Is a pre-hook the same as a post-hook in dbt?

No, a pre-hook and a post-hook serve opposite purposes in dbt. A pre-hook runs before a model is compiled and executed, allowing you to set up the environment, create temporary tables, or modify session settings. A post-hook runs after the model has finished running, which is useful for cleanup tasks, inserting audit records, or updating downstream tables. For example, a pre-hook might create a staging table, while a post-hook could insert a row into a history table indicating the model’s run time. Because they execute at different stages, they are not interchangeable; each is chosen based on whether the action needs to happen before or after the model’s SQL runs.