angtheod · angtheod · May 16, 2026 · May 16, 2026
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,20 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/)
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html) (as of version 0.1.0).
 
+## [0.5.0] `2026-05-16`
+
+### Changed
+- Restructured the script template file. Developers now have to implement the 'before_run' and 'run' functions within their script.
+  - Function 'before_run' must be implemented. Should initialize certain variables.
+  - Function 'run' must be implemented. Should contain the check's logic. A typical use case is included in the template script file.
+  - Function 'after_run' may be implemented. May contain any post-check actions.
+- Move more logic from within the scripts to the core gitcc script and refactored 'check' function.
+- Update the README.md file.
+
+### Fixed
+- Fix a bug in the lib function parse_npm_audit, that was showing an error message to the user when the NPM audit report file either did not contain a valid JSON object or did not contain certain expected json keys. 
+
+
 ## [0.4.0] `2026-05-11`
 
 ### Added
@@ -49,4 +63,4 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## [0.1.0] `2025-04-20`
 
 ### Added
-- A POSIX-compliant shell script for running configurable and extendable pre-commit checks on your local git repository.
+- A POSIX-compliant shell script for running configurable and extendable pre-commit checks on your git repository.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -1,35 +1,42 @@
 # Git Commit Check
 
-#### A POSIX-compliant Shell tool for executing configurable and extendable pre-commit checks on your git repository.
+#### A POSIX-compliant Shell tool for executing configurable pre-commit checks on your git repository.
 
 ---
+May be used as a pre-commit git hook, as part of a CI/CD pipeline or as a standalone tool.
+Tested with the following shells: `sh, bash, dash, zsh`.
 
+##### How to use:
 - Download the git-commit-check directory and place it within your repository.
 
 - Run the following commands to copy the pre-commit hook script example and the config example files
   and edit their values according to your project.
 
-Let's assume you placed gitcc files under the bin directory of your repository:
+Let's assume you placed the gitcc directory under the bin directory of your repository:
 ```
 cd path/to/your/repo
-cp bin/git-commit-check/hooks/pre-commit.example bin/git-commit-check/hooks/pre-commit
-cp bin/git-commit-check/config.sh.example bin/git-commit-check/config.sh
+cp bin/gitcc/hooks/pre-commit.example bin/gitcc/hooks/pre-commit
+cp bin/gitcc/config.sh.example bin/gitcc/config.sh
 ```
 - Edit the config.sh file to set the values for the checks you want to run.
   - Set the ENABLED variable with the ',' separated script IDs that you want to enable.
 - Create your own new script and add it to the `scripts` directory. Script naming conventions:
   1. Prepend a two-digit script ID to the script name.
   2. Append the .sh extension to the script name.
   3. Copy the contents of the `scripts/template` script into the new script file.
-  4. Adjust the values in the script file to suit your needs, as described in the comments of the template script.
+  4. Follow the instructions within the template file.
+     a. Implement function 'before_run' and initialise the variables.
+     b. Implement function 'run' and add the check's logic. A typical use case can be found in the template file.
+     c. Optionally implement function 'after_run' to perform any cleanup or post-processing actions.
   5. Try to keep your scripts POSIX-compliant so that they will work in all (most) SHELL. There are command line and online tools that can help you verify this.
 - Alternatively, you may copy one of the prepared scripts under the `scripts/prepared` directory into the `scripts` directory.
 - Make the pre-commit hook executable. Run the following command to instruct git to call `gitcc` before allowing the developer to create a new commit.
 
 ```
-git config core.hooksPath bin/git-commit-check/hooks`
+git config core.hooksPath bin/gitcc/hooks
 ```
 
 - Run `git commit` to test the pre-commit hook. If your application is containerized (docker/podman), gitcc will automatically run within your container, regardless whether you do `git commit` from the host machine or the container.
+This way the pre-commit hook and all the checks will be performed in the same environment as the application.
 
 - Done!
diff --git a/gitcc b/gitcc
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # Git Commit Check (gitcc)
-# Version: 0.4.0
+# Version: 0.5.0
+# Github repo: https://github.com/angtheod/git-commit-check
 # Author: Angelos Theodorakopoulos <angtheod@gmail.com>
 
