diff --git a/hooks/boilerplate.sh b/hooks/boilerplate.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..33c31cbf5b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hooks/boilerplate.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Print 1 if the file in $1 has the correct boilerplate header, 0 otherwise.
+FILE=$1
+LINES=$(cat "$(dirname $0)/boilerplate.txt" | wc -l)
+DIFFER=$(head -$LINES "${FILE}" | diff -q - "$(dirname $0)/boilerplate.txt")
+
+if [[ -z "${DIFFER}" ]]; then
+  echo "1"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+echo "0"
diff --git a/hooks/boilerplate.txt b/hooks/boilerplate.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5fd3c3f8157
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hooks/boilerplate.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
diff --git a/hooks/prepare-commit-msg b/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
index b6f43d3135a..8fdd02b0243 100755
--- a/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
+++ b/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+KUBE_HOOKS_DIR="$(dirname "$(test -L "$0" && echo "$(dirname $0)/$(readlink "$0")" || echo "$0")")"
+
 errors=0
 for file in $(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | grep "\.go" | grep -v "third_party"); do
   diff="$(git show ":${file}" | gofmt -s -d)"
@@ -7,6 +9,11 @@ for file in $(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | grep "\.go" | gr
     echo "# *** ERROR: *** File ${file} has not been gofmt'd." >> $1
     errors=1
   fi
+  boilerplate="$(${KUBE_HOOKS_DIR}/boilerplate.sh ${file})"
+  if [[ "$boilerplate" -eq "0" ]]; then
+    echo "# *** ERROR: *** File ${file} needs the boilerplate header in hooks/boilerplate.txt." >> $1
+    errors=1
+  fi
 done
 
 if [[ $errors == "1" ]]; then