diff --git a/js/scripts/hook-pre-commit.js b/js/scripts/hook-pre-commit.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a7ddc44f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/js/scripts/hook-pre-commit.js
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+// Copyright 2020, University of Colorado Boulder
+
+/**
+ * Runs tasks for pre-commit, including lint and qunit testing.  Avoids the overhead of grunt and Gruntfile.js for speed
+ *
+ * USAGE:
+ * cd ${repo}
+ * node ../perennial/js/scripts/hook-pre-commit.js
+ *
+ * OPTIONS:
+ * --console: outputs information to the console for debugging
+ *
+ * See also phet-info/git-template-dir/hooks/pre-commit for how this is used in precommit hooks.
+ *
+ * @author Sam Reid (PhET Interactive Simulations)
+ */
+
+// Require statements which should be generally available via node or perennial
+const path = require( 'path' );
+const fs = require( 'fs' );
+const puppeteer = require( 'puppeteer' );
+const buildLocal = require( '../common/buildLocal' );
+
+// Identify the current repo
+const repo = process.cwd().split( path.sep ).pop();
+
+// Console logging via --console
+const commandLineArguments = process.argv.slice( 2 );
+const outputToConsole = commandLineArguments.indexOf( '--console' ) >= 0;
+
+// Run lint tests if they exist in the checked-out SHAs.
+try {
+  const lint = require( '../../../chipper/js/grunt/lint' );
+
+  // lint() automatically filters out non-lintable repos
+  const report = lint( [ repo ], true, false, true );
+
+  if ( report.errorCount > 0 || report.warningCount > 0 ) {
+    process.exit( 1 );
+  }
+
+  outputToConsole && console.log( 'Linting passed with results.length: ' + report.results.length );
+}
+catch( e ) {
+  console.log( 'chipper/js/grunt/lint not found' );
+}
+
+// Run qunit tests if puppeteerQUnit exists in the checked-out SHAs and a test HTML exists.
+try {
+  const puppeteerQUnit = require( '../../../aqua/js/local/puppeteerQUnit' );
+  if ( repo !== 'scenery' ) {
+    ( async () => {
+      const testFilePath = `${repo}/${repo}-tests.html`;
+      const exists = fs.existsSync( `../${testFilePath}` );
+      if ( exists ) {
+        const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
+
+        // phet-io repo unit tests must be run with brand=phet-io
+        const queryString = repo === 'phet-io' ? '&brand=phet-io' : '';
+
+        const result = await puppeteerQUnit( browser, `${buildLocal.localTestingURL}/${testFilePath}?ea${queryString}` );
+        await browser.close();
+        outputToConsole && console.log( `${repo}: ${JSON.stringify( result, null, 2 )}` );
+        if ( !result.ok ) {
+          process.exit( 1 ); // fail as soon as there is one problem
+        }
+      }
+
+      outputToConsole && console.log( 'no problems detected' );
+      process.exit( 0 );
+    } )();
+  }
+}
+catch( e ) {
+  console.log( 'puppeteerQUnit not found.' );
+}
\ No newline at end of file