Hygiene Checks VS Code runs a hygiene check as a git pre-commit hook. Commits will be rejected if hygiene fails. Running the hygiene check Always run the pre-commit hygiene check before declaring work complete. This catches issues that would block a commit. To run the hygiene check on your staged files: This executes , which scans only staged files (from ). To check specific files directly (without staging them first): What it checks The hygiene linter scans staged files for issues including (but not limited to): - Unicode characters : Non-ASCII characters (em-dashes, curly quotes, emoji, etc…