diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index e5092bb..a734eea 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ repos:
   # Repo hygiene — fast, language-agnostic sanity checks.
   # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
-    rev: v5.0.0
+    rev: v6.0.0
     hooks:
       - id: trailing-whitespace
         # Markdown trailing whitespace is meaningful (two spaces = hard break).
@@ -88,9 +88,10 @@ repos:
   # Conventional Commits — enforced on the commit message (commit-msg hook).
   # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   - repo: https://github.com/compilerla/conventional-pre-commit
-    rev: v3.6.0
+    rev: v4.4.0
     hooks:
       - id: conventional-pre-commit
+        args: ["--strict"]
         stages: [commit-msg]
 
   # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/docs/06-field-notes.md b/docs/06-field-notes.md
index 5de4255..7ef792b 100644
--- a/docs/06-field-notes.md
+++ b/docs/06-field-notes.md
@@ -448,6 +448,11 @@ Base: `~/.vscode-server/data/User/`
   Pre-commit-**only** hosted hooks (gitleaks, markdownlint-cli2, conventional-pre-commit,
   pre-commit-hooks) have a single pin so they don't drift, but Dependabot can't bump them either —
   they only move via `pre-commit autoupdate`.
+- **Hook major update, 2026-09-30:** `pre-commit-hooks` v6 requires Python >=3.9 (CI uses 3.12);
+  `conventional-pre-commit` v4 permits merge/fixup messages by default, so pass `--strict` to
+  preserve the previous rejection behavior. Test both valid and rejected commit messages.
+  `pre-commit autoupdate` uses `git describe` on upstream HEAD rather than the highest tag;
+  gitleaks v8.30.1 is tagged off master, so review its proposed v8.30.0 downgrade manually.
 - **Edit-tool unicode trap.** The string-replace edit tools can write `\uXXXX` escapes as **literal
   text**. Use the actual glyphs (em-dash —, middot ·, arrow →, section §) in the replacement, or a
   Python heredoc with ASCII anchors for unicode-heavy edits.