# Function Hooks

Bashly provides you with three general purpose hooks that let you inject your own code. To use a hook, simply create one of the files listed below in your src directory.

Tip

Run bashly add hooks to create the hook files in your source directory.

Hook File	Description
`src/initialize.sh`	Execute code inside the `initialize()` function, which is called before anything else.
`src/before.sh`	Execute code before calling any command, but after processing the command line input.
`src/after.sh`	Execute code after calling any command.

Hooks Example

# Alternatives

These hooks should be considered last resort, for any functionality that is not covered by more native means.

Below is a list of some related features that can be used instead of using these hooks:

To change bash runtime parameters (e.g. set -o pipefail), use the strict setting instead.
To verify a program is installed, use dependencies instead.
To verify an environment variable is defined, use environment_variables instead.
To perform validation operations, use Custom Validations instead.
To halt the execution of the command unless certain conditions are met, use Custom Filters instead.