diff --git a/.pre-commit-hooks.yaml b/.pre-commit-hooks.yaml
index 2df6fc02b..4e8f422dc 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-hooks.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-hooks.yaml
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@
 -   id: codemeta-description-updated
     name: codemeta-description-updated
     description: make sure codemeta.json is in sync with DESCRIPTION. It should be run after use-tidy-description.
-    entry: inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated
-    language: script
+    entry: Rscript inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated.R
+    language: r
     files: '^DESCRIPTION$'
     minimum_pre_commit_version: "2.13.0"
 -   id: spell-check 
diff --git a/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated b/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated
deleted file mode 100755
index fc692923e..000000000
--- a/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# adapted from https://github.com/lorenzwalthert/precommit/blob/f4413cfe6282c84f7176160d06e1560860c8bd3d/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered
-
-if [[ DESCRIPTION -nt codemeta.json ]]
-then
-    echo >&2 "codemeta.json is out of date; please re-run codemetar::write_codemeta()."
-    exit 1
-fi
diff --git a/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated.R b/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated.R
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..313ba738a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated.R
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env Rscript
+
+# adapted from https://github.com/lorenzwalthert/precommit/blob/f4413cfe6282c84f7176160d06e1560860c8bd3d/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered
+if (!file.exists("DESCRIPTION")) {
+  rlang::abort("No `DESCRIPTION` found in repository.")
+}
+
+if (!file.exists("codemeta.json")) {
+  rlang::abort("No `codemeta.json` found in repository.")
+}
+
+
+codemeta_outdated <- file.info("DESCRIPTION")$mtime > file.info("codemeta.json")$mtime
+if (codemeta_outdated) {
+  rlang::abort("codemeta.json is out of date; please re-run codemetar::write_codemeta().")
+}
diff --git a/inst/pre-commit-hooks.yaml b/inst/pre-commit-hooks.yaml
index 2df6fc02b..4e8f422dc 100644
--- a/inst/pre-commit-hooks.yaml
+++ b/inst/pre-commit-hooks.yaml
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@
 -   id: codemeta-description-updated
     name: codemeta-description-updated
     description: make sure codemeta.json is in sync with DESCRIPTION. It should be run after use-tidy-description.
-    entry: inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated
-    language: script
+    entry: Rscript inst/hooks/exported/codemeta-description-updated.R
+    language: r
     files: '^DESCRIPTION$'
     minimum_pre_commit_version: "2.13.0"
 -   id: spell-check 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/in/codemeta.json b/tests/testthat/in/codemeta.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-hooks.R b/tests/testthat/test-hooks.R
index 64a0dd880..9bc7d2c31 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-hooks.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-hooks.R
@@ -306,6 +306,55 @@ run_test("roxygenize",
 )
 
 
+### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
+### codemeata                                                               ####
+run_test("codemeta-description-update",
+  file_name = c("codemeta.json"),
+  suffix = "",
+  error_msg = "No `DESCRIPTION` found in repository.",
+  msg = NULL,
+)
+
+run_test("codemeta-description-update",
+  file_name = c("DESCRIPTION"),
+  suffix = "",
+  error_msg = "No `codemeta.json` found in repository.",
+  msg = NULL,
+)
+
+
+# outdated
+run_test("codemeta-description-update",
+  file_name = c("DESCRIPTION", "codemeta.json"),
+  suffix = "",
+  error_msg = "out of date",
+  msg = NULL,
+  file_transformer = function(files) {
+    if (length(files) > 1) {
+      # transformer is called once on all files and once per file
+      content_2 <- readLines(files[1])
+      Sys.sleep(2)
+      writeLines(content_2, files[1])
+    }
+    files
+  }
+)
+
+# succeed
+run_test("codemeta-description-update",
+  file_name = c("DESCRIPTION", "codemeta.json"),
+  suffix = "",
+  file_transformer = function(files) {
+    if (length(files) > 1) {
+      # transformer is called once on all files and once per file
+      content_2 <- readLines(files[2])
+      Sys.sleep(2)
+      writeLines(content_2, files[2])
+    }
+    files
+  }
+)
+
 ### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
 ### readme-rmd-rendered                                                     ####
 if (has_git()) {