diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0b1c80159857
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+ci:
+  autofix_prs: false
+  autoupdate_schedule: 'quarterly'
+exclude: |
+  (?x)^(
+    extern|
+    lib/matplotlib/mpl-data|
+    doc/devel/gitwash|
+    doc/users/prev|
+    doc/api/prev|
+    lib/matplotlib/tests/tinypages
+    )
+repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
+    rev: v4.0.1
+    hooks:
+      - id: check-added-large-files
+      - id: check-docstring-first
+      - id: end-of-file-fixer
+        exclude_types: [svg]
+      - id: mixed-line-ending
+      - id: trailing-whitespace
+        exclude_types: [svg]
+  - repo: https://github.com/pycqa/flake8
+    rev: 3.9.2
+    hooks:
+      - id: flake8
+        additional_dependencies: [pydocstyle>5.1.0, flake8-docstrings>1.4.0]
+        args: ["--docstring-convention=all"]
diff --git a/doc/devel/development_setup.rst b/doc/devel/development_setup.rst
index 468a7add7d75..c6aac3f1c467 100644
--- a/doc/devel/development_setup.rst
+++ b/doc/devel/development_setup.rst
@@ -60,6 +60,16 @@ true for ``*.py`` files.  If you change the C-extension source (which might
 also happen if you change branches) you will have to re-run
 ``python -m pip install -ve .``
 
+Installing pre-commit hooks
+===========================
+You can optionally install `pre-commit <https://pre-commit.com/>`_ hooks.
+These will automatically check flake8 and other style issues when you run
+``git commit``. The hooks are defined in the top level
+``.pre-commit-config.yaml`` file. To install the hooks ::
+
+    pip install pre-commit
+    pre-commit install
+
 Installing additional dependencies for development
 ==================================================
 See :ref:`development-dependencies`.
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index d73d7a99f579..c75cf4a40733 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ dependencies:
   - nbformat!=5.0.0,!=5.0.1
   - pandas!=0.25.0
   - pikepdf
+  - pre-commit
   - pydocstyle>=5.1.0
   - pytest!=4.6.0,!=5.4.0
   - pytest-cov