diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index f53369a4..00000000
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-exclude: '^.*\.(md|MD)$'
-repos:
-    - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
-      rev: v5.0.0
-      hooks:
-          - id: trailing-whitespace
-          - id: check-added-large-files
-          - id: end-of-file-fixer
-          - id: mixed-line-ending
-            args: ["--fix=lf"]
-
-    - repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
-      # Ruff version.
-      rev: v0.12.1
-      hooks:
-        # Run the linter.
-        - id: ruff
-          types_or: [ python, pyi ]
-          args: [ --fix ]
-        # Run the formatter.
-        - id: ruff-format
-          types_or: [ python, pyi ]
-
-    - repo: https://github.com/commitizen-tools/commitizen
-      rev: v3.22.0
-      hooks:
-          - id: commitizen
-            stages: [commit-msg]
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 370dbb98..0ad307af 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -7,15 +7,10 @@ help::
 	@echo "Available commands"
 	@echo "  help           -- (default) print this message"
 
-ci: pre-commit $(call FORALL_PKGS,tests)
+ci: ruff $(call FORALL_PKGS,tests)
 help::
 	@echo "  ci             -- Run tests for all packages, the same way as CI does"
 
-pre-commit:
-	uv run pre-commit run --all-files
-help::
-	@echo "  pre-commit     -- Run pre-commit on all files"
-
 clean: $(call FORALL_PKGS,clean)
 	rm -rf dist .ruff_cache .pytest_cache
 help::
@@ -36,6 +31,27 @@ help::
 	@echo "                    NOTE: run this command to ensure all containers are stopped after tests"
 
 
+ruff:
+	@uv run ruff check --fix
+	@uv run ruff format
+help::
+	@echo "  ruff           -- Run ruff checks on all files."
+
+define COMMITIZEN_HOOK_CONTENTS
+#!/bin/sh
+MSG_FILE=$$1
+uv tool run --from commitizen cz check --allow-abort --commit-msg-file $$MSG_FILE
+endef
+export COMMITIZEN_HOOK_CONTENTS
+install-hooks:
+	@echo "make ruff" > .git/hooks/pre-commit
+	@chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit
+	@echo "$$COMMITIZEN_HOOK_CONTENTS" > .git/hooks/commit-msg
+	@chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg
+help::
+	@echo "  install-hooks  -- Install custom pre-commit hooks locally."
+	@echo "                 -- NOTE: Do this at least once after cloning the repo."
+
 realtime.%:
 	@$(MAKE) -C src/realtime $*
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a2d7713a..2920be8b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ To run each of the packages' tests in parallel. This should be generally faster
 
 Other relevant commands include
 ```bash
-make pre-commit # run lints and formmating before commiting
+make install-hooks # install all commit hooks into the local .git folder
 make stop-infra # stops all running containers from all packages
 make clean      # delete all intermediary files created by testing
 ```