

Commit at the end of a turn

Lint before the agent writes

Notify on failure

Where to go next

​Matching on tool name

​Common patterns

​Rebuild on every edit

​Commit at the end of a turn

​Lint before the agent writes

​Notify on failure

​Where to go next

Matching on tool name

Common patterns

Rebuild on every edit

Commit at the end of a turn

Lint before the agent writes

Notify on failure

Where to go next