diff --git a/PRE-COMMIT.md b/PRE-COMMIT.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7d4d27c8b88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/PRE-COMMIT.md
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# pre-commit
+
+We run [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) with
+[GitHub Actions](https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/blob/main/.github/workflows/linter.yml) so installation on your
+local machine is currently optional.
+
+The `pre-commit` [configuration file](https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/blob/main/.pre-commit-config.yaml)
+is in the repository root. Before you can run the hooks, you need to have `pre-commit` installed. `pre-commit` is a
+[Python package](https://pypi.org/project/pre-commit/).
+
+From the repository root run: `pip install -r requirements-dev.txt` to install `pre-commit` and after you install
+`pre-commit` you will then need to install the pre-commit hooks by running `pre-commit install`.
+
+The hooks run when running `git commit` and also from the command line with `pre-commit`. Some of the hooks will auto
+fix the code after the hooks fail whilst most will print error messages from the linters. If a hook fails the overall
+commit will fail, and you will need to fix the issues or problems and `git add` and `git commit` again. On `git commit`
+the hooks will run mostly only against modified files so if you want to test all hooks against all files and when you
+are adding a new hook you should always run:
+
+`pre-commit run --all-files`
+
+Sometimes you might need to skip a hook to commit because the hook is stopping you from committing or your computer
+might not have all the installation requirements for all the hooks. The `SKIP` variable is comma separated for two or
+more hooks:
+
+`SKIP=codespell git commit -m "foo"`
+
+The same applies when running pre-commit:
+
+`SKIP=codespell pre-commit run --all-files`
+
+Occasionally you can have more serious problems when using `pre-commit` with `git commit`. You can use `--no-verify` to
+commit and stop `pre-commit` from checking the hooks. For example:
+
+`git commit --no-verify -m "foo"`
+
+If you are having major problems using `pre-commit` you can always uninstall it.
+
+To run a single hook use `pre-commit run --all-files <hook_id>`
+
+For example just run the `codespell` hook:
+
+`pre-commit run --all-files codespell`
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b33d9dfe4c6..a605f95372b 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1029,6 +1029,7 @@
                             <exclude>CONTRIBUTING.md</exclude>
                             <exclude>README.md</exclude>
                             <exclude>INSTALL.md</exclude>
+                            <exclude>PRE-COMMIT.md</exclude>
                             <exclude>build/build.number</exclude>
                             <exclude>debian/cloudstack-agent.dirs</exclude>
                             <exclude>debian/cloudstack-usage.dirs</exclude>