diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 88942d8..e5eadb7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -48,5 +48,25 @@ configurable via the configurations prefixed with `VectorDefaultSkinVersion`.
 Version preference and configuration may be overridden by the `useskinversion`
 URL query parameter.
 
+### Pre-commit tests
+
+A pre-commit hook is installed when executing `npm install`. By default, it runs
+`npm test` which is useful for automatically validating everything that can be
+in a reasonable amount of time. If you wish to defer these tests to be executed
+by continuous integration only, set the `PRE_COMMIT` environment variable to `0`:
+
+```bash
+$ export PRE_COMMIT=0
+$ git commit
+```
+
+Or more succinctly:
+
+```bash
+$ PRE_COMMIT=0 git commit
+```
+
+Skipping the pre-commit tests has no impact on Gerrit change identifier hooks.
+
 ### Hooks
 See [hooks.txt](hooks.txt).
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 1ae55eb..03c0128 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -14,8 +14,10 @@
 		"selenium-test": "npm -s run test:size",
 		"doc": "jsdoc -c jsdoc.json && npm run build-storybook",
 		"build-storybook": "dev-scripts/setup-storybook.sh && build-storybook --quiet --loglevel warn -o docs/ui",
-		"svgmin": "svgo --config=.svgo.yml -q -r -f resources/"
+		"svgmin": "svgo --config=.svgo.yml -q -r -f resources/",
+		"pre-commit": "[ \"${PRE_COMMIT:-1}\" -eq 0 ] || npm -s t"
 	},
+	"pre-commit": "pre-commit",
 	"devDependencies": {
 		"@babel/core": "7.7.7",
 		"@storybook/html": "5.2.8",