 # Change to the directory of the script and source the required scripts.
@@ -10,64 +11,105 @@ cd "$(dirname "$0")" || exit 1
 . ./lib.sh
 
 init() {
-  START=$(date +%s)
-  HAS_ERRORS=0
-  HAS_SYNTAX_ERRORS=0
+    START=$(date +%s)
+    HAS_ERRORS=0
+    HAS_SYNTAX_ERRORS=0
 }
 
 header() {
-  line3 "╔" "╗" $((WIDTH+8)) "═"
-  printf "  %s${CYAN}Load\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
-  line "Configuration" "${1:-./config.sh}"
+    line3 "╔" "╗" $((WIDTH+8)) "═"
+    printf "  %s${CYAN}Load\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
+    line "Configuration" "${1:-./config.sh}"
 }
 
 check() {
-  [ -n "$ENABLED" ] && printf "\n  %s${CYAN}Check${NC}\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
-
-  for script in $(find "$GITCC_SCRIPTS_PATH" -type f -name '*.sh' | sort); do
-    _name=$(basename "$script")
-    _id="${_name%%_*}"
-    # Check if the script is enabled in the configuration and then source the script
-    # so that it runs in the same shell process and the variables are accessible within it.
-    if contains_string "$_id" "$ENABLED"; then
-      . "$script"
+    [ -n "$ENABLED" ] && printf "\n  %s${CYAN}Check${NC}\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
+
+    for script in $(find "$GITCC_SCRIPTS_PATH" -type f -name '*.sh' | sort); do
+        _name=$(basename "$script")
+        _id="${_name%%_*}"
+
+        # Check if the script is enabled in the configuration and then source the script
+        # so that it runs in the same shell process and the variables are accessible within it.
+        if contains_string "$_id" "$ENABLED"; then
+            before_run_check "$script"
+            run_check
+            after_run_check
+        fi
+    done
+}
+
+before_run_check() {
+    if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
+        printf "(Unknown)\n"
+        return 1
+    fi
+
+    script=$1
+
+    # Initialise variables.
+    HEADER=""
+    COMMAND_NAME=""
+    COMMAND_VERSION=""
+
+    unset -f after_run # Clear the 'after_run' shell function before sourcing the script.
+
+    . "$script"
+
+    before_run # Call user's before run function.
+
+    line2 "$HEADER" "$LOAD_SYMBOL"
+}
+
+run_check() {
+    run
+}
+
+after_run_check() {
+    if [ "$COMMAND_NAME" != "" ] && [ "$COMMAND_VERSION" != "" ]; then
+        add_about_info "$COMMAND_NAME" "$COMMAND_VERSION"
+    fi
+
+    if type after_run > /dev/null 2>&1; then # Call the function 'after_run' only if the script implements it.
+        after_run
     fi
-  done
 }
 
 about() {
-  [ "$SHOW_ABOUT" = 0 ] && return
+    if [ "$SHOW_ABOUT" = 0 ] || [ -z "$ABOUT" ]; then
+        return
+    fi
 
-  printf "\n  %s${CYAN}About\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
+    printf "\n  %s${CYAN}About\n" "$SECTION_SYMBOL"
 
-  split_about_info | while IFS='|' read -r left right; do
-    line "$left" "$(extract_version "$right")"
-  done
+    split_about_info | while IFS='|' read -r left right; do
+        line "$left" "$(extract_version "$right")"
+    done
 }
 
 footer() {
-  line3 "╚" "╝" $((WIDTH+8)) "═"
+    line3 "╚" "╝" $((WIDTH+8)) "═"
 
-  END=$(date +%s)
-  time=$((END-START))
+    END=$(date +%s)
+    time=$((END-START))
 
-  if [ "$SHOW_LOG_URL" -eq 1 ]; then
-    line3 "$LOG_SYMBOL $LOG_URL" "$TIME_SYMBOL ${time}sec" "$((WIDTH+7))" " "
-  else
-    line3 "" "$TIME_SYMBOL ${time}sec" "$((WIDTH+7))" " "
-  fi
+    if [ "$SHOW_LOG_URL" -eq 1 ]; then
+        line3 "$LOG_SYMBOL $LOG_URL" "$TIME_SYMBOL ${time}sec" "$((WIDTH+7))" " "
+    else
+        line3 "" "$TIME_SYMBOL ${time}sec" "$((WIDTH+7))" " "
+    fi
 }
 
 main() {
-  init
-  header
-  check
-  about
-  footer
-
-  if [ "$HAS_ERRORS" -ne 0 ]; then
-    exit 1
-  fi
+    init
+    header
+    check
+    about
+    footer
+
+    if [ "$HAS_ERRORS" -ne 0 ]; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
 }
 
 main

diff --git a/hooks/pre-commit.example b/hooks/pre-commit.example
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 # [pre-commit]
 PROJECT_PATH="/path/to/project" # Absolute path to the project, e.g. /var/www/my-project
-GITCC_PATH="path/to/gitcc"      # Relative path to the project, e.g. "bin/git-commit-check"
+GITCC_PATH="path/to/gitcc"      # Relative path to the project, e.g. "bin/gitcc"
 CONTAINER_ENGINE=$(which docker 2>/dev/null || which podman 2>/dev/null)
 CONTAINER_NAME="container_name"
 SHELL="/bin/sh